New Hampshire HOA Collections & Liens

Key Findings

New Hampshire governs condominiums under the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, but it has no comprehensive planned-community or HOA statute. In non-condominium communities, collection authority flows from recorded covenants, the nonprofit corporation law under RSA 292, and common law. New Hampshire is a nonjudicial, power-of-sale state for mortgage foreclosures, but the condominium assessment lien carries no statutory power of sale: associations must enforce it through the courts. The state's appellate structure has no intermediate appellate court — trial matters go to the Superior Court and Circuit Court, and appeals proceed directly to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

The condominium assessment lien does not arise automatically on the due date. It exists in inchoate form and requires perfection: the association must record a verified memorandum within six months of the date the assessment became due and payable. New Hampshire grants a limited priority component — up to six months of regular monthly common assessments plus collection costs and reasonable attorney fees can take priority over a first mortgage, but only when the association follows two strict, deadline-driven notice steps. This is a payment-priority cap on the lender's exposure, not a lien that extinguishes the first mortgage. Fines, late charges, penalties, and interest are excluded from this priority portion.

On the national spectrum, New Hampshire sits between true super-priority states like Nevada and Connecticut and threshold-restricted states like California and Arizona, placing it closer to the limited-priority Massachusetts model. Planned communities in New Hampshire resemble CC&R-primary states. The sections below detail the lien, its priority, the collection and foreclosure process, and recent activity.

New Hampshire HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: RSA 356-B:46; RSA 529:26; RSA 292. Last verified: June 10, 2026.

Details

Section 2: The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

RSA 356-B:46 creates the condominium assessment lien, giving the unit owners' association a lien on every condominium unit for unpaid assessments levied in accordance with the chapter and the condominium instruments, "if perfected as hereinafter provided."¹ The lien does not execute automatically on the due date. To perfect it, the association must file — before the expiration of six months from the time the assessment became due and payable — a memorandum in the registry of deeds in the county where the condominium sits, verified by the oath of the association's principal officer.¹ The memorandum must contain a description of the unit under RSA 356-B:9, the names of the unit owners, the amount of unpaid assessments currently due or past due with the date each fell due, and the date of issuance.¹ Associations record memoranda in the registry of deeds in each county where any part of the condominium lies, and the registry indexes them in the general index to deeds as a lien for condominium assessments.¹ The six-month perfection deadline is strict: New Hampshire practitioners report that the Supreme Court reads it to bar recovery where the recorded amount reaches back beyond the permitted window.³ The lien attaches to the unit. As to what it secures, a judgment or decree enforcing the lien "shall include, without limitation, reimbursement for costs and attorneys' fees, together with interest at the maximum lawful rate" from the time the sum became due.¹ The priority portion of the lien is narrower than the underlying debt (see Section 2B). A unit owner or purchaser may obtain a recordable statement of unpaid assessments; if the association fails to furnish it within 10 business days, the lien is extinguished as to that unit.¹

2B. Lien priority and the limited super-priority component

Under RSA 356-B:46, I(a), the association's perfected lien takes priority over all other liens and encumbrances except: (1) real-estate tax liens on the unit, (2) liens and encumbrances recorded before the declaration was recorded, and (3) sums unpaid on any first mortgages or first deeds of trust securing institutional lenders.¹ The statute expressly does not affect the priority of mechanics' and materialmen's liens.¹ New Hampshire does recognize a limited priority over a first mortgage, but it is materially narrower than a Nevada-style super-priority. RSA 356-B:46, I(c) provides that the lien for regular monthly common assessments unpaid during the six-month period immediately preceding the filing of the memorandum, together with all costs of collection including reasonable attorney fees, "shall be prior to the first mortgage" — but only when the association sends, within 70 days of the occurrence of any delinquency, written notice by certified mail and first-class mail to the unit owner and the institutional first mortgagee that the account is at least 60 days delinquent, and additionally sends the lender certified and first-class notice, at least 30 days prior, of its intent to file the memorandum.¹ The priority portion expressly excludes special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, and interest.¹ An association may assert only one priority lien at a time until the existing priority lien is discharged, and the priority does not apply to mortgages executed before the 2010 amendment's effective date.¹ Critically, this is a payment-priority cap on the lender's exposure, not a lien that extinguishes the first mortgage. The New Hampshire Supreme Court's controlling 2016 decision treated the assessment lien as generally junior to a first mortgage outside this limited window.³

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

Recorded condominium instruments supplement the statutory lien, but where a declaration conflicts with RSA 356-B, the statute controls. A declaration provision purporting to make a buyer inherit a prior owner's debt cannot override the statutory priority scheme.³ For planned communities, no statutory lien exists: any lien rests on the recorded covenants as a contract running with the land, enforced as a corporate act under RSA 292 and the common law, and such a covenant lien generally takes priority only from its recording date, behind prior-recorded mortgages.⁴ On limitations, a suit to enforce a perfected condominium lien must be filed within six years of recording the memorandum under RSA 356-B:46, IV, while the underlying assessment debt — as a personal contract action — is subject to the three-year limitations period of RSA 508:4.⁵ Federal frameworks also apply on top of New Hampshire law: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act constrains third-party collectors and law firms, the automatic stay under the Bankruptcy Code halts collection on filing, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protects active-duty owners.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

