New Jersey HOA Collections & Liens

Section 1: Overview, how assessment collection and liens work in New Jersey

New Jersey runs its condominium associations under the Condominium Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq., and its planned developments under the Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act (PREDFDA), N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq. The central collection feature is a limited lien priority that puts up to six months of unpaid customary assessments ahead of a prior-recorded first mortgage — and foreclosure is judicial.¹

A condominium association holds a lien on each unit for unpaid assessments, but that lien does not arise automatically. It takes effect only when the association records a claim of lien in the county where the unit sits.² The limited priority caps at six months of customary assessments and renews on an annual basis.³ If collection ends in a sale, it moves through judicial foreclosure in the Superior Court, Chancery Division — not a nonjudicial trustee sale.⁴

New Jersey sets no statutory dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose its lien, though a lien may not rest solely on late fees.⁵

Nationally, New Jersey holds a middle position. Its six-month limited priority is narrower than Nevada's nine-month true super-priority — the Nevada Supreme Court held in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank that a "nonjudicial foreclosure sale can extinguish a mortgage lender's previously-recorded first deed of trust"⁶ — but New Jersey is more creditor-favorable than California, where Cal. Civ. Code 5720(b) bars judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure to collect "delinquent regular or special assessments of an amount less than one thousand eight hundred dollars ($1,800)" unless the debt exceeds twelve months.⁷ The sections below cover lien creation and priority, the operational collection and foreclosure sequence, recent legislative and judicial activity, and national positioning.

New Jersey HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21; N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1; N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq.; N.J. Court Rule 4:65-5; N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1. Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

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

For condominiums, the lien is statutory. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) gives the association a lien on each unit for any unpaid assessment for a share of common expenses or otherwise, including other moneys owed, together with interest, late fees, fines, expenses, and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collection.¹⁴

For planned communities and HOAs, the lien was historically contractual, resting on recorded covenants — but that changed in 2019. P.L. 2019, c.68 amended PREDFDA to add N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1, giving planned-development associations a statutory lien on the same terms as condominium associations and overriding governing documents that are silent on lien rights.¹⁶ Cooperatives are expressly excluded from both provisions.¹⁵

The lien is not automatic. Under both statutes, it takes effect only when the association records a claim of lien in the public records of the county where the unit or lot is located.² The recorded claim must state the description of the unit, the name of the record owner, the amount due, and the date when due. It must be signed and verified by an officer or agent of the association, and it may include only sums that are due and payable at the time of recording.²

One firm limit: the association cannot record a lien where the unpaid assessment consists solely of late fees.⁵ The lien secures the unpaid assessments plus interest, late fees, fines, collection expenses, and reasonable attorney fees, where authorized.¹⁴ The lien attaches to the individual unit or lot and its proportionate interest in the common elements — not to other property of the owner.¹⁷

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

As a general rule, an association lien is subordinate to prior-recorded property-tax and municipal liens, the lien of any mortgage to which the unit is subject, and any other lien recorded before the claim of lien.⁹

The exception is the limited priority. Both 46:8B-21(b) and 45:22A-44.1(b) grant the lien a limited priority over prior-recorded mortgages and other liens — except municipal liens and federal tax liens — in an amount that "shall not exceed the aggregate customary condominium assessment against the unit owner for the six-month period prior to the recording of the lien."³

"Customary assessment" carries a narrow statutory definition. The statute provides: a "'customary condominium assessment' shall mean an assessment for periodic payments, due the association for regular and usual operating and common area expenses pursuant to the association's annual budget and shall not include amounts for reserves for contingencies, nor shall it include any late charges, penalties, interest or any fees or costs for the collection or enforcement of the assessment or any lien arising from the assessment."¹⁴ Late fees, fines, interest, and attorney fees can sit in the lien generally — they just cannot ride in the priority portion.

Two conditions make or break that priority. First, the association must record its lien before it receives the summons and complaint in a mortgage-foreclosure action on the unit, or before a lis pendens for that foreclosure is filed.³ If the mortgagee files first, the priority is gone. Second, the association must, in writing, notify any first-mortgage holder of the lien filing — a good-faith effort suffices where the holder cannot be identified.³

On the "rolling lien" question, the statute answers yes: the limited priority "shall be cumulatively renewed on an annual basis as necessary," so an association can capture six months of customary assessments for each year a lien remains unsatisfied. A backstop applies: the priority expires on the first day of the 60th month following the date of recording.¹⁸ As the Stark & Stark New Jersey Law Blog summarized after the 2019 amendments, "the lien priority is extended to six months per year for each year a lien is recorded up to five years (30 months maximum)."¹⁸

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

Recorded covenants, master deeds, and bylaws supplement the statute. They authorize fines and late fees enforceable as a lien under section 46:8B-21, and they can set collection procedures — but they cannot diminish the statutory priority or support recording a lien solely for late fees.¹⁹

