Nebraska HOA Fining Authority

Section 1: Overview — Fining authority in Nebraska

Nebraska draws its condominium fining rules by creation date, then leaves planned communities to their own recorded covenants.¹ If a condominium formed on or after January 1, 1984, the Nebraska Condominium Act controls it — Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-825 to 76-894, a statute built on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act. Communities that formed earlier fall under the older Condominium Property Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-801 to 76-824, unless they amended into the newer framework.² Planned communities — the non-condominium homeowners' associations — have no comprehensive statute to draw on in Nebraska. Their fining authority comes straight from the recorded declaration, the CC&Rs. The Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-1901 et seq., supplies only corporate formalities, not fining power.³ The Nebraska Condominium Act expressly authorizes condominium associations to levy "reasonable fines" after "notice and opportunity to be heard," and that reasonableness standard, read together with the declaration, sets the outer limit. For planned communities, the limit is the declaration plus common-law reasonableness.⁴ Here's the question that matters most down the line: can an unpaid fine become a lien and support foreclosure? The answer turns on the lien statute governing each track, and we take it up in the Quick-Reference table and in Section 3C.⁵ The table below lays out every parameter at a glance.

Section 2: Quick-Reference Fining Mechanics Table

Here's Nebraska's fining picture at a glance. The Condominiums column reflects the Nebraska Condominium Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-825 to 76-894, for condominiums formed on or after January 1, 1984; Section 3A explains how pre-1984 condominiums fare under the older Condominium Property Act. The Planned Communities column reflects the CC&R-derived framework governing non-condominium associations, supplemented by the homeowners'-association lien statute at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001. The detailed discussion below sources every value in the table.

The Condominiums column reflects the Nebraska Condominium Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 et seq., for condominiums formed on or after January 1, 1984; pre-1984 condominiums fall under the Condominium Property Act. Planned Communities are CC&R-derived. Last verified: July 14, 2026.

Section 3: Fining mechanics in detail

3A. Source and outer limits of fining authority

For condominiums formed on or after January 1, 1984, the fining power comes straight from the statute. Section 76-860(a)(11) authorizes the unit owners association to "impose charges for late payment of assessments and, after notice and opportunity to be heard, levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations for the association."⁴ That's Nebraska's version of the association-powers provision from the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act — the drafters placed it in the § 76-8xx range rather than following the model act's internal numbering. And the Act reaches every condominium formed in Nebraska after January 1, 1984.²

Pre-1984 condominiums take two steps to sort out. The Condominium Property Act, §§ 76-801 to 76-824, governs any condominium formed before January 1, 1984, and it contains no express fining power of its own.⁶ But § 76-826(a) reaches back. It extends specified Nebraska Condominium Act provisions — including subdivision (a)(11) of § 76-860 — to pre-1984 condominiums "with respect to events and circumstances occurring after January 1, 1984," without invalidating existing master deed, bylaw, or plan provisions.² A pre-1984 community can also amend into the newer Act; § 76-824 lets existing regimes adopt amendments to the Condominium Property Act, or simply continue under whichever act was in effect when the master deed was filed.⁷ Put those pieces together, and the statutory fining standard reaches most Nebraska condominiums for present-day conduct — though the governing-document baseline still matters.

Planned communities have no comprehensive statute to fall back on. Nebraska sits among 14 states that adopted the Uniform Condominium Act — joined by Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, according to the Uniform Law Commission — but that adoption covers condominiums only. Nebraska never enacted the broader Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act that reaches planned communities, so no statute hands a non-condominium association a fining power.⁸ That authority has to come from the recorded declaration instead. The Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies governance formalities and nothing more.³ Nebraska's condominium fining standard is "reasonable," and the Act sets no dollar cap; for planned communities, reasonableness works as a common-law limit, read against the declaration.⁴

3B. The required fining procedure

For condominiums, § 76-860(a)(11) sets the due-process floor: a board may levy a fine only "after notice and opportunity to be heard."⁴ The Act fixes no minimum notice period, no cure window, no hearing-request deadline, and no requirement to put the decision in writing. Those procedural details come from the declaration and bylaws — the statute says as much itself, making itself "subject to the provisions of the declaration."⁴ Where the governing documents stay silent, the common-law expectation of reasonable notice and a genuine chance to respond fills the gap.

