Mississippi SB 2644 would have capped HOA estoppel fees at $200. It died without a hearing
Mississippi SB 2644 would have capped HOA estoppel fees at $200. It died without a hearing
2026-09-15 · Mississippi · Legislation · Did not pass
The bill that would have given Mississippi its first statute regulating what a homeowners association may charge a seller died in committee on February 3, 2026, without a hearing, an amendment, or a recorded vote. Senate Bill 2644, “Homeowners associations; cap fees for estoppel certificates,” was filed by Senator Kevin Blackwell and referred to the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee on January 19. Its action history on the Legislature's own bill-status system has exactly two entries — the referral and the death.1
SB 2644 is not law and never was. Mississippi has no statute today requiring an association to issue a resale or estoppel certificate, setting a deadline for one, or capping what it costs.
What the bill said
SB 2644 was a Florida-style estoppel statute. It would have required an association to issue a certificate within 10 business days of a written or electronic request from a parcel owner or mortgagee, or their designee, and to publish a designated contact address for such requests on its website.2
The certificate's contents were prescribed: the regular periodic assessment and its frequency, the paid-through date, the next installment, an itemized list of every assessment, special assessment and other sum owed, a per-day schedule of amounts coming due, any capital contribution, resale or transfer fee, any open rule violation noticed to the owner, whether board approval of the transfer was required and whether it had been given, whether a right of first refusal existed and whether it had been exercised, every other association the parcel belonged to, and the association's insurance contacts.
The money provisions
The fee structure was the heart of it:
- $200 maximum where no delinquency exists.
- +$50 for expedited turnaround within three business days.
- +$100 maximum additional fee where the parcel is delinquent.
- No fee at all for an amended certificate, for supplying collection-attorney contact information on a delinquent account, or — the provision with real teeth — where the association missed the 10-day deadline.
- Bulk requests by one owner capped in the aggregate at $500 for 25 parcels or fewer, $1,000 for 26–50, $1,500 for 51–100 and $2,500 above 100.
Fee authority had to be established by written board resolution or a written management contract. Refunds were mandatory within 30 days if a closing fell through, and the right to reimbursement could not be waived by contract. Enforcement was by summary proceeding with attorney's fees to the prevailing party. The effective date would have been July 1, 2026.
The reliance provision was the real change
Buried in the fee schedule was a rule that would have shifted risk substantially. A certificate would carry a 30-day effective period when hand-delivered or emailed, or 35 days by regular mail — and during that window the association would waive any amount owed in excess of what the certificate stated, as against anyone who relied on it in good faith.
That is the provision associations elsewhere object to most, because it makes the certificate binding rather than informational. An arithmetic error in a payoff figure stops being a correctable mistake and becomes a write-off.
Why it matters that nobody wrote about it
We found no Mississippi press coverage of SB 2644 — not in Mississippi Today, Magnolia Tribune, the Mississippi Free Press or the Clarion Ledger. A Bradley law firm session recap published in May 2026 does not mention it either.
The Community Associations Institute did notice. Its January 2026 advocacy recap states that “SB 2644 successfully died in committee, thanks in part to CAI's advocacy work,” and describes a member petition asking the sponsor to withdraw it.3 CAI's own first-quarter 2026 state legislative recap lists Mississippi's entire legislative agenda in four words: “Disclosure document fee caps.”
Where that leaves a Mississippi seller
The declaration and the management contract set the price. With no statute, what an association or its manager charges to verify paid assessments is a matter of the governing documents and whatever the management agreement permits. Industry practice in Mississippi is reported in the $250–$400 range, above the ceiling SB 2644 proposed.
There is no statutory deadline. Nothing in Mississippi law requires the certificate to arrive by any particular date, which is a closing-schedule problem rather than a legal one, and it is solved by asking early.
The figure is not binding on the association. Absent the reliance provision SB 2644 would have created, a payoff letter that understates what is owed does not extinguish the balance. That risk sits with the buyer and the closing agent.
What to watch next
The 2027 regular session convenes in January; no bills have been pre-filed and the Legislature's bill-status system has not yet opened a 2027 session. Senator Blackwell has not said publicly whether he will refile. The question for a refiled version is whether the reliance waiver survives — it is the provision that drew the organised opposition, and a disclosure-and-deadline bill without it would be a materially smaller ask.
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