Associations organized as nonprofits under Title 15A must still observe corporate formalities, including board authorization, when pursuing collection. On timing, assessment debt is a contractual claim subject to New Jersey's six-year statute of limitations under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1.²⁰

A federal layer sits on top of New Jersey law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) reaches the collection of association assessments. New Jersey courts have treated condominium assessments as debts subject to the Act, so attorneys and third-party collectors pursuing assessments must comply — even though an association collecting its own dues is generally not a "debt collector."²¹

The U.S. Supreme Court in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP held that a business engaged only in nonjudicial foreclosure is not a "debt collector" except for the limited purpose of 15 U.S.C. 1692f(6) — but it left open the treatment of judicial foreclosure, which is the New Jersey model. That means association-lien foreclosures in New Jersey carry more FDCPA exposure than nonjudicial-state foreclosures.²² The bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. 362 halts collection and foreclosure on a bankruptcy filing, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act adds protections for active-duty owners.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

Before recording a lien, both statutes require "proper notice to the appropriate unit owner" — but neither sets a day-count, a delivery method, or prescribed contents for that pre-lien notice.¹⁰ In practice, associations send delinquency letters and statements, but those steps flow from policy and the governing documents, not from a statutory mandate.

New Jersey does not impose a statutory right to a payment plan, a statutory debt-dispute procedure tied to the lien, or a statutory itemized-statement clock at the pre-lien stage. The one statutory information right is the estoppel certificate: on request, the association must furnish a certificate of the amount of unpaid assessments within ten days, and a third party who relies on it is protected to the stated amount.²³ For planned communities, any additional pre-lien notice, dispute, or payment-plan rights are contractual, arising from the CC&Rs rather than from PREDFDA.

Both the Condominium Act and PREDFDA require associations to provide a "fair and efficient" alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedure for housing-related disputes — but New Jersey courts have allowed associations to exclude assessment-nonpayment disputes from mandatory ADR. ADR is generally not a precondition to assessment collection.²⁴

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

The perfection step is recording the verified claim of lien with the county recording office, stating the unit description, record owner, amount due, and date due.² The statute sets no recording deadline, but the priority clock and the rule against recording after the mortgagee's foreclosure filing make prompt recording the practical imperative. When recording a lien that may carry priority, the association must give written notice to any first-mortgage holder.³

New Jersey's Fair Foreclosure Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:50-53 et seq., imposes a notice of intention to foreclose at least 30 days in advance — but that Act targets residential mortgage lenders. Section 2A:50-62 provides it does not apply to collection of an obligation by means other than enforcing a lender's lien on residential property.¹¹ Association-lien foreclosures therefore do not trigger the Fair Foreclosure Act notice of intention. The board prerequisites for foreclosure — a vote, delegation to counsel, any payment-plan offer, or mediation — are not specified by statute and are governed by the bylaws and board authority.⁴

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Both statutes provide that liens for unpaid assessments "may be foreclosed by suit brought in the name of the association in the same manner as a foreclosure of a mortgage on real property."⁴ That means judicial foreclosure in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, with the Office of Foreclosure handling uncontested matters and contested matters going to a vicinage judge.¹³ The association may bid on the unit at the sheriff's sale and acquire, hold, lease, mortgage, and convey it, unless the master deed or bylaws prohibit.⁴ A suit for a money judgment for unpaid assessments may proceed without waiving the lien.⁴

New Jersey sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose its lien.⁵ The only statutory floor: a lien may not consist solely of late fees, which means fines and late fees alone cannot anchor a foreclosure — but unpaid assessments of any amount can.⁵

After final judgment, the court issues a writ of execution. The county sheriff advertises the sale for four consecutive weeks and serves notice at least ten days before the sale. The sale proceeds at auction, and an owner may obtain limited statutory adjournments.¹³

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

Because association liens foreclose in the same manner as mortgages, the post-sale redemption framework applies. Under New Jersey Court Rule 4:65-5, an owner has ten days after the sheriff's sale to object or to redeem. The New Jersey Supreme Court has recognized that the equity of redemption runs until the court enters an order confirming the sale.¹³ A bankruptcy filing within that window can extend redemption under federal law.

On deficiency, the Fair Foreclosure Act and related statutes channel and limit deficiency actions against residential mortgage debtors, requiring a separate suit within three months of the sale or confirmation under N.J.S.A. 2A:50-2 and 2A:50-2.1. Because the Fair Foreclosure Act targets residential mortgage lenders, an association generally pursues unpaid balances through a money judgment rather than that mortgage-deficiency track.²⁵ Surplus funds from a sale go to the Superior Court and reach the former owner and junior lienholders through a surplus application.¹³

Pre-sale, the owner can stop the process by paying the lien amount and costs. The statutes contemplate full payment producing a recordable satisfaction of lien.² A first-mortgagee or other purchaser who takes title through foreclosure of the first mortgage is not liable for assessments that came due before it acquired title — though the remaining balance, except late fees and fines, becomes a common expense spread across the other owners.²⁶

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

New Jersey's legislative energy over the past two years has aimed at structural safety and reserve funding, not at rewriting the lien priority rules that have been stable since 2019. The bills below show where the dollar stakes of collection are rising.