For pre-1984 condominiums, and for planned communities generally, no statute fixes a notice period or a hearing deadline unless the declaration sets one. Planned-community procedure runs entirely on contract: the declaration and bylaws define the notice, the opportunity to be heard, and any appeal, subject to common-law reasonableness.¹ Neither the Nebraska Condominium Act nor any planned-community statute addresses per-day or continuing fines. Such fines are permissible only if the declaration or bylaws authorize them, and only so long as the amount stays reasonable.⁴

The operational takeaway comes down to sequencing. Start any Nebraska condominium fine question by confirming the unit's creation date — that single fact decides whether the Nebraska Condominium Act, the Condominium Property Act, or a document-plus-common-law analysis controls. For any non-condominium association, start by reading the recorded declaration instead, because the statute won't supply a fining power the covenants leave out.

3C. Enforcement of unpaid fines: assessments, liens, and foreclosure

This is where the analysis carries the highest stakes. For condominiums under the Nebraska Condominium Act, § 76-874(a) creates an association lien on a unit for any assessment, and it goes further: "unless the declaration otherwise provides, fees, charges, late charges, and interest charged pursuant to subdivisions (a)(10), (a)(11), and (a)(12) of section 76-860 are enforceable as assessments under this section."⁵ Subsection (a)(11) is the fining power, so a reasonable fine falls within that lien and can be collected and foreclosed as an assessment, unless the declaration says otherwise. The lien forecloses "in like manner as a mortgage on real estate." In Twin Towers Condo. Assn. v. Bel Fury Invest. Group, 290 Neb. 329, 860 N.W.2d 147 (2015) (No. S-13-1047, filed March 13, 2015), the Nebraska Supreme Court held that an association may foreclose without first getting a personal judgment for the underlying debt, and that an award of costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party is mandatory — the court remanded "with directions to award the Association attorney fees and costs" on a lien claim of $27,868.15 in unpaid assessments plus $7,800.76 in late fees.⁹ Nebraska grants no six-month or other super-priority. Under § 76-874(b), the lien outranks other liens except ones recorded before the declaration, a first mortgage or deed of trust recorded before the association recorded its notice of the delinquent assessment, and real-estate tax liens.⁵ A lien is extinguished unless the association starts enforcement within three years.⁵ And for pre-1984 condominiums, § 76-874 governs the lien's validity whenever the relevant events happen after January 1, 1984 — even though § 76-817 of the older Condominium Property Act still holds the earlier pro-rata expense lien.¹⁰

Planned communities answer to a different statute: the homeowners'-association lien law, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001. It gives associations a statutory assessment lien, foreclosable like a mortgage, with the same first-mortgage priority carve-out and the same three-year enforcement limit.¹¹ Here's the catch. The current text of that statute makes "fees, charges, late charges, and interest" enforceable as assessments — but it never lists fines. That means a fine is securable by the § 52-2001 lien only if the declaration itself characterizes it as a lienable charge, and a fine-only foreclosure stays uncertain without that declaration language.¹¹ Neither the Nebraska Condominium Act nor the planned-community framework authorizes suspending voting rights or amenity use as an enforcement tool, so any suspension has to rest on the declaration and bylaws.⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

No comprehensive planned-community bill — no "Homeowner Association Act" — sat pending in either the 2025 or 2026 sessions, and the last such attempt, LB973 back in 2020, never passed. Association-lien scope remains the live area of interest in Lincoln, reflected in this year's failed LB1251.¹³