For condominiums, RSA 356-B:46 imposes no general pre-recording delinquency notice as a precondition to recording an ordinary, non-priority memorandum of lien.¹ The notice obligations attach specifically to the priority component: to secure priority over the first mortgage, the association must send the delinquency notice within 70 days of the delinquency — stating the account is at least 60 days delinquent — and a separate notice of intent to file the lien at least 30 days in advance, both by certified and first-class mail to the owner and the institutional first mortgagee.¹ The statute does not require the association to offer a payment plan, provide a formal dispute procedure, or deliver an itemized statement before recording, although a unit owner may demand a recordable statement of the amount owed.¹ A separate enforcement tool, available to condominiums after 30 days' written notice to the owner and first mortgagee, lets the board terminate the delinquent unit's common privileges and services.¹ For planned communities, any pre-lien notice is contractual, governed by the recorded covenants, not the statute.⁴

3B. Recording and pre-foreclosure sequence

For condominiums, the association records the claim of lien — the memorandum — in the county registry of deeds within six months of the due date, with the contents specified in RSA 356-B:46, III.¹ The statute does not separately prescribe a distinct notice of intent to foreclose with a fixed day-count before filing the enforcement suit. The 30-day notice obligation in the statute ties to perfecting the priority lien, not to commencing suit.¹ The statute also does not specify a recorded board vote, delegation procedure, mandatory payment-plan offer, or mandatory mediation as a prerequisite to enforcement.¹ Boards typically act under authority in the bylaws, and any additional notice, hearing, or ADR step flows from the condominium instruments rather than from RSA 356-B. For planned communities, the recording mechanics and any pre-suit notice flow entirely from the covenants and general lien and contract law, not from RSA 356-B.⁴

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

For the condominium association lien, foreclosure is judicial. RSA 356-B:46 grants no power of sale to the association; it contemplates enforcement through an action at law or in equity culminating in a judgment or decree, and it preserves the alternative of a simple suit to recover the sums owed under RSA 356-B:15.¹ New Hampshire associations cannot conduct the nonjudicial power-of-sale foreclosure that mortgage holders use; they must obtain a court judgment and proceed to a sale on execution.³ The statute sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum months of delinquency before enforcement may begin.¹ Ordinary assessments support the lien and any priority portion; fines, late charges, penalties, and interest are excluded from the priority portion, though a money judgment may reduce them.¹ Because enforcement runs through the court and an execution sale, the timeline follows docket and execution procedure rather than a fixed statutory countdown. Repeated legislative efforts to authorize a streamlined or power-of-sale foreclosure of the condominium lien have failed (see Section 4). For planned communities, enforcement of a covenant lien likewise proceeds judicially as a contract and lien-foreclosure action; no statutory association power of sale exists.⁴

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

New Hampshire provides no general post-sale right of redemption after a mortgage power-of-sale foreclosure, but because the association lien is enforced through a judgment and an execution sale on real estate, the one-year redemption right under RSA 529:26 applies: the record owner may redeem within one year of the sale by paying the purchaser's expenditures plus 12 percent interest.² This one-year redemption period, combined with the fact that an execution sale on the association lien does not extinguish a senior first mortgage, has historically chilled bidding and drives associations to press for statutory foreclosure reform.³ The former owner remains personally liable for the assessment debt, so the association may pursue a money judgment and deficiency collection against the owner, subject to ordinary collection limits and the homestead exemption.¹ Surplus proceeds from any sale are distributed according to lien priority. A unit owner may reinstate by paying the arrears; the statute provides that terminated services and privileges "shall be restored upon payment of all assessments," and satisfaction of the debt requires release of the lien in the manner used for mortgages under RSA 479:7.¹ For planned communities, redemption, deficiency, and reinstatement follow the covenants and general execution law, not RSA 356-B.⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

New Hampshire activity in this area is low. The legislature adjusts the Condominium Act most years, but the assessment-lien, priority, and foreclosure provisions of RSA 356-B:46 have held steady. No New Hampshire Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months squarely interprets them.

A. Recent bills

In 2025, New Hampshire's most significant HOA-adjacent legislation raised the homestead exemption while preserving the carve-out that keeps association assessment liens enforceable.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No New Hampshire Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months squarely interprets the RSA 356-B:46 assessment lien, its priority, or association foreclosure. The controlling precedent remains the 2016 decision below, included for operational context.

C. Active legislative debates

Proposals to grant condominium associations express statutory foreclosure authority for assessment liens have been introduced repeatedly and consistently failed. A broader UCIOA-modeled governance overhaul has been considered without enactment. No current proposal has changed the collection, priority, or foreclosure framework.

Recommendations

Multi-state operators and New Hampshire associations should treat the limited priority lien as the single highest-value action item, because it is the only mechanism that recovers anything from a first-mortgage foreclosure. Stage the workflow as follows.