B. Recent appellate ruling

New Jersey's appellate courts are not rewriting collection law from the bench right now. What the courts are doing is more practical: testing how FDCPA standards apply to the attorneys and third-party firms that New Jersey associations rely on to pursue delinquent owners.

C. Active legislative debates

Reform attention has centered on common-interest-community governance and reserve funding — the S2760/S3992 line and board-training proposals — rather than on changing the six-month lien priority itself, which has held steady since the 2019 amendments.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

New Jersey sits in the middle of the national collections spectrum. It is not a true super-priority state: in SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408, 410 (Nev. 2014), the court held that the superpriority piece "consists of the last nine months of unpaid HOA dues" and "is superior to all other liens on the property, including the first deed of trust held by the mortgage lender." Connecticut and other UCIOA states grant a priority portion that can prime a mortgage.³¹

New Jersey's six-month priority gives the association payment priority for a capped amount but does not wipe out the first mortgage. The state is also more creditor-favorable than threshold-restricted states such as California, where Cal. Civ. Code 5720(b) sets an $1,800 or twelve-month floor before foreclosure, and Arizona and Colorado, which limit collection differently.³²

New Jersey is a judicial-only foreclosure state — unlike nonjudicial-sale states — which raises FDCPA exposure and lengthens timelines. And unlike CC&R-primary states with no collections statute, New Jersey now carries statutory liens for both condos and HOAs. For multi-state operators, a New Jersey delinquency requires prompt recording to capture priority, a court filing to foreclose, and close attention to FDCPA compliance. New Jersey's direction of travel on lien priority is largely static, with recent activity tightening structural and reserve obligations rather than collection rules.

1. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq. (Condominium Act), N.J. Dep't of Community Affairs ↩
2. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) (lien effective from time of recording of claim of lien) ↩
3. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(b) (limited priority, six-month customary assessment cap, conditions) ↩
4. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(f) (foreclosure by suit in same manner as mortgage) ↩
5. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21 (no statutory threshold; lien not for late fees alone) ↩
6. SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014); NRS 116.3116 (nine-month super-priority) ↩
7. Cal. Civ. Code 5720(b) ($1,800 / 12-month foreclosure threshold) ↩
8. PREDFDA, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq. and N.J.A.C. 5:26 (registration/disclosure administered by DCA) ↩
9. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) (subordination to prior liens; municipal/tax lien carve-outs) ↩
10. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) ("upon proper notice to the appropriate unit owner") ↩
11. N.J.S.A. 2A:50-62 (Fair Foreclosure Act limited to residential mortgage foreclosure) ↩
12. N.J. DCA Community Association information packet (no statutory payment-plan mandate) ↩
13. N.J. Court Rule 4:65-5 (10-day objection/redemption); Hardyston Nat'l Bank v. Tartamella, 56 N.J. 508 (1970) ↩
14. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) and definition of "customary condominium assessment" ↩
15. N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1(g) (cooperatives excluded; applies to condos and planned developments) ↩
16. N.J.S.A. 45:22A-44.1 (L. 2019, c.68) (statutory HOA lien and limited priority) ↩
17. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(a) (lien on each unit) ↩
18. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(b)(1), (b)(4) (annual cumulative renewal; expiry on first day of 60th month) ↩
19. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-13(d) (bylaws may impose fines and late fees enforceable as a lien under section 21) ↩
20. N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1 (six-year limitations period for contract claims), N.J. Courts ↩
21. Loigman v. Kings Landing Condominium Ass'n, 734 A.2d 367 (N.J. Super. Ch. Div. 1999) (assessments subject to FDCPA) ↩
22. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. ___ (2019) ↩
23. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(d) (estoppel certificate within 10 days of request) ↩
24. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-14 and 45:22A-44 (ADR for housing-related disputes), N.J. DCA ↩
25. N.J.S.A. 2A:50-2, 2A:50-2.1 (deficiency action within three months) ↩
26. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21(e) (foreclosure purchaser not liable for pre-acquisition assessments) ↩
27. P.L. 2023, c.214 (S2760/A4384, Structural Integrity and Reserve Funding Law) ↩
28. S3992 (2025) (reserve-funding amendment to S2760), N.J. Legislature ↩
29. A2449 (2024) (board-member training), N.J. Legislature ↩
30. Woodhouse v. Heartland Resolution Group, LLC, No. A-2062-22 (N.J. App. Div. Mar. 18, 2024) (unpublished) ↩
31. SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) ↩
32. Cal. Civ. Code 5720(b) ($1,800 / 12-month threshold) ↩