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Step back, and Nebraska falls into a distinct camp: a state that adopted the Uniform Condominium Act for condominiums but never enacted a comprehensive statute for planned communities. That sets it apart from full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act states like Alaska, Connecticut, Colorado, and Minnesota, and from comprehensive two-statute states like Florida and Arizona.⁸ The defining feature on the condominium side is that January 1, 1984 creation-date split between the Nebraska Condominium Act and the older Condominium Property Act. On the planned-community side, everything runs on contract — the recorded declaration does the work no dedicated statute does. And on the enforcement question that matters most, Nebraska treats condominium fines as lienable and foreclosable through the assessment lien, but grants no super-priority over a prior recorded first mortgage. That's a more lender-protective posture than the limited super-priority granted in 22 states and the District of Columbia — 18 of them running the six-month period the UCIOA proposed, with Nevada stretching to nine months and Florida to twelve.¹⁵

HOA Weekly will keep this Nebraska Fining Authority coverage current every quarter as the unicameral Legislature and the state's appellate courts act. Federal law reaches Nebraska associations too, regardless of what the state track says: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can govern third-party collection of fines, and the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply as well — with fuller federal-law coverage still to come.

1. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-826 (Sections, applicability; January 1, 1984 dividing line) ↩
2. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-825 (Nebraska Condominium Act, §§ 76-825 to 76-894); § 76-826(a) (applicability to condominiums created after January 1, 1984, and extension of specified sections to pre-1984 condominiums for post-1984 events) ↩
3. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-1901 et seq. (Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act; corporate formalities only) ↩
4. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-860(a)(11) (Unit owners association; powers; "after notice and opportunity to be heard, levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations"; § 76-860(a) "subject to the provisions of the declaration") ↩
5. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-874 (Lien for assessments; § 76-874(a) fees, charges, late charges, and interest under (a)(10)-(a)(12) enforceable as assessments; § 76-874(b) priority; § 76-874(d) three-year limit; foreclosure "in like manner as a mortgage") ↩
6. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-801 (Condominium Property Act, §§ 76-801 to 76-823/824; governs pre-1984 condominium regimes) ↩
7. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-824 (Existing condominium property regimes; election to adopt amendments or continue under act in effect at filing) ↩
8. Uniform Law Commission, Uniform Condominium Act enactment record (Nebraska among states enacting the UCA; Nebraska did not enact the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act reaching planned communities) ↩
9. Twin Towers Condo. Assn. v. Bel Fury Invest. Group, 290 Neb. 329, 860 N.W.2d 147 (2015) (No. S-13-1047; foreclosure without prior personal judgment; mandatory award of costs and attorney fees) ↩
10. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-817 (Condominium Property Act; co-owners' pro-rata expense obligation and lien); § 76-826(a) and Twin Towers, 290 Neb. 329 (§ 76-874 governs lien validity for post-1984 events) ↩
11. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 52-2001 (Homeowners' association lien; foreclosable like a mortgage; fees, charges, late charges, and interest enforceable as assessments; first-mortgage priority carve-out; three-year enforcement limit; definition excludes Condominium Property Act and Nebraska Condominium Act associations) ↩
12. Nebraska Legislature, LB1073 (2024, 108th Leg., 2d Sess.); AM2568 incorporating LB1409 provisions amending Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-856 ↩
13. CAI, 2026 Nebraska End of Legislative Session Report (LB1251: five-year lien limit, attorney-fee calculation clarification, lien on fees beyond late assessments; died in committee); Nebraska Legislature LB1251 bill page (DocumentID 62990) ↩
14. Hillsborough Homeowners Assn. v. Karnish, 33 Neb. App. 228 (Oct. 8, 2024) (No. A-23-836; standing and waiver in covenant enforcement) ↩
15. Comparative super-priority context: 22 states and the District of Columbia grant limited super-priority to assessment liens (18 using the six-month UCIOA period; Nevada nine months; Florida twelve months), contrasted with Nebraska's no-super-priority regime under Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-874(b) and 52-2001(2) ↩