North Dakota HOA Foreclosure

North Dakota HOA Foreclosure

1. Overview

If you want to take residential real property through foreclosure in North Dakota, you go to court. The state permits only judicial foreclosure, so an association or mortgage lien must be foreclosed by an action in district court; the post-sale right of redemption runs 60 days; and because the state has no standing intermediate appellate court, civil appeals go directly to the North Dakota Supreme Court.1 Condominiums fall under the North Dakota Condominium Ownership of Real Property Act, codified at N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-01 et seq., which lets an association record an assessment lien.2 North Dakota has no comprehensive planned-community statute, so non-condominium homeowners' associations operate under recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common-law contract and property principles.3 The judicial sequence moves from a statutory pre-foreclosure notice through a complaint, a judgment, and a sheriff's sale, and finally to confirmation and a sheriff's deed.4 Federal rules apply at every step, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay.5 The result is a framework that asks a lot of associations procedurally, but hands them a comparatively short redemption window once a sale goes through.

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2. The statutory framework

2A. The North Dakota Condominium Ownership Act

The North Dakota Condominium Ownership of Real Property Act, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1, governs how condominium projects in the state form, operate, and dissolve.6 A property comes under the chapter when the owner records a declaration with the county recorder where the property sits; that declaration has to include a survey map, diagrammatic floor plans, a description of the common and limited common elements, and each unit's fractional or percentage interest.7 The chapter then directs the unit owners or an administrative body to adopt bylaws covering maintenance, the assessment of expenses, and similar matters, and to record those bylaws as part of the declaration.8

The association's lien comes from § 47-04.1-11. A reasonable assessment for common expenses, made under the recorded declaration and bylaws, is a debt of the owner the moment it is made; the assessment, plus interest, costs, and penalties, becomes a lien on the condominium "when the administrative body causes such assessment to be recorded in the office of the recorder for the county in which such condominium is located."9 The recorded notice has to state the amount and the name of the record owner, and the association has to record a satisfaction once the debt is paid.10 The lien secures the recorded assessment debt, but it is not a super-priority lien. North Dakota has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so the lien takes its priority from the date it is perfected, not from any statutory preference.11 Lawmakers have amended the chapter in recent sessions to add owner protections, including a ban on prohibiting political yard-sign displays and a framework for installing electric vehicle charging stations.12

2B. The CC&R-primary framework for planned communities

North Dakota has not enacted a comprehensive planned-community or general homeowners' association statute. For non-condominium associations, the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions does the heavy lifting: it supplies the contractual authority to levy assessments, impose use restrictions, and create and enforce assessment liens.13 Without a statutory lien, a planned-community association draws its lien rights and remedies from the recorded CC&Rs and from whatever judgment the association obtains.14

Corporate governance comes from the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.D. Cent. Code ch. 10-33. When a condominium or homeowners' association is organized as a nonprofit corporation, that Act governs its corporate structure, board duties, member meetings, and recordkeeping, including the duty to keep articles, bylaws, accounting records, and meeting minutes.15 Common-law contract and property principles fill the remaining gaps, governing how courts read covenants, whether they enforce equitable servitudes, and how competing interests rank.16 North Dakota names no dedicated community-association regulator and does not require community association managers to hold a license; it licenses real estate brokerage and leasing activity through the North Dakota Real Estate Commission under N.D. Cent. Code ch. 43-23.17

2C. Judicial foreclosure, redemption, anti-deficiency, and federal overlays

To foreclose a mortgage or lien on North Dakota real property, you bring an action in district court under N.D. Cent. Code ch. 32-19.18 The state sharply limits power-of-sale foreclosure by advertisement under ch. 35-22: § 35-22-01 allows foreclosure by advertisement only for mortgages the state or its agencies hold, and it provides that "no other mortgage of real property shall be so foreclosed, but must be foreclosed by action."19 So residential foreclosure goes through the courts. The sequence calls for a written pre-foreclosure notice, served at least 30 and no more than 90 days before the action begins, followed by the filing of a complaint, service of the summons, entry of a judgment of foreclosure ordering the sale, a sheriff's sale on published notice, and confirmation.20

The post-sale right of redemption is governed by § 32-19-18, which lets a party redeem "within sixty days after the sale," with exceptions for abandoned property and agricultural land; agricultural land may be redeemed within 365 days after the summons and complaint are filed, and the final date falls no earlier than 60 days after the sheriff's sale.21 The general one-year redemption rule in § 28-24-02 governs execution sales, but it is expressly subject to the § 32-19-18 foreclosure-sale rule.22 Anti-deficiency protection lives in § 32-19-03: no one may obtain a deficiency judgment in a foreclosure of residential property of four or fewer units on up to 40 contiguous acres that contains an owner-occupied homestead.23

