New Hampshire HOA Mediation & Dispute Resolution

Section 1: Overview

New Hampshire settles its community-association disputes through a contract-and-court model, and the state has never built a comprehensive statutory ADR regime to go with it. When a trial court rules, the appeal heads straight to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, because New Hampshire runs no intermediate appellate court.¹ Condominiums answer to the New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA chapter 356-B, while non-condominium planned communities have no statute of their own and lean on their recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) together with the New Hampshire Voluntary Corporations and Associations law, RSA chapter 292.² RSA chapter 542 governs arbitration—a statute the legislature first passed in 1929, not the modern Revised Uniform Arbitration Act—and the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) preempts inconsistent state rules whenever a contract touches interstate commerce.³ Superior Court Rule 32 makes court-annexed mediation, neutral evaluation, and arbitration available, and presumptively required, in Superior Court civil cases.⁴ Because no intermediate court sits in between, the New Hampshire Supreme Court alone reviews a trial-court ruling in a covenant, assessment, or governance dispute.¹ Nationally, New Hampshire lines up with the condominium-statute, contract-and-court states rather than the comprehensive-statute states like California and Florida, or the states that adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA). What follows lays out the statutory framework, the pathways open to associations and owners, and the recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The dispute resolution framework

2A. Statutory dispute resolution under the Condominium Act

The legislature enacted the New Hampshire Condominium Act, RSA chapter 356-B, in 1977, and it superseded the earlier Unit Ownership of Real Property Act (RSA chapter 479-A); it draws from the Uniform Condominium Act rather than UCIOA.⁵ The Act's core enforcement provision, RSA 356-B:15, requires the declarant, the board of directors, every unit owner, and all occupants to comply with the Act and the condominium instruments, and it makes any lack of compliance grounds for an action to recover sums due, to win damages, to obtain injunctive relief, or to pursue any other remedy at law or in equity.⁶ The association, its board, a managing agent, or one or more aggrieved unit owners—individually or as a class—may bring that suit. RSA 356-B:15, II adds that the prevailing party shall recover all costs and attorney's fees incurred in a proceeding under RSA 356-B:15, I.⁶ Assessment collection runs through RSA 356-B:46, which hands the association a lien for unpaid assessments, requires a verified memorandum of lien filed within six months in the registry of deeds, bars any suit to enforce a perfected lien after six years, and provides in paragraph V that the judgment shall include reimbursement for costs and attorney's fees plus interest.⁷ The Act sets no mandatory pre-suit mediation or arbitration requirement; RSA 356-B:15 authorizes suit with no ADR precondition, and New Hampshire offers no analog to California's Davis-Stirling pre-litigation ADR rule or Florida's mandatory pre-suit mediation and arbitration statutes (Fla. Stat. 720.311 and 718.1255).⁶ RSA 356-B:48 assigns administration and enforcement of the Act to the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau of the Department of Justice, but that bureau plays a registration and consumer-protection role—it is not a forum for owner-versus-board disputes.⁸ Non-condominium planned communities fall outside RSA 356-B entirely; their dispute rights spring from the recorded declaration and bylaws and from RSA chapter 292, with only narrow statutory guardrails such as RSA 292:8-m.²

