New York HOA Collections & Liens

Overview: How assessment collection and liens work in New York

New York sets out its rules for condominium governance in Article 9-B of the Real Property Law — the Condominium Act — and that statute hands the board of managers a lien on each unit for any unpaid common charges.¹ Cooperatives — the dominant ownership form in New York City — operate on an entirely different legal theory. A co-op corporation pursues unpaid maintenance as a Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 security interest in the shareholder's shares and proprietary lease, and it enforces that interest through a UCC sale and lease termination, not through a real-property foreclosure.² Planned-community HOAs have no comprehensive governing statute; their collection authority rests on recorded covenants, the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law, and common law.

For condominiums, the lien does not arise automatically on the due date. It takes effect only from and after the filing of a verified notice of lien with the recording officer where the declaration is filed (RPL § 339-aa).³ New York does NOT grant a super-priority lien ahead of the first mortgage. Under RPL § 339-z, the condominium lien ranks prior to all liens except tax liens, "all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record," and certain governmental subordinate mortgages — with no month-count carve-out.¹ Foreclosure of a condominium lien is judicial, brought in the Supreme Court in the manner of a mortgage under RPAPL Article 13.³ New York sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before a condominium foreclosure may begin, though a board may not file a notice of lien until charges are at least 60 days overdue.³ Within the national landscape, this places New York among the threshold-free but priority-weak states — unlike super-priority states such as Nevada (nine months) and Connecticut (six months), and unlike threshold-restricted states such as California and Arizona.⁴ The sections below detail the lien, its priority, and the collection and foreclosure process across all three ownership forms.

New York HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: RPL §§ 339-z, 339-aa; UCC §§ 9-610, 9-611, 9-613; RPAPL Article 13, RPAPL Article 20-A § 2010; CPLR § 213. Last verified: June 10, 2026.

The lien and its priority

Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

For condominiums, the lien is statutory. RPL § 339-z gives the board of managers, on behalf of the unit owners, "a lien on each unit for the unpaid common charges thereof, together with interest thereon."¹ The lien does not execute itself on the due date. Under RPL § 339-aa, it takes effect "from and after the filing in the office of the recording officer in which the declaration is filed a verified notice of lien" — a notice that must state the property's name and address, the liber and page of the declaration, the record owner's name, the unit designation, the amount and purpose due, and the date due.³ A board member may file the notice of lien once unpaid charges are at least 60 days overdue. The lien continues until the secured sums and interest are paid in full, or until six years from the date of filing, whichever comes first (RPL § 339-aa).³ The board files the notice in the county where the unit sits, in the same recording office as the declaration. The statute secures unpaid common charges and interest; late fees, collection costs, and attorney fees are recoverable to the extent the condominium's bylaws so provide. The lien attaches to the unit — not to the owner's other property — though the board may separately pursue a personal money judgment.³

For cooperatives, no real-property lien exists. A cooperative apartment is personal property: the shareholder owns shares of stock in the cooperative corporation and holds a proprietary lease. Where the proprietary lease obligates the shareholder to pay maintenance, the cooperative corporation holds a security interest in the shares and lease under UCC Article 9, and that interest secures unpaid maintenance.² The corporation generally need not file anything further to secure its interest, and that maintenance security interest takes priority over other security interests in the cooperative interest, including a share-loan lender's UCC-1.²

For planned-community HOAs, the lien is contractual, arising under the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs), supplemented by the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law where the association is incorporated. There is no Article 9-B equivalent for planned communities.

Lien priority and any super-priority component

This is the single most important — and most misunderstood — point in New York. For condominiums, RPL § 339-z makes the common-charge lien "prior to all other liens except only" (i) tax liens in favor of a taxing unit, (ii) "all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record," and (iii) sums unpaid on certain governmental subordinate mortgages — the New York Job Development Authority, the Urban Development Corporation, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, the Housing Trust Fund Corporation, the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and, in cities of one million or more, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.¹ The critical phrase is "all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record": the condominium lien yields to the entire first mortgage balance, not merely a capped portion.