North Dakota's court system has no standing intermediate appellate court. The district courts hear trial-level foreclosure disputes, and civil appeals go straight to the five-justice North Dakota Supreme Court.24 Federal rules overlay all of this: the FDCPA governs pre-foreclosure dunning, and Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP (2019) addressed when a foreclosure firm counts as a debt collector; the SCRA provides stays and protections for active-duty servicemembers; and an owner's bankruptcy filing triggers an automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 that halts the foreclosure.25

3. The North Dakota HOA foreclosure procedural sequence

A. Lien establishment and recording

For condominiums, recording is what establishes the assessment lien. Under § 47-04.1-11, a reasonable common-expense assessment becomes a debt of the unit owner when it is made, and it becomes a lien on the unit only when the administrative body records the notice of assessment with the county recorder; that recorded notice must state the amount and the record owner's name.26 Recording is the step that perfects the condominium lien and fixes its priority date. Planned communities have no statutory lien, so the association's lien arises from the recorded CC&Rs and is perfected by recording a notice of lien in the county real property records as the declaration directs, or by reducing the debt to judgment and docketing it.27 In both settings, North Dakota ranks priority by the time of creation or perfection, which makes the recording date decisive.28

B. Pre-foreclosure notice and demand

Before anyone moves to foreclose a mortgage or lien on real estate, § 32-19-20 requires a written notice before foreclosure, served on the record title owner at least 30 days and no more than 90 days before the action begins.29 Section 32-19-21 spells out what that notice must contain: a description of the real estate, the date and amount of the obligation, the amount required to cure, and a statement that proceedings will begin if the amount due is not paid within 30 days.30 The owner holds a statutory cure right: under § 32-19-28, performing the conditions in default within 30 days of service reinstates the obligation as though no default ever happened.31 These notice-and-cure requirements apply to foreclosure actions generally, so they reach both condominium associations foreclosing recorded assessment liens and planned-community associations enforcing CC&R-based liens by action.32

C. Judicial foreclosure complaint and sheriff's sale

The association starts the foreclosure by filing a complaint in district court under § 32-19-01.33 Section 32-19-04 requires that complaint to identify the obligation being foreclosed, establish the applicable redemption period, and state whether the association will seek a deficiency judgment and against whom.34 The summons goes out the same way it would in any civil action; if the owner does not answer, the plaintiff may take a default judgment, and a contested case moves through litigation and possibly summary judgment.35 Under § 32-19-06, the court enters judgment for the amount due plus costs and orders the sale of the premises.36 The county sheriff conducts the sale under § 32-19-08, on notice published the way execution sales require, which under § 28-23-04 means publication in the county's official newspaper once a week for three successive weeks, with the last publication at least ten days before the sale.37 The purchaser receives a certificate of sale, the court confirms the sale, and a sheriff's deed issues after the redemption period expires.38 These steps apply to both condominium and planned-community lien foreclosures, because both proceed by action under ch. 32-19.39

D. Post-sale rights and 60-day redemption

After the sheriff's sale, § 32-19-18 gives a party in the foreclosure action, or that party's successor, the right to redeem within 60 days of the sale, except for abandoned and agricultural property.40 The owner holds the paramount right to redeem by paying the amount bid plus interest at the rate on the secured obligation; subordinate lienholders may redeem in order of priority.41 During the redemption period the debtor keeps possession, rents, and use of the property under § 28-24-11, unless the court finds the property abandoned and shortens or eliminates the period.42 If no one redeems, the sheriff executes and delivers a sheriff's deed under § 28-24-13.43

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

North Dakota's biennial legislature has not rewritten its HOA code wholesale. The most consequential recent change is a single, focused disclosure bill.

Status Signed
⌾ Last verified June 15, 2026
Docket

SB 2229 · 69th Legislative Assembly · 2025 Regular Session

Effective
Aug 1, 2025
Sunset
N/A
An Act relating to seller disclosure requirements for homeowners' association and condominium property
Synopsis

The most consequential recent enactment for associations is Senate Bill 2229, which the 69th Legislative Assembly passed in 2025. It created a new section in ch. 47-10 that requires sellers to disclose detailed association information before selling a condominium unit or a property subject to a homeowners' association or condominium project. Sen. Josh Boschee (District 44) introduced the measure, and it passed 44-2 in the Senate and 87-4 in the House.[44] The new section, codified at § 47-10-02.3, requires the seller to provide written disclosures within ten days of signing a sale agreement — covering periodic assessments, special assessments, reserve and budget information, bylaws and meeting minutes for at least the preceding 90 days, insurance, pending lawsuits and judgments, leasing restrictions, amenities, and association contact information. The association must hand over requested documents within ten days, and the buyer may void the purchase contract until those documents arrive.[45]

Operational impact
What this means, by role
Property managers New duty to compile and deliver association records within 10 days of a request; build a standard resale-disclosure packet.
HOA and condo boards Volunteer boards must keep budgets, reserves, minutes, and insurance documents in deliverable form or risk voidable sales.
Attorneys Advise on disclosure compliance, liability limits, and buyer rescission rights under the new section.
Multi-state firms Adds North Dakota to the growing list of states with statutory resale-disclosure regimes; update closing checklists.

