Minnesota bars HOA foreclosure until debt is three months delinquent
Minnesota bars HOA foreclosure until debt is three months delinquent
2026-09-12 · Minnesota · Legislation
What happened. Section 9 of Laws 2026, ch. 82 amends Minn. Stat. § 515B.3-116, the association lien and foreclosure statute, in two structural ways. It takes effect 1 January 2027 and “applies to foreclosures commenced on or after that date.”1
Most fines leave the lien
Subsection (a) previously made fines lienable by a blanket cross-reference to § 515B.3-102(a)(10), (11) and (12). The amendment deletes that and substitutes a narrow phrase: the lien covers “fees, charges, fines as specified in subsection (h), and late charges.”
Subsection (h), in turn, points back to the fines that escape Chapter 82's $100 cap — repeat violations of the same conduct, violations with a serious and immediate health or safety impact, violations causing physical damage to another unit or a common element, and use of the property for financial enrichment including rentals in breach of the documents.
The result: an ordinary rule-violation fine is no longer secured by the assessment lien.
The three-month gate
The new condition in subsection (h) is explicit: an association “may not commence foreclosure unless common expenses and special assessments and fines that meet the conditions for exception to the limit specified in section 515B.3-102(a)(11), are delinquent for more than three months.”
Minnesota has not previously had a statutory minimum delinquency before an association could foreclose. It does now, and the gate is measured on the qualifying debt only — not on the total balance including capped fines.
The power of sale, confirmed for everyone
Subsection (h)(1) is amended to read that “[i]n a condominium or planned community, regardless of when the condominium or planned community was created, the association's lien may be foreclosed in a like manner as a mortgage containing a power of sale pursuant to chapter 580, or by action pursuant to chapter 581.”
That phrase resolves a recurring question about older communities and non-judicial foreclosure. It is a clarification in the association's favour, sitting in the same section as two significant restrictions.
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Related Minnesota HOA Topics
- Laws 2026, ch. 82 (S.F. 1750), full session-law text — Minnesota Revisor of Statutes ↩
- “New Laws 2026: Chapter 82” — Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services ↩
- Laws 2026, ch. 51 (H.F. 3479) — amendments to Minn. Stat. § 580.07 postponement rights ↩
- Laws 2025, ch. 35, art. 10 — mortgage foreclosure; junior-creditor redemption period extended to 14 days ↩
- Reed v. Highlands of Edinburgh Sixth Ass’n, No. A25-1442 (Minn. Ct. App. 27 Apr. 2026) (nonprecedential) — slip opinion ↩
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