Nebraska HOA Estoppel & Resale

Section 1: Overview — Estoppel and resale disclosure in Nebraska

Nebraska law requires a resale certificate when a condominium unit changes hands, but it imposes no equivalent statutory requirement on non-condominium planned communities, and it doesn't use the Florida-style term "estoppel certificate." The operative instrument sits in the Nebraska Condominium Act at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-884, the Uniform Condominium Act § 4-108 analog, which the statute calls "the certificate" and which § 76-860 elsewhere calls a "resale statement."^1,2 Terminology matters here: the correct Nebraska term for condominiums is resale certificate, not estoppel certificate, and planned communities use whatever the recorded declaration names, often a "statement of account," "dues letter," or "status letter" in practice.¹ The requirement reaches condominiums created on or after January 1, 1984 under the Act; pre-1984 condominiums and planned communities are treated differently.^3,4 For condominiums, the at-a-glance mechanics are a short statutory turnaround (ten days on the association), a reasonable fee with no dollar cap, and a binding effect that caps what the association can later collect from the purchaser.^1,2 Nationally, Nebraska sits in the Uniform Condominium Act camp for its condominiums, alongside a short-clock, reasonable-fee, binding-effect model, while its planned communities fall into the CC&R-only category, distinct from hard-mandate states such as Florida and from integrated Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act states such as Alaska.^8,9 The sections below set out the statute, the transaction lifecycle, and recent activity.

Section 2: The statutory requirements

2A. The Nebraska Condominium Act resale certificate

The controlling provision is Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-884, "Resale of unit; information required," part of the Nebraska Condominium Act at §§ 76-825 to 76-894.^1,3 The Act is based on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act, and § 76-884 is the UCA § 4-108 analog, not the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act § 4-109 analog; Nebraska adopted the condominium-only Uniform Condominium Act, not the integrated UCIOA.^3,8 The document is triggered by an owner-to-owner resale of a condominium unit. Under § 76-884(a), the selling unit owner, and any other person in the business of selling real estate who offers the unit, must furnish the purchaser before conveyance a copy of the declaration (other than the plats and plans), the bylaws, the rules or regulations, and the enumerated financial information.¹ The association's role is to supply that information: under § 76-884(b), the association, "within ten days after a request by a unit owner," must furnish in writing the information necessary to enable the owner to comply.¹ The statute states "ten days" without specifying business or calendar days, so the day-count basis isn't settled in the text.¹ Nebraska imposes no dollar cap on the charge; the association's authority to charge comes from § 76-860(a)(12), which allows "reasonable charges for the preparation and recordation of amendments to the declaration, resale statements required by section 76-884, or statements of unpaid assessments."² That's a reasonable-fee standard, unlike Florida, which caps a condominium estoppel fee at $299 for a current account (with up to $179 more if the owner is delinquent and $119 more for three-business-day expedited delivery, per the DBPR's 2022 CPI adjustment of the 2017 statutory caps of $250, $150, and $100).^2,8 This resale certificate is separate from the developer public-offering statement, which governs initial declarant sales under §§ 76-879 to 76-883 and is a different document with its own delivery rules; the two shouldn't be conflated.^6,10 Finally, this statutory regime is condominium-only. Planned communities have no statutory resale certificate under Nebraska law; their disclosure is governed by the recorded declaration.^4,5

2B. Required contents and the seller's resale disclosure

Section 76-884(a) enumerates seven content items, and Nebraska's list is narrower than the full model-act enumeration. The certificate information must set forth: (1) the amount of the monthly common expense assessment and any unpaid common expense or special assessment currently due and payable from the selling unit owner; (2) any other fees payable by unit owners; (3) the most recent regularly prepared balance sheet and income and expense statement, if any; (4) the current operating budget, if any; (5) a statement that a copy of any insurance policy for the benefit of unit owners is available from the association on request; (6) a statement of the remaining term of any leasehold estate affecting the condominium and the provisions governing extension or renewal; and (7) a disclosure of any threatened or pending litigation involving the unit or the association.¹ Notably, Nebraska's text doesn't separately enumerate a right of first refusal, reserves, or unsatisfied judgments as standalone items in the way some Uniform Condominium Act states do.¹ Beyond the financial information, the broader package the selling owner must deliver is the declaration, the bylaws, and the rules or regulations of the association, plus that information.¹ The disclosed assessment balance and any unpaid special assessment are the financial heart of the document: item (1) is what tells a buyer and closing agent the exact payoff figure and the pending obligations tied to the unit before closing.¹ For planned communities, the equivalent figure doesn't come from a statutory resale certificate. It comes from a declaration-based statement of account, or, where the community is a covenant-based homeowners' association within § 52-2001, from a statutory "recordable statement setting forth the amount of unpaid assessments" that the association must furnish on written request.⁵