2B. Arbitration under RSA chapter 542 and court-annexed ADR

New Hampshire's arbitration statute, RSA chapter 542, dates to 1929; the state never adopted the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act, and no "New Hampshire Uniform Arbitration Act" exists.³ RSA 542:1 makes a written agreement to arbitrate valid, irrevocable, and enforceable except on grounds that exist at law or equity for revoking any contract.³ RSA 542:2 directs a court to stay litigation of an arbitrable issue when a party asks, and RSA 542:3 lets an aggrieved party petition the Superior Court to compel arbitration.³ Judicial review stays narrow: under RSA 542:8, a party has one year to ask the Superior Court to confirm an award, to correct or modify it for plain mistake, or to vacate it for fraud, corruption, or arbitrator misconduct, or because the arbitrators exceeded their powers.³ A declaration's arbitration clause, then, is generally enforceable as a written contract. When a contract involves interstate commerce, the Federal Arbitration Act supplies overlapping and sometimes controlling law; the New Hampshire Supreme Court held in Finn v. Ballentine Partners, LLC, 169 N.H. 128 (2016), that the FAA preempts only state rules that would invalidate an arbitration agreement, so New Hampshire's broader "plain mistake" vacatur ground under RSA 542:8 survives in state-court proceedings.⁹ Separately, the Superior Court runs a court-annexed ADR program under Superior Court Rule 32, which assigns every civil case to an ADR process—mediation, neutral evaluation, or arbitration—unless the parties certify prior formal ADR or the court grants an exemption for good cause.⁴ Neutrals must be New Hampshire attorneys in good standing, chosen from a court roster or agreed to by the parties; ADR proceedings stay confidential and inadmissible in later proceedings; and a $10 surcharge on civil filings funds the mediation and arbitration fund.⁴ Rule 30 governs mediation, Rule 33 governs arbitration by agreement (expressly subject to RSA 542), and Rule 34 governs judge-conducted intensive mediation in higher-value cases.¹⁰

2C. Courts, fees, limitations, and the absence of an agency forum

The Superior Court, a statewide court of general jurisdiction that hears civil claims and holds jury trials, handles trial-level community-association disputes, and the Circuit Court District Division takes the smaller matters.¹¹ The District Division holds exclusive civil jurisdiction up to $1,500 and shares jurisdiction with the Superior Court up to $25,000,¹² and a party may file a small claim for $10,000 or less, with any small claim over $5,000 heading into mandatory mediation under RSA chapter 503.¹³ Because New Hampshire runs no intermediate appellate court, an appeal from either trial court goes straight to the New Hampshire Supreme Court under Supreme Court Rule 7, which separates mandatory appeals the Court accepts as of right from discretionary appeals it may decline or dispose of summarily.¹ On fees, New Hampshire follows the American rule—each party pays its own attorney's fees—subject to contractual, statutory, and bad-faith exceptions; the leading bad-faith case, Harkeem v. Adams, 117 N.H. 687 (1977), allows a fee award when a party must litigate to secure a clearly established right or to fight a patently unreasonable position.¹⁴ In the condominium context, RSA 356-B:15, II and RSA 356-B:46, V both allow fee recovery, and a declaration may create a contractual fee right on its own.⁶ On timing, the general personal-action limitation—including breach of contract—runs three years under RSA 508:4;¹⁵ actions on contracts under seal, judgments, and recognizances run 20 years under RSA 508:5;¹⁶ real actions run 20 years under RSA 508:2;¹⁷ and a perfected condominium assessment lien must be enforced within six years under RSA 356-B:46.⁷ New Hampshire keeps no dedicated HOA regulator or ombudsman and does not license community-association managers. The Real Estate Commission within the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification handles general real estate licensing, and the Department of Justice registers condominium projects and takes consumer-protection matters, but neither runs an administrative forum to decide owner-versus-association disputes.⁸

Section 3: Dispute resolution pathways and obligations

A. Internal / association-level resolution

Condominium associations must follow the internal governance and notice mechanics of RSA chapter 356-B before and during enforcement, and fines and other adverse actions turn on the declaration and bylaws; the New Hampshire Fining Authority and Collections and Liens coverage handles the mechanics that precede these disputes. (Statutory for condominiums under RSA 356-B; contractual, declaration-based, for planned communities.)⁶ No New Hampshire statute requires an internal grievance or architectural-appeal step before suit, so such a procedure exists only where the declaration or bylaws create it. (Contractual, declaration-based.) New Hampshire runs no administrative agency forum for HOA disputes, so the internal and judicial routes remain the operative options.⁸