New York does NOT recognize a super-priority portion for residential condominiums. No six-month carve-out exists, and no rolling or renewable priority window applies. The statute's only exception covers an exclusive non-residential (commercial) condominium, whose declaration "may provide that the lien for common charges will be superior to any mortgage liens of record."¹ New York courts enforce that commercial carve-out where the declaration and bylaws so provide. Because the residential condominium lien ranks junior to the full first mortgage, a board that forecloses takes the unit subject to that mortgage. A buyer at a first-mortgage foreclosure takes free of the prior common-charge lien, leaving the board to recover — if at all — from surplus proceeds. The Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, confirmed in the priority context that a consolidated mortgage retains its status as the "first mortgage of record" with priority over a later-recorded condominium common-charge lien.⁹

For cooperatives, the priority runs the opposite direction: the co-op's maintenance security interest in the shares and lease generally outranks a share-loan lender's security interest, which is why lenders insist on recognition agreements giving them notice and a chance to cure a shareholder's maintenance default before the co-op terminates the lease.²

CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

Recorded CC&Rs and bylaws supplement the statutory framework. For condominiums, the bylaws define late charges, default interest, the right to demand rent, and the recovery of attorney fees and collection costs that RPL § 339-z does not itemize. For planned communities, the CC&Rs are the entire source of lien and collection authority. The underlying assessment debt is a contract obligation subject to New York's six-year statute of limitations for contract actions under CPLR § 213(2), measured from the date of each breach — each missed assessment.¹⁰

Three federal regimes sit on top of the New York framework. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) reaches association attorneys and outside collection agents who regularly collect assessment debts — the association itself, collecting its own debts, generally is not a "debt collector," but its law firm usually is.¹¹ The automatic stay in bankruptcy halts lien enforcement and foreclosure on filing. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) provides protections to servicemembers facing foreclosure. These apply on top of, not instead of, New York law.

The collection and foreclosure process

Pre-lien collection sequence

For condominiums, New York imposes no statutory pre-lien notice. A board need not send a notice of intent to record before filing the notice of lien; the only statutory timing constraint is that a board may file a notice of lien once charges are at least 60 days overdue (RPL § 339-aa).³ No statutory right to a payment plan exists, no statutory right to an itemized pre-lien statement, and no statutory dispute procedure applies before the lien is recorded — although a grantor or grantee is entitled under RPL § 339-z to a statement of unpaid common charges, which caps a purchaser's exposure for pre-conveyance arrears.¹ Any pre-lien demand sequence — a delinquency letter, a 30-day demand — typically comes from the bylaws or from counsel's practice, not from statute.

For cooperatives, the path depends on whether the default is on a share loan (enforced by the lender) or on maintenance (enforced by the co-op). On a share loan, the lender's UCC Article 9 process applies, including a 90-day pre-disposition notice to the shareholder under UCC § 9-611(f) for residential cooperative interests, with statutorily prescribed warning language.⁶ On maintenance arrears, the co-op proceeds by a notice to cure and then a notice terminating the proprietary lease.²

For planned communities, any pre-lien step is contractual, governed by the CC&Rs — not by statute.

Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

For condominiums, the board records the verified notice of lien in the recording office where the declaration is filed, in the county where the unit sits, containing the elements RPL § 339-aa specifies — the property name and address, declaration liber and page, owner's name, unit designation, amount and purpose due, and due date.³ Effective October 16, 2025, before commencing a foreclosure action the board must provide the unit owner a notice "at least ninety days prior to the commencement of a foreclosure proceeding" at the property address and any other address of record. Under the statute, the notice "shall be in fourteen-point type and shall inform the owner that the board intends to file an action for foreclosure to enforce the lien and shall state the address of the property and the specific amount due" (RPL § 339-aa, as amended by Chapter 433 of the Laws of 2025).^3,7 This requirement marks the first statutory pre-foreclosure notice New York has ever required for common-charge enforcement; before the amendment, a board could foreclose "in like manner as a mortgage of real property" with no statutory notice. The sponsor's justification and practitioner commentary describe the requirement as modeled on RPAPL § 1304, which mandates 90-day pre-foreclosure notices to residential mortgagors.^7,14 The 2025 law also creates a parallel obligation for incorporated planned-community HOAs in new RPAPL Article 20-A § 2010, requiring the same 90-day notice before foreclosing a lien for unpaid common charges, assessments, fees, or fines permitted by the governing documents.⁷ The statute does not prescribe a specific recorded board vote, a mandatory payment-plan offer, or mandatory mediation as prerequisites.

For cooperatives, the pre-sale sequence is the UCC notice chain — notice to cure, notice of termination of the proprietary lease, and notice of public sale — not a recorded lien and complaint.²

Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

For condominiums, foreclosure is judicial. RPL § 339-aa provides that the lien "may be foreclosed by suit . . . in like manner as a mortgage of real property pursuant to article thirteen of the real property actions and proceedings law."³ The action runs in the Supreme Court, which in New York is the trial court of general jurisdiction — not the highest court. The board need not name as a defendant any person solely for owning a common interest in the property. New York sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration for the foreclosure itself. Because RPL § 339-z secures "common charges," fines as such are not clearly foreclosable for condominiums under that section; the 2025 HOA provision in RPAPL § 2010, by contrast, expressly covers liens for "fees or fines" permitted by an incorporated HOA's governing documents.⁷ The sale follows the mortgage-foreclosure path: judgment of foreclosure and sale, appointment of a referee, publication of the notice of sale, and a public auction. RPL § 339-aa lets the board collect a reasonable rental during the pendency if the bylaws so provide, obtain a receiver, and bid on the unit at the sale.³

For cooperatives, enforcement is nonjudicial under UCC Article 9. The secured party — the co-op or the share lender — may dispose of the collateral after default, and "every aspect of a disposition of collateral, including the method, manner, time, place, and other terms, must be commercially reasonable" (UCC § 9-610).¹² Notification before disposition is governed by UCC § 9-611, and the contents of the notice by UCC § 9-613; for residential cooperative interests securing acquisition financing, a 90-day pre-disposition notice with prescribed language is required, plus a further notice at least 10 days before the sale.⁶ After the shares are sold, the purchaser takes the shares and proprietary lease but must still obtain possession by a summary proceeding. The former shareholder's eviction proceeds under RPAPL Article 7 — the summary holdover or special proceeding mechanism — typically in Civil Court or the local district/justice court, and case law has been divided on which RPAPL § 713 ground applies to a purchaser at a nonjudicial co-op sale.⁵

Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

New York provides no statutory post-sale right of redemption. A borrower or unit owner holds only the equitable right of redemption, exercisable by paying the full debt before the foreclosure sale. Once the sale occurs and the deed is delivered, that right is extinguished (RPAPL Article 13).⁸ New York law allows reinstatement by paying arrears at any time before final judgment, and a payment after judgment but before the sale will stay the sale.⁸

A deficiency judgment is available in mortgage-style foreclosure. RPAPL § 1371 allows the foreclosing party, on motion made within 90 days after the sale is consummated by delivery of the deed, to seek a deficiency judgment against a party personally liable. The deficiency is capped at the debt minus the higher of the sale price or the fair-and-reasonable market value the court determines.¹³ If no timely deficiency motion is filed, the sale proceeds are deemed full satisfaction of the debt (RPAPL § 1371(3)).¹³ Surplus proceeds from a foreclosure sale are paid into court and distributed to junior lienholders in order of priority, with any remainder going to the former owner. For a junior condominium lien wiped out by a senior mortgage foreclosure, the board's recovery comes only from surplus, if any. For cooperatives, UCC Article 9 governs application of sale proceeds, with any surplus owed to the debtor and a deficiency potentially pursued as a personal claim.

Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Practitioner commentary notes that the 2025 90-day-notice law leaves open how the notice period interacts with the date the condominium lien arises. One firm observes the law "is ambiguous as to whether the 90-day notice period is measured from the date that the lien of the Condo 'arises' under RPL Section 339-z, the date that the lien is 'effective' under RPL Section 339-aa (i.e., when the Condo records a Notice of Lien), or even some other date" — an ambiguity that may prompt clarifying legislation or litigation.¹⁷

National positioning and related coverage

On the national collections spectrum, New York is a judicial-foreclosure, no-super-priority state for condominiums. It contrasts sharply with super-priority states such as Nevada, where NRS 116.3116(2)(b) makes the HOA lien prior to the first mortgage for the unpaid assessments "which would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the 9 months immediately preceding" the recording of the notice of default and election to sell, and with Connecticut and other UCIOA-based states carrying a six-month priority.⁴ It also differs from threshold-restricted states such as California, where Civil Code § 5720(b) bars an HOA from foreclosing a debt of "an amount less than one thousand eight hundred dollars ($1,800), not including any accelerated assessments, late charges, fees and costs of collection, attorney's fees, or interest," unless the assessments are "more than 12 months delinquent" (§ 5720(c)(1)), and from Arizona and Colorado.¹⁸ New York's condominium lien is junior to the entire first mortgage, sets no foreclosure threshold, and is enforced judicially, while its cooperative sector is governed by UCC Article 9 rather than any HOA statute — an arrangement nearly unique to New York. For multi-state operators, this means New York collection playbooks built around super-priority leverage do not transfer; recovery on a condominium unit depends heavily on the unit's equity above the first mortgage. New York's direction of travel is toward more owner protection, as the 2025 90-day-notice law shows, rather than toward stronger association priority.

1. N.Y. Real Property Law § 339-z (Lien for common charges; priority; exoneration of grantor and grantee), NYS Open Legislation ↩
2. N.Y. UCC § 9-610 (Disposition of Collateral After Default), NYS Open Legislation ↩
3. N.Y. Real Property Law § 339-aa (Lien for common charges; duration; foreclosure), NYS Open Legislation (current revision from 2025-10-17) ↩
4. Nevada Revised Statutes § 116.3116 (Liens against units for assessments; nine-month super-priority), Nevada Legislature ↩
5. N.Y. RPAPL Article 7 (Summary Proceeding to Recover Possession of Real Property), including §§ 711, 713, NYS Open Legislation ↩
6. N.Y. UCC § 9-611 (Notification Before Disposition of Collateral; 90-day residential cooperative notice), NYS Open Legislation ↩
7. NY State Assembly Bill 2025-A3470 (signed Chapter 433, Oct. 16, 2025; bill text and actions), NYS Open Legislation ↩
8. N.Y. RPAPL Article 13 (Action to Foreclose a Mortgage), §§ 1341 (reinstatement before final judgment) and 1353 (conveyance after sale), NYS Open Legislation ↩
9. Plotch v. Citibank, N.A., 27 N.Y.3d 1024, 2016 NY Slip Op 03648 (Court of Appeals, May 10, 2016), NY Law Reporting Bureau ↩
10. N.Y. CPLR § 213 (Actions to be commenced within six years; subd. 2, contractual obligation), NYS Open Legislation ↩
11. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (Regulation F), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ↩
12. N.Y. UCC § 9-613 (Contents and Form of Notification Before Disposition of Collateral), NYS Open Legislation ↩
13. N.Y. RPAPL § 1371 (Deficiency judgment), NYS Open Legislation ↩
14. NY State Senate Bill 2025-S7413 (Sen. Kavanagh; sponsor's justification referencing RPAPL § 1304), NYS Open Legislation ↩
15. Walsh v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, 217 A.D.3d 802, 2023 NY Slip Op 03256 (App. Div. 2d Dept, June 14, 2023), NY Law Reporting Bureau ↩
16. AMK Capital Corp. v. Plotch, 2024 NY Slip Op 03324 (App. Div. 1st Dept, June 18, 2024), NY Law Reporting Bureau ↩
17. Smith Buss & Jacobs LLP, "New '90-Day Notice' Required to Start Condo and HOA Foreclosures" (practitioner analysis of A3470 ambiguity) ↩
18. California Civil Code § 5720 (Davis-Stirling Act; $1,800 / 12-month foreclosure threshold), California Legislative Information ↩