2C. Binding effect, remedies, and scope

The binding, or estoppel, effect for condominiums is stated in § 76-884(c): "A purchaser is not liable for any unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount set forth in the information prepared by the association."¹ That's the mechanism that protects a good-faith buyer from post-closing surprises, and it binds the figures the association reports. The same subsection allocates risk between seller and buyer: the selling owner isn't liable to the purchaser for erroneous information provided by the association and included in the certificate (§ 76-884(b)), and neither the selling owner nor a real-estate professional is liable for the association's failure or delay in providing the information in a timely manner (§ 76-884(c)).¹ Nebraska's resale provision doesn't contain a purchaser cancellation remedy for nondelivery; unlike the developer public-offering statement at § 76-883, which lets a purchaser cancel within 15 days of receiving the statement, § 76-884 provides no analogous cancellation right, so that remedy isn't addressed by statute for owner resales.^1,6 On scope and exemptions: the requirement reaches condominiums under the Nebraska Condominium Act, and § 76-826(a) extends § 76-884 to pre-1984 condominiums for events occurring after January 1, 1984, while the predecessor Condominium Property Act (§§ 76-801 to 76-824) otherwise governs older regimes.^4,7 Section 76-878(b) removes the resale-statement obligation for several disposition types, including a gratuitous or testamentary transfer, a court-ordered disposition, a government disposition, a foreclosure or deed in lieu, a disposition to a person in the business of selling real estate, a cancelable disposition, and, as a small-condominium exemption, a condominium of not more than 25 units that is not subject to development rights to add units.¹¹ A condominium composed entirely of non-residential units is also outside the requirement, and purchasers in an all-nonresidential condominium may waive the protections by agreement.¹¹

Section 3: The resale transaction in practice

A. Requesting the certificate

Under § 76-884(b), the association's duty runs to "a unit owner," so the selling owner is the party whose written request starts the process; the statute doesn't independently name the purchaser, a title company, or a closing attorney as a requester, though those parties typically obtain the information through the seller (condominiums).¹ The trigger that starts the statutory clock is the owner's request to the association (condominiums); planned communities aren't subject to § 76-884, and any request runs on the declaration or, for a covenant-based homeowners' association, on § 52-2001(7).^1,5

B. The statutory clock and delivery

The association must furnish the information "within ten days after a request by a unit owner" (condominiums); the statute doesn't state whether the count is business or calendar days.¹ The selling owner then delivers the declaration, bylaws, rules, and information to the purchaser before conveyance (condominiums).¹ If the association is late, § 76-884(c) shields the seller and any real-estate professional from liability for the association's delay, but the Act provides no purchaser cancellation right and no statutory penalty against the association for lateness (condominiums).¹ By contrast, Florida forfeits the association's fee entirely if it misses its ten-business-day estoppel deadline; Nebraska attaches no such consequence.⁸

C. Fees and refunds

The association may impose "reasonable charges" for preparing the resale statement under § 76-860(a)(12), and Nebraska sets no hard dollar cap, in contrast to Florida's indexed estoppel-fee ceiling (condominiums).^2,8 The statute doesn't address an expedited or rush fee, and it doesn't address a refund if the sale doesn't close; both are therefore left to the association and the declaration rather than fixed by statute (condominiums).²

D. Consequences and the binding effect

Once the information issues, § 76-884(c) bars the association from collecting from the purchaser any unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount stated (condominiums).¹ On association exposure, the Act doesn't set a separate monetary liability standard for an erroneous or late certificate; the express liability allocation is the seller-protective language of § 76-884(b) and (c) (condominiums).¹ There's no statutory contract-cancellation remedy for nondelivery of the resale certificate; the 15-day cancellation right in § 76-883 attaches only to the developer public-offering statement, a different document (condominiums).⁶ For planned communities, the comparable binding effect is contractual or, for a § 52-2001 homeowners' association, statutory: a statement of unpaid assessments furnished within ten business days is "binding on the homeowners' association, the governing board, and every homeowners' association member."⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months amended Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-884 or the resale-disclosure or public-offering-statement provisions of the Nebraska Condominium Act. The most recent amendment to § 76-884 itself was Laws 2020, LB808 (codified as § 51 of that act).¹ The Act did see a 2024 amendment through LB1073, which amended § 76-857 (delegation of association powers to a corporation, unincorporated association, or master association), but that change didn't touch resale disclosure, the resale certificate, or the public-offering statement.³ Because no resale-specific bill exists in the window, no bill card is warranted.