B. Mediation

Superior Court Rule 32 presumptively requires civil litigants—including parties to association disputes—to attend an ADR process such as mediation or neutral evaluation unless the court exempts them. (Rule-based.)⁴ Mediation stays confidential and inadmissible in later proceedings under Rule 32(d), and the parties pick a neutral from the court roster or by agreement and split the neutral's fees, with a $10 civil-filing surcharge feeding the state ADR fund. (Rule-based.)⁴ No statutory pre-suit mediation mandate applies specifically to condominiums or planned communities. (Statutory gap.)⁶

C. Arbitration

A declaration or bylaw arbitration clause is generally enforceable as a written agreement under RSA 542:1, and a party can move to stay litigation or compel arbitration under RSA 542:2 and 542:3. (Statutory, applicable to condominiums and planned communities alike where the instrument so provides; contractual in origin.)³ Arbitration may bind the parties, with confirmation, modification, or vacatur available under RSA 542:8, and either side may appeal an award to the New Hampshire Supreme Court under RSA 542:10. (Statutory.)³ For association contracts that involve interstate commerce, the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) can supply controlling law and preempts inconsistent state rules that would invalidate the arbitration agreement. (Federal.)⁹

D. Litigation and appeals

The Superior Court serves as the primary trial venue for larger association disputes, including injunctions and title-related claims, while the Circuit Court District Division handles matters up to $25,000 and small claims up to $10,000. (Statutory / rule-based.)¹² A condominium enforcement or assessment suit proceeds under RSA 356-B:15 and RSA 356-B:46, with fee recovery for the prevailing party under RSA 356-B:15, II and cost-and-fee recovery in a lien judgment under RSA 356-B:46, V; a planned-community suit rests on the declaration and RSA chapter 292. (Statutory for condominiums; contractual for planned communities.)⁶ Appeals go straight to the New Hampshire Supreme Court under Supreme Court Rule 7, with no intermediate court in between. (Rule-based.)¹ The governing limitations periods run three years for most personal and contract actions (RSA 508:4), 20 years for sealed instruments (RSA 508:5), and six years to enforce a perfected condominium lien (RSA 356-B:46). (Statutory.)¹⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

New Hampshire runs a smaller condominium market and generates little HOA-specific legislation, and little of what it does generate takes aim at dispute resolution directly.

A. Recent bills

Separately, the 2024 session repealed RSA 356-B:70, the committee that had studied condominium and homeowners'-association law (2024, 322:5, effective January 1, 2025), and with it the standing legislative vehicle for studying association reform.¹⁹

B. Recent rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Lawmakers have introduced proposals to create a condominium and homeowners'-association dispute-resolution board again and again, and each one has failed, including SB 324 (2022) and HB 1645 (2024). The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification opposed HB 1645 on cost grounds, estimating roughly $374,000 in FY 2025 for new staff, funded partly by a new $250 filing fee. No comprehensive planned-community statute has advanced either, which leaves the contract-and-court framework intact.²²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

New Hampshire stands as a condominium-statute, contract-and-court state, not a UCIOA state: it regulates condominiums in detail through RSA chapter 356-B, but it has no comprehensive planned-community statute, so CC&Rs and RSA chapter 292 govern non-condominium associations, and it has no intermediate appellate court. That sets it apart from comprehensive-statute states like California, with its Davis-Stirling pre-litigation ADR rule, and Florida, with its mandatory pre-suit mediation and arbitration—and apart from the UCIOA states that adopted a uniform common-interest framework. The direct-appeal structure means the New Hampshire Supreme Court alone reviews a single trial-court decision, and the older RSA chapter 542 arbitration statute, paired with the FAA, shapes how lawyers draft and enforce arbitration clauses. For multi-state operators, the practical point is this: in New Hampshire, the declaration does most of the dispute-pathway work, appeals go straight to the Supreme Court, and RSA 542 and the FAA govern how arbitration clauses hold up.

