The verified negatives, and how they were established

These are searched-and-found-none results from full-text reading, not blocked-access guesses. For a New Hampshire board or its counsel, a clean negative is worth as much as a case, because it tells you there is no authority either way.

Condominium declarations and bylaws. Full-text search across all 88 opinions for "declaration of condominium," "condominium instrument," "unit owner" and "bylaws of the association": zero hits.

"Homeowners association" as a party or subject. Zero hits. The one association-as-party case, Far Echo Harbor Club, involves a nonprofit corporation and the opinion does not use association-governance framing at all.

Assessment liens, common expenses, condominium fees, fines. Zero hits for "assessment lien," "lien for unpaid," "common expense" and "condominium fee." The only lien-and-taking decision in the window is Manutsom v. Town of Hollis, 2026 N.H. 27 (July 17, 2026), a municipal tax-deed notice and due process case — adjacent, and useful if a question about notice adequacy before property is taken for unpaid charges ever arises, but not an association case.

Construction statute of repose, RSA 508:4-b. Zero hits for "508:4-b" or "statute of repose." The leading case remains Rankin v. South Street Downtown Holdings from 2019, which had no association party.

Board fiduciary duty, business judgment rule, derivative suits. Zero hits. The fiduciary-duty decisions in the window are a limited liability company case and a trust case.

Fair housing, assistance and emotional support animals, RSA 354-A in housing. Zero hits across all 88.

Short-term rental zoning. Zero hits for "short-term rental," "transient occupancy" or related terms. The Court has not returned to the subject since Appeal of Hoekstra, 2024 N.H. 23, decided May 14, 2024.

Two negatives that are weaker, and we say so

The Commission for Human Rights. New Hampshire's fair-housing commission does not appear to publish its decisions in any reachable online database; its site offers complaint-intake guidance. We cannot rule out unpublished 2025 or 2026 determinations involving, say, a condominium no-pets policy. The correct reading is "not publicly available," not "does not exist."

Federal district court. First Circuit coverage in the database we used is current through August 2026, so that negative is solid. District of New Hampshire coverage in the same database appears to stop in August 2025, so the federal negative is confident for roughly January to August 2025 and unverified after that.

Superior court generally. New Hampshire superior court decisions are not published. Our coverage at that level is limited to what news outlets and practitioner blogs reported, which is a real gap.

What a silent record means for a board

Two things, and they pull in opposite directions from what boards usually assume.

First, stop expecting the appellate courts to answer the recurring questions. A New Hampshire association wondering how RSA 356-B's fining, records or assessment provisions will be read is not waiting for a case; there is no case coming, on the current rate. The operative authority is the statute and the declaration.

Second, treat the silence as a reason to be conservative rather than aggressive. Where there is no controlling decision, the cost of being the test case falls on whoever litigates first — and litigation against an association is a common expense that every owner pays, including the one who brought it.

What to watch next

Statutory change, not case law. New Hampshire's 2026 session extended records and transparency duties to homeowners associations beginning January 1, 2027 — the first statutory governance obligations outside the condominium context. A brand-new duty with no case law behind it, enforceable only in court, is a reasonable candidate to produce the window's first association appeal.