First, on any condominium delinquency, calendar the priority-lien clock immediately: the certified-and-first-class delinquency notice to both the owner and the institutional first mortgagee must go out within 70 days of the delinquency, and the notice of intent to record must go out at least 30 days before recording the memorandum. Missing either notice forfeits priority over the mortgage and caps the recovery, so build these into the notice-generator templates as hard deadlines. Second, record the verified memorandum within the six-month perfection window for every delinquency; the deadline reads strictly, and a late or over-reaching filing risks invalidating the lien. Third, do not assume a quick remedy: enforcement is judicial, runs through a money judgment and an execution sale, and carries a one-year redemption period under RSA 529:26 plus a surviving senior mortgage, so pursue the personal money judgment in parallel and budget for write-offs on uncollectible pre-foreclosure arrears. Fourth, for planned communities, label every step contractual and verify the recorded covenants grant a lien and an enforcement path, because RSA 356-B does not apply.

The thresholds that would change this guidance: if New Hampshire enacts an express association foreclosure or power-of-sale statute — repeatedly proposed and never passed — revise the foreclosure-type workflow to allow nonjudicial enforcement. If the legislature lengthens the priority window beyond six months or removes the single-priority-lien restriction, update the recovery-ceiling calculations. If a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision interprets RSA 356-B:46, re-verify the priority and perfection rules. Absent those events, treat the framework as static.

Caveats

The "automatic super-priority" assumption common in multi-state collection software does not hold in New Hampshire: the six-month priority is a conditional payment-priority cap that requires precise notice and does not extinguish the first mortgage, unlike Nevada's true-priority model. The redemption analysis for the association lien draws from the general execution-sale statute, RSA 529:26, applied to a judicially enforced lien rather than from RSA 356-B itself, which is silent on post-sale redemption; counsel should confirm application in a specific case. Several procedural points — board vote, mediation, pre-suit notice for the enforcement action itself — go unaddressed by statute; each community's instruments govern them. The final enacted HB 617 homestead figures ($400,000 single / $550,000 combined) are drawn from the codified statute and corroborating sources; an intermediate Senate-amended draft showed $350,000/$500,000, so verify against the certified session law if the exact figure is operationally decisive. Finally, the absence of a controlling 2023–2026 Supreme Court decision reflects the best available search of court indexes; a direct check of courts.nh.gov opinion lists is advisable before relying on the "no recent ruling" statement in litigation.

National positioning and related coverage

New Hampshire occupies a middle position on the national collections spectrum. It is not a true super-priority state like Nevada, where exactly nine months of assessments take genuine lien priority under NRS 116.3116(2) — the lien is prior to the first deed of trust "to the extent of...the assessments for common expenses...which would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the 9 months immediately preceding institution of an action to enforce the lien," held to be "true lien priority," not merely payment priority, in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014), and capable of extinguishing the mortgage at a nonjudicial sale.⁷ Nor does New Hampshire resemble Connecticut, which grants a nine-month priority under CGS § 47-258(b) (amended by P.A. 13-156 to substitute "nine months" for "six months"), with the priority including the association's costs and reasonable attorney's fees per Hudson House Condominium Assn. v. Brooks, 223 Conn. 610 (1992).⁸ New Hampshire's six-month priority is a payment-priority cap that limits the lender's exposure rather than a lien that erases the mortgage, and the association cannot foreclose nonjudicially. At the same time, New Hampshire is less restrictive than threshold states: California Civil Code § 5720(b) bars foreclosure unless delinquent assessments equal or exceed $1,800 or are more than 12 months delinquent, and Arizona's threshold rose sharply in 2025, with A.R.S. § 33-1807(A) (as amended by SB 1494, effective Sept. 26, 2025) barring planned-community foreclosure until an owner has been delinquent 18 months or the unpaid amount reaches $10,000.⁹ New Hampshire sets no minimum debt or delinquency duration. Its planned communities function like CC&R-primary states. For multi-state operators, the key adjustment is that New Hampshire requires precise, deadline-driven notice to capture even its limited priority and offers no quick power-of-sale remedy, so workflows tuned to Nevada or Florida will under-protect a New Hampshire portfolio. New Hampshire's direction of travel is essentially static: priority and foreclosure rules have held steady while foreclosure-authority bills keep failing.

1. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 356-B:46, Lien for Assessments (New Hampshire General Court) ↩
2. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 529:26, Redemption (New Hampshire General Court) ↩
3. N.H. Housing Fin. Auth. v. Pinewood Estates Condo. Ass'n, No. 2015-0514 (N.H. Sept. 20, 2016) ↩
4. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 292, Voluntary Corporations and Associations (New Hampshire General Court) ↩
5. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 508:4, Personal Actions (New Hampshire General Court) ↩
6. N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 480:4, as amended by 2025 ch. 282 (HB 617) (New Hampshire General Court) ↩
7. Nev. Rev. Stat. § 116.3116; SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) ↩
8. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b) (amended by P.A. 13-156); Hudson House Condo. Ass'n v. Brooks, 223 Conn. 610 (1992) ↩
9. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b); Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807(A) (as amended by SB 1494, 2025) ↩