B. Recent Nebraska appellate rulings

No Nebraska Court of Appeals or Nebraska Supreme Court decision issued in the past 36 months interprets the condominium resale certificate under § 76-884, the § 52-2001(7) statement of unpaid assessments, or declaration-based resale disclosure at a unit or lot sale. Neither § 76-884 nor § 52-2001 carries a case annotation on the Nebraska Legislature's official statute pages, which is consistent with Nebraska's small condominium market and light-touch planned-community regime.^1,5 The leading modern condominium-assessment decision remains Twin Towers Condominium Association v. Bel Fury Investments Group, 290 Neb. 329, 860 N.W.2d 147 (2015), which construes the assessment-lien provision at § 76-874 rather than the resale certificate, holding that an initial miscalculation did not void the lien, that the association could foreclose without a prior personal judgment, and that a prevailing-party award of costs and attorney fees is mandatory.¹² Its relevance to resale disclosure is indirect: it concerns the assessment figures a resale certificate reports.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal in the Nebraska Legislature would add a statutory fee cap or fixed validity period to the condominium resale certificate or create a general planned-community resale-disclosure statute; the Act remains anchored to its 1980 Uniform Condominium Act framework as last modernized by LB808 in 2020.¹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Nebraska occupies a split position in the national resale-disclosure landscape. Hard-mandate states such as Florida run statutory estoppel certificates with ten-business-day clocks and indexed fee caps ($299 for a current condominium account, plus up to $179 for delinquency and $119 for expedited delivery), under Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8) for condominiums and § 720.30851 for homeowners' associations.^8,13 Detailed-disclosure states such as California require a statutory resale package with enumerated documents and disclosure summaries under the Davis-Stirling Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 4525 et seq.¹⁴ Integrated UCIOA resale-certificate states cover both condominiums and planned communities with a short turnaround, a reasonable fee, and a binding effect; Alaska requires the certificate within ten days of a written request and a reasonable fee and makes the contract voidable until it's provided and for five days after (AS 34.08.590), and Colorado requires its statement within fourteen calendar days, binding on the association, board, and every unit owner (§ 38-33.3-316(8)).⁹ Nebraska is distinctive: it sits in the Uniform Condominium Act camp for condominiums (a resale certificate with a short turnaround, a reasonable fee, and a binding effect under § 76-884), while its planned communities sit in the CC&R-only camp with no statutory resale-disclosure mechanism.^1,4 For a multi-state operator expanding into Nebraska, the condominium resale certificate concept transfers, but Nebraska planned communities require reading the declaration, and the operator should verify Nebraska's specific deadline, fee language, and content list against § 76-884.¹ Nebraska hasn't overhauled its condominium act; it remains anchored to the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act as originally enacted, last modernized by LB808 in 2020.¹

HOA Weekly's Nebraska Estoppel and Resale coverage updates quarterly as the Nebraska Legislature, the Nebraska Court of Appeals, and the Nebraska Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks also apply to Nebraska associations regardless of the state framework, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act where a disclosed balance is being collected, along with the FHA, ADA, SCRA, and OTARD rules.

Footnotes

1. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-884 (Resale of unit; information required); Source: Laws 1983, LB 433, § 60; Laws 1984, LB 1105, § 18; Laws 2020, LB808, § 51. ↩
2. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-860(a)(12) (Unit owners association; powers; reasonable charges for resale statements). ↩
3. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 (Nebraska Condominium Act, how cited). ↩
4. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-826 (Sections, applicability). ↩
5. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001 (Homeowners' association lien; furnish statement; subsection (7) binding statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days). ↩
6. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-883 (Delivery of public-offering statement; purchaser's rights; 15-day cancellation). ↩
7. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-801 et seq. (Condominium Property Act, pre-1984 condominiums). ↩
8. Fla. Stat. § 718.116(8) (Florida condominium estoppel certificate; 10-business-day deadline; indexed fee caps; fee forfeited if late). ↩
9. Alaska Stat. § 34.08.590 (Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act resale certificate; 10 days; reasonable fee; contract voidable until provided and for 5 days after); see also Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316(8) (statement within 14 calendar days, binding on association, board, and every unit owner). ↩
10. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-879 (Public-offering statement; requirements). ↩
11. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-878 (Applicability; waiver; exemptions including 25-unit small-condominium exemption). ↩
12. Twin Towers Condo. Assn. v. Bel Fury Invest. Group, 290 Neb. 329, 860 N.W.2d 147 (2015), annotated under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-874 (Lien for assessments). ↩
13. Fla. Stat. § 720.30851 (Florida homeowners' association estoppel certificate). ↩
14. Cal. Civ. Code § 4525 et seq. (Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act; documents to provide upon transfer). ↩