HOA Weekly updates its New Hampshire dispute-resolution coverage quarterly as the Legislature and the New Hampshire Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks—notably the FAA, along with the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD—also bear on New Hampshire association disputes regardless of the state framework, and fuller treatment of those federal rules is on the way.

1. New Hampshire Supreme Court Rule 7, Appeal from Trial Court Decision on the Merits (mandatory vs. discretionary appeals; direct appeal to the Supreme Court) ↩
2. RSA Chapter 292, Voluntary Corporations and Associations (including RSA 292:8-m guardrails for homeowners' associations) ↩
3. RSA Chapter 542, Arbitration of Disputes (RSA 542:1, 542:2, 542:3, 542:8, 542:10; enacted 1929, RL 415) ↩
4. New Hampshire Superior Court Rule 32, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) (mandatory assignment, exemptions, neutrals, confidentiality, $10 surcharge to RSA 490-E:4 fund) ↩
5. RSA Chapter 356-B, Condominium Act (short title, application, and supersession of RSA 479-A effective Sept. 10, 1977; Source 1977, 468:1) ↩
6. RSA 356-B:15, Compliance With Condominium Instruments (right of action; prevailing-party costs and attorney's fees) ↩
7. RSA 356-B:46, Lien for Assessments (six-month memorandum, six-year suit deadline, paragraph V costs/fees/interest) ↩
8. RSA 356-B:48, Administration; Enforcement (Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, Department of Justice) ↩
9. Finn v. Ballentine Partners, LLC, 169 N.H. 128 (2016) (New Hampshire Supreme Court; FAA preempts only state rules that would invalidate an arbitration agreement, so RSA 542:8 "plain mistake" vacatur is not preempted in state court) — standard reporter citation provided for independent verification ↩
10. New Hampshire Superior Court Rules 30 (Mediation), 33 (Arbitration by Agreement, "Subject to RSA 542"), and 34 (Judge-Conducted Intensive Mediation) ↩
11. RSA 491:7, Superior Court civil jurisdiction (general jurisdiction, jury trials) ↩
12. RSA 502-A:14, Circuit Court District Division civil jurisdiction (exclusive to $1,500; concurrent with Superior Court to $25,000) ↩
13. RSA 503:1, Small Claims (claims of $10,000 or less; claims over $5,000 subject to mandatory mediation) ↩
14. Harkeem v. Adams, 117 N.H. 687 (1977) (New Hampshire Law Library, NH Law About Frivolous Lawsuits and Vexatious Litigants; American rule and bad-faith fee exception) ↩
15. RSA 508:4, Personal Actions (three-year limitation, including breach of contract, with discovery rule) ↩
16. RSA 508:5, Specialties (20-year limitation for debt on judgments, recognizances, and contracts under seal) ↩
17. RSA 508:2, Real Actions (20-year limitation for recovery of real estate) ↩
18. RSA 356-B:39, Voting (directed and undirected proxies; undirected-proxy caps as amended by 2024, 222:2, eff. Jan. 15, 2025 — HB 1129, Chapter 222) ↩
19. RSA Chapter 356-B table of contents (RSA 356-B:70 repealed by 2024, 322:5, VI, eff. Jan. 1, 2025) ↩
20. Moda v. Fernwood at Winnipesaukee Condominium Ass'n, 2024 N.H. 65 (docket 2023-0268, decided Nov. 26, 2024); New Hampshire Supreme Court 2024 opinions list ↩
21. Commerce Park Condominium Ass'n v. Little Deer Valley, LLC (docket 2023-0170, decided Apr. 4, 2024); New Hampshire Supreme Court 2024 opinions list ↩
22. SB 324 (2022) and HB 1645 (2024), proposed condominium/HOA dispute-resolution board (both failed); OPLC fiscal opposition to HB 1645 — New Hampshire General Court bill records ↩