North Dakota's first statutory HOA duty is a ten-day document deadline
North Dakota's first statutory HOA duty is a ten-day document deadline
2026-09-15 · North Dakota · Legislation
North Dakota has no general homeowners association act. As of August 1, 2025, it has exactly one statutory duty that falls on associations directly — and it is a paperwork deadline with a deal-killing remedy behind it. Senate Bill 2229 created a new section of chapter 47-10, codified at N.D.C.C. § 47-10-02.3, and it is now the first place in North Dakota law where the words “homeowners' association” carry an obligation rather than a definition.1
The bill passed the Senate 44-2 on February 3, 2025 and the House 87-4 on March 12. Governor Kelly Armstrong signed it on March 18, 2025, and it took effect August 1, 2025 as chapter 422 of the session laws.2
Who it reaches
The definition is deliberately wide, and it does not depend on how the community is organized:
“'Homeowners' association' means an organization making and enforcing rules and guidelines for a residential subdivision or planned community.”
There is no unit threshold, no requirement that the association be incorporated, and no carve-out for small or self-managed communities. “Condominium” takes its existing meaning from § 47-04.1-01, and a “condominium project” is “a real property development or plan consisting of a condominium.” If an organization makes and enforces rules for a North Dakota subdivision, § 47-10-02.3 is about it. See our North Dakota governing statute page for how that sits against the rest of the state's thin statutory framework.
The fifteen items
Subsection 2 obliges the seller, “By a mutually agreed upon date or within ten days of executing an agreement to sell or transfer a property subject to the rules and regulations of a homeowners' association or condominium project,” to disclose in writing a list that runs from (a) to (o). Among them: the periodic assessment amount and any unpaid common expenses or special assessments due from the seller; the amount of approved special assessments; the bylaws, amendments, supplemental declarations, rules and the declaration, plus “official minutes from the last two meetings”; reserve and capital fund balances and what they are committed to; “Whether the homeowners' association or condominium project uses a reserve study”; current operating and reserve budgets with a year-to-date financial statement; insurance documents; unsatisfied judgments and pending lawsuits in which the association is a defendant, “excluding routine assessment collections”; notice of “alleged and uncured violations pertaining to the home or unit”; transfer fees; the remedies available on nonpayment; the assessment collection policy; “Notice of any homeowners' association or condominium project restrictions related to the leasing of a unit”; an amenity list; and contact details for the association or its manager.
Subsection 3 adds a currency rule: the documents “must include information from at least the ninety days immediately preceding the effective date of the agreement to sell or transfer a property.”
The part that binds the board, not the seller
Subsection 5 is the operative provision for anyone running an association. It is short, and it is a hard deadline:
“The homeowners' association or condominium project, within ten days after a request by a seller, or the seller's authorized representative, shall furnish the documents required under subsection 2.”
The association may charge for it — “a reasonable fee, which must be disclosed before the final acceptance of a purchase agreement” — and that disclosure timing matters: a fee revealed after acceptance is not a fee the statute authorises. The statute does not define “reasonable,” does not cap it, and does not say who absorbs it.
There is an unavailability escape, but it is narrower than it first reads. The association may notify the seller that documents are unavailable “provided the documents are not the information requested under subdivisions a, b, d, and f of subsection 2.” Those four are the assessment amounts and arrears, the approved special assessments, the reserve and capital fund balances, and the budgets and year-to-date financials. An association may not tell a seller those are unavailable. They are numbers the board is expected to have.
The enforcement mechanism is the sale itself
Subsection 6 contains the only real consequence in the statute, and it does not run against the association in money:
“A buyer is not liable for any unpaid assessment or fee greater than the amount provided in the documents prepared by the homeowners' association or condominium project. A seller is not liable to a buyer for the failure or delay of the homeowners' association or condominium project to provide the documents in a timely manner, but the purchase contract is voidable by the buyer until the documents have been provided and for five days after receipt of the documents or until conveyance, whichever occurs first.”
Two things follow. First, the estoppel figure the association produces is a ceiling. If the board understates arrears, the shortfall does not travel with the unit — it stays with the association and, ultimately, with every other owner. Our North Dakota estoppel and resale page covers how that interacts with the closing itself.
Second, a slow board does not expose the seller — it exposes the transaction. For as long as the documents are outstanding, the buyer may walk. The statute contains no penalty provision, no damages remedy and no fine. The sanction is that the sale can collapse, which in practice means the seller and the agent will be on the phone to the association, not to a court.
What SB 2229 already requires of a board
Assemble the packet before it is asked for. Ten days is short if the trigger is the first time anyone looks for the last two sets of minutes. The four non-excusable items — assessments and arrears, approved special assessments, reserves, budgets and year-to-date financials — should be standing outputs, not a scramble.
Set and publish the fee. It has to be disclosed before final acceptance of a purchase agreement. A fee the board decides on after a request arrives is late by the statute's own timing.
Get the arrears number right. Subsection 6 converts an understated figure into a permanent write-off. This is the single most expensive way to be careless with § 47-10-02.3, and it lands on the collections and lien side of the ledger.
Decide who answers. The statute says the association shall furnish. It does not say the manager, the president, or the attorney. An association without a named responder has a ten-day clock running against nobody in particular.
Track the update duty. Subsection 7 requires the seller to furnish a written amendment if a material fact changes before closing or possession. Facts the seller learns about generally come from the board — a special assessment adopted between contract and closing is exactly that.
What to watch next
The statute has no penalty clause, which means its shape will be set by contract disputes rather than by regulators. Watch for the first North Dakota case on what a “reasonable fee” is, and for the first argument that a buyer's voidability right survived closing because the packet was never complete. Note also what the Legislature did not do in the same session: it declined, unanimously, to give associations any governance rules to go with the disclosure duty.
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