Ohio HOA Assessment Limits

Ohio gives association boards broad authority over assessments. The state imposes no percentage cap on increases, offers owners no statutory mechanism to ratify or reject a budget, and places the association's assessment lien behind any first mortgage recorded before it.¹

Overview — How assessment authority and limits work in Ohio

Ohio sets no statutory ceiling on assessment increases and gives owners no mechanism to ratify or veto a budget. The board adopts the budget and levies assessments under the recorded declaration and bylaws, and the association's lien for unpaid assessments sits behind any first mortgage recorded before it.¹ Two separate statutes govern, and they do not overlap: the Ohio Condominium Property Act (ORC Chapter 5311) covers condominiums, and the Ohio Planned Community Law (ORC Chapter 5312) covers residential subdivisions and homeowner associations. A condominium is, by statutory definition, not a planned community.² Regular increases take effect when the board adopts or amends the budget as the governing documents direct — no percentage limit, no ratification vote, unless the recorded documents themselves require one.³ Special assessments follow the same pattern: authorized and limited by the declaration and bylaws, with unpaid amounts becoming a lien the association records under ORC 5311.18 or ORC 5312.12.^1,4 On the national spectrum, Ohio is neither a statutory-cap state like California nor a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state with a budget-ratification step. It is a declaration-driven state where the recorded instruments, not the statute, set any limit.⁵ The sections below trace the framework, the procedures in practice, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

The assessment framework

Authority to levy and allocate assessments

In a condominium, the unit owners association works through its board of directors. The board adopts and amends the budget and collects assessments for common expenses from unit owners.³ ORC 5311.081 directs the board to build reserves adequate to repair and replace major capital items without triggering a special assessment — subject to the reserve-waiver provisions described below.³ In a planned community, the owners association acts through its board to assess common expense liability and levy individual lot assessments under ORC 5312.11. Those assessments can cover enforcement charges, utility-service fees, charges for owner-caused damage, and any costs the declaration or bylaws authorize.⁶ In both settings, the board holds the power to set the assessment through the budget. No statute requires the membership to approve the annual figure.³ The allocation formula — how the total divides among units or lots — follows the declaration. For planned communities, ORC 5312.10 specifies that common expense liability follows whatever the declaration sets out; if the declaration is silent, the liability splits equally among all lots, and the board must assess at least annually based on a budget it adopts at least annually.⁷ Condominium allocation is fixed by the percentage interests stated in the declaration.²

Limits on regular assessment increases

Ohio imposes no percentage cap on a regular assessment increase and provides no budget-ratification or rejection mechanism. The board adopts the budget under the declaration and bylaws, and the increase is effective on adoption.³ Any ceiling on increases — or any requirement that owners vote before the board raises assessments above a stated level — exists only if the recorded declaration or bylaws create it.³ The reserve-funding requirement is the principal statutory constraint that bears on increases. After Senate Bill 61, ORC 5311.081 requires a condominium board to include reserves adequate to avoid special assessments, unless the declaration or bylaws already limit the board's ability to increase assessments without an owner vote, or the unit owners — exercising at least a majority of the association's voting power — waive the reserve requirement in writing each year.³ The parallel provision for planned communities, ORC 5312.06, requires an annual written reserve waiver by a majority of the voting power if reserves are not funded.⁸ The 2022 amendments removed the former ten-percent-of-budget floor for condominiums and made the waiver an annual written act.⁹ If a board raises or levies assessments outside the authority the documents grant, or fails to follow a member-approval threshold the documents require, an owner can contest the increase as improperly charged.¹

Special assessments, the lien, and its priority

Special assessments are authorized and limited by the declaration and bylaws, not a statutory cap. The governing documents determine whether the board can levy a special assessment on its own or must obtain a member vote.³ Once an assessment or charge remains unpaid for ten days after any portion comes due, the association holds a lien.^1,4 For condominiums, ORC 5311.18 makes that a continuing lien, effective on the date the association files a certificate of lien with the recorder of the county where the property sits. The certificate must describe the unit, name the record owner, and state the unpaid amount. The lien is valid for five years from filing unless released, satisfied, or discharged by a court.¹ An owner who disputes the charge can file a discharge action in the court of common pleas.¹ For planned communities, ORC 5312.12 provides a materially similar lien: effective on filing, valid for five years, with the same common pleas discharge action.⁴ Under both statutes, the lien is prior to later liens but stands behind real estate taxes, political-subdivision assessments, and any first mortgage recorded before the association's lien.^1,4 The super-priority that exists in many other states is not Ohio law.¹⁰ The practical implication is straightforward: the association perfects its lien by recording a certificate, then collects behind the prior first mortgage — which is why associations also pursue receiverships to capture rent during foreclosure.^1,4

Assessment limits and procedures in practice

A. Regular assessment increase procedure

For both condominiums and planned communities, the board adopts or amends the annual budget under the declaration and bylaws, and the increase takes effect as the documents direct. ORC 5312.10 requires the planned-community board to assess common expense liability at least annually based on a budget it adopts at least annually. ORC 5311.081 directs the condominium board to adopt and amend budgets that include adequate reserves.^7,3 Notice and the effective date follow the governing documents. Ohio sets no statutory percentage limit.

B. Special assessment procedure

For both condominiums and planned communities, the authority to levy a special assessment is declaration- and bylaw-defined. No statute caps the amount, and no statute requires a ratification step. Whether a member vote is required depends entirely on the recorded documents.³ Notice follows the governing documents as well.

C. Caps, ceilings, and override mechanisms

Ohio supplies no percentage cap and no ratification or override mechanism. Any cap is declaration-defined. The one statutory feature that functions as a check is the reserve requirement, which the membership may waive only by an annual written vote of a majority of the voting power — under ORC 5311.081 for condominiums and ORC 5312.06 for planned communities.^3,8

D. Notice, documentation, and disclosure tied to assessments

Routine assessment notice is governed by the declaration and bylaws. No separate statutory formula governs notice for a regular increase. To perfect a lien, the association records a certificate of lien with the county recorder under ORC 5311.18 for condominiums or ORC 5312.12 for planned communities.^1,4 Before imposing an enforcement assessment or damage charge, both ORC 5311.081 (condominiums) and ORC 5312.11 (planned communities) require written notice, a statement of the right to a hearing, and the hearing procedure.^3,6 Disclosure of unpaid assessments on resale is handled through statements of unpaid assessments the board may charge to prepare, rather than a separate statutory resale-cap rule.⁶

Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Ohio's most significant recent legislative action on assessments came through Senate Bill 61 in 2022, which updated reserve requirements for condominiums and planned communities and made the condominium assessment lien a continuing lien. A separate proposal to give associations super-priority in foreclosure has been introduced twice and failed to pass either time.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Ohio's appellate courts have reinforced two practical points: the statutory discharge action is the recognized channel for contesting an assessment lien, and the foreclosure decree governs how association claims are preserved and ranked.

C. Active legislative debates

The super-priority and continuing-lien concept continues to draw interest from community association advocates, and it remains the proposal most worth monitoring — even though no bill amending ORC 5311.18 or ORC 5312.12 on lien priority is currently pending in the 136th General Assembly.¹⁴

National positioning and related coverage

Ohio sits in the declaration-driven group on the national assessment-limit spectrum. At one pole are statutory-cap states led by California, where Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b) provides that, absent a properly noticed emergency, "the board may not impose a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year or impose special assessments which in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses of the association for that fiscal year without the approval of a majority of a quorum of the members."⁵ In the middle are states that have adopted a version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — including Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington — many of which pair a budget-ratification mechanism with a super-priority assessment lien. Ohio belongs to the third group, alongside Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, where the recorded declaration and bylaws set any assessment limit and the statute supplies no cap. Ohio's assessment lien remains subordinate to a prior first mortgage.^1,4 For a multi-state operator entering Ohio, the practical implication is that the governing documents — not a state percentage rule — define how far assessments can move and what notice or vote applies. Ohio also differs structurally by using two separate statutes, ORC Chapter 5311 for condominiums and ORC Chapter 5312 for planned communities, and a super-priority lien for associations has been proposed but never enacted.^2,10

HOA Weekly updates this page quarterly as the General Assembly and Ohio's appellate courts act. The recurring super-priority lien proposal is the development most worth monitoring. Federal frameworks also bear on Ohio assessment practice — including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for association collection activity, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the bankruptcy treatment of assessments — with fuller treatment to follow as that coverage develops.

Editorial note: The effective date for Senate Bill 61 shown above (September 13, 2022) reflects the primary-source date published on codes.ohio.gov. Some secondary sources, including the Williams & Strohm, LLC Legal Insights blog, state an effective date of September 11, 2022; the primary-source date is used here.

1. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.18, Lien for common expenses, codes.ohio.gov ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. ch. 5312, Ohio Planned Community Law (stating that a condominium property as defined in § 5311.01 is not a "planned community"), codes.ohio.gov ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.081, Powers and duties of board of directors; budgets, reserves, reserve waiver, enforcement assessment notice and hearing, codes.ohio.gov ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.12, Liens, codes.ohio.gov ↩
5. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b), 20 percent regular and 5 percent special assessment limits without member approval, California Legislative Information ↩
6. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.11, Individual lot assessments; notice and hearing for enforcement assessments and damage charges, codes.ohio.gov ↩
7. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.10, Common expense liability; allocation per declaration or equally if silent; board assesses at least annually based on annual budget, codes.ohio.gov ↩
8. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5312.06, Powers of owners association; annual budget and reserves with annual written waiver by majority of voting power, codes.ohio.gov ↩
9. Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 5311.18, "Latest Legislation: Senate Bill 61 — 134th General Assembly; Effective: September 13, 2022," codes.ohio.gov ↩
10. H.B. 226, 131st Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2015) (long title amending §§ 5311.18 and 5312.12 to provide assessment lien priority and a continuing lien), legislature.ohio.gov ↩
11. S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2021) (long title), legislature.ohio.gov ↩
12. S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assemb., Status Page (Senate 32–1, Jan. 26, 2022; House 81–13, May 25, 2022; signed June 14, 2022), legislature.ohio.gov ↩
13. H.B. 226, 131st Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2015), sponsor Representative John M. Rogers, co-sponsors Representatives Michele Lepore-Hagan and Michael Sheehy, committee referral, legislature.ohio.gov ↩
14. H.B. 226, 136th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2025) (application-store parental-control legislation, unrelated to community association liens), legislature.ohio.gov ↩
15