Because the North Dakota Legislative Assembly meets biennially in odd-numbered years, the 2025 session was the most recent regular session, and the next regular session will not convene until 2027.46

B. Recent appellate rulings

One recent decision from the state's highest court settled how an association's assessment lien ranks against an earlier mortgage.

Status Final
⌾ Last verified June 15, 2026
Case

Industrial Commission of North Dakota v. Gould

North Dakota Supreme Court · 2024 ND 32 · Docket No. 20230188
Decided
Feb 22, 2024
Court
N.D. S. Ct.
Synopsis

In Industrial Commission of North Dakota v. Gould, 2024 ND 32, the North Dakota Supreme Court held that a homeowners' association assessment lien does not enjoy super-priority over a previously perfected mortgage, even where the declaration language tried to make the assessment lien "superior and senior" to later mortgages.[47] The court affirmed foreclosure for the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, which the district court found was owed $211,697.53 by borrower Carinne Gould on a mortgage that Guaranteed Rate, Inc. originated; because the association (Fendee) did not perfect its liens until it recorded them in 2021 and 2023, while the mortgage was recorded in 2019, the court held that "the NDHFA lien is superior because its date of perfection is on September 5, 2019, while Fendee perfected its liens in 2021 and 2023 respectively."[48]

Operational impact
What this means, by role
Property managers Record assessment liens promptly; delay subordinates the association to intervening mortgages.
HOA and condo boards Declaration language cannot manufacture super-priority; perfection timing controls recovery.
Attorneys Counsel associations that lien priority turns on the recording date, not covenant drafting.
Multi-state firms North Dakota confirmed as a non-super-lien jurisdiction by judicial decision, unlike UCIOA states.

C. Active legislative debates

Commentary around SB 2229 framed it as North Dakota starting to bring its community-association disclosure practices in line with other states. One longtime Fargo condominium board member was quoted saying that many volunteer-run associations may not realize how much their recordkeeping obligations have expanded. No comprehensive planned-community statute or statutory super-lien proposal is currently pending.49

5. National positioning and related coverage

North Dakota sits at the creditor-restrictive end of the HOA foreclosure spectrum. It allows only judicial foreclosure, sets a short 60-day post-sale redemption period, gives owner-occupied residences meaningful anti-deficiency protection, and runs without a standing intermediate appellate court, so a court supervises association foreclosures from filing through confirmation, and appeals go straight to the state supreme court. Unlike states that have adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, North Dakota grants no statutory super-priority to association assessment liens, and a first mortgage perfected before the association's lien keeps its seniority; Minnesota, by contrast, makes an HOA assessment lien prior to later-recorded mortgages under Minn. Stat. § 515B.3-116(b), except for the lien of any first mortgage. North Dakota also differs from non-judicial trustee's-sale states, where associations can foreclose by advertisement without going to court, and from judicial states that impose redemption periods of six months to a year. Put it together, and you get a regime that costs associations more in procedure than power-of-sale states do, while clearing title faster after a sale than the longer-redemption jurisdictions.

Associations operating in North Dakota should treat three things as the pivot points that most directly affect recovery and transactional risk under the state's judicial framework: prompt lien recording, strict pre-foreclosure notice compliance, and the new resale-disclosure duty.

Recommendations

  1. Record assessment liens immediately upon delinquency. Gould makes perfection timing decisive: a condominium lien under § 47-04.1-11 attaches only on recording, and priority follows the recording date. Boards and managers should set a firm internal deadline — say, recording within 30 days of a missed assessment — so the association does not fall behind an intervening refinance or purchase-money mortgage. The one thing that would change this advice is a UCIOA-style statutory super-lien, which North Dakota has not enacted.
  2. Build a § 32-19-20 notice protocol. Every lien foreclosure by action requires the 30-to-90-day pre-foreclosure notice with the § 32-19-21 contents and a 30-day cure window. Associations should route these notices through counsel or a licensed collection agency, given the FDCPA exposure on pre-foreclosure dunning.
  3. Stand up a § 47-10-02.3 resale-disclosure packet now. As of August 1, 2025, associations must deliver the listed disclosures within ten days of a request, drawing on at least the prior 90 days of records, or risk a buyer-voidable contract. Managers should keep budgets, reserves, minutes, insurance certificates, and a litigation and judgment summary together in a single deliverable file.
  4. Confirm the redemption posture before bidding. Redemption runs only 60 days for non-agricultural residential property, so associations and third-party purchasers can plan on relatively fast title clearance — but they should confirm the property is not agricultural (the 365-day rule) and is not subject to an abandonment determination that changes the period.
  5. Escalate to counsel for contested matters. With appeals running directly to the North Dakota Supreme Court and no intermediate court to catch and correct error, the trial-level record you build in district court is the decisive stage. Treat contested foreclosures accordingly.

Caveats

This page addresses condominium and planned-community assessment-lien foreclosure on residential real property; agricultural land carries its own redemption and deficiency rules under §§ 32-19-18 and 32-19-06.2. HOA-specific appellate authority in North Dakota is thin, and Gould is a case of first impression interpreting specific declaration language rather than a statutory super-lien rule, so a court could distinguish its reasoning on different covenant facts. We could not pin the exact direct opinion-text URL for Gould on ndcourts.gov to its numeric slug; the citation 2024 ND 32 (Docket No. 20230188) is searchable on the North Dakota Supreme Court opinions portal. We verified the statutes and bill statuses against ndlegis.gov and the codified Century Code as updated for the 69th Legislative Assembly; readers should confirm the current text before relying on any provision, since North Dakota's biennial legislature next convenes in 2027.

Footnotes

  1. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-01, 32-19-18 (judicial foreclosure and post-sale redemption) ↩
  2. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-01 et seq. (Condominium Ownership of Real Property Act) ↩
  3. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 10-33 (Nonprofit Corporation Act) ↩
  4. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-20, 32-19-06, 32-19-08 (notice, judgment, and sheriff's sale) ↩
  5. 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (FDCPA); 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq. (SCRA); 11 U.S.C. § 362 (automatic stay) ↩
  6. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1 (Condominium Ownership of Real Property Act) ↩
  7. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-04.1-02, 47-04.1-03 (declaration requirements) ↩
  8. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-07 (bylaws) ↩
  9. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-11 (assessment lien) ↩
  10. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-11 (recorded notice and satisfaction) ↩
  11. Industrial Comm'n of N.D. v. Gould, 2024 ND 32 (priority by date of perfection) ↩
  12. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 47-04.1-14, 47-04.1-16 (owner protections) ↩
  13. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-04 (equitable servitudes; recorded CC&Rs as governing instrument) ↩
  14. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 32-19 (foreclosure by action) ↩
  15. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 10-33, § 10-33-80 (corporate records) ↩
  16. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-04 ↩
  17. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 43-23 (North Dakota Real Estate Commission) ↩
  18. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-01 ↩
  19. N.D. Cent. Code § 35-22-01 (foreclosure by advertisement restricted) ↩
  20. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-20, 32-19-21, 32-19-06, 32-19-08 ↩
  21. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-18 (60-day redemption) ↩
  22. N.D. Cent. Code § 28-24-02 (one-year redemption on execution sales) ↩
  23. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-03 (anti-deficiency) ↩
  24. North Dakota Court System, About Us (no intermediate appellate court) ↩
  25. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029 (2019) ↩
  26. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-11 (lien perfected by recording) ↩
  27. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 32-19 (foreclosure by action); recorded CC&Rs ↩
  28. Industrial Comm'n of N.D. v. Gould, 2024 ND 32 ↩
  29. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-20 (notice before foreclosure) ↩
  30. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-21 (contents of notice) ↩
  31. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-28 (cure and reinstatement) ↩
  32. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 32-19 ↩
  33. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-01 ↩
  34. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-04 (complaint requirements) ↩
  35. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-29, 32-19-36 (default and contested proceedings) ↩
  36. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-06 (judgment and order of sale) ↩
  37. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-08, 28-23-04 (sheriff's sale and publication) ↩
  38. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 32-19-09, 28-24-13 (confirmation and sheriff's deed) ↩
  39. N.D. Cent. Code ch. 32-19 ↩
  40. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-18 ↩
  41. N.D. Cent. Code § 32-19-18 (priority of redemption) ↩
  42. N.D. Cent. Code §§ 28-24-11, 32-19-19 (possession during redemption) ↩
  43. N.D. Cent. Code § 28-24-13 (sheriff's deed) ↩
  44. N.D. S.B. 2229, 69th Legis. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.D. 2025) (introduced by Sen. Josh Boschee; passed Senate 44-2, House 87-4) ↩
  45. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-10-02.3 (resale disclosure) ↩
  46. North Dakota Legislative Branch, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025) ↩
  47. Industrial Comm'n of N.D. v. Gould, 2024 ND 32 (Docket No. 20230188) ↩
  48. Industrial Comm'n of N.D. v. Gould, 2024 ND 32, ¶ 13 ↩
  49. Chris Flynn, Community Living Associations in N.D. Will See Increased Disclosure Requirements Starting Aug. 1, InForum (2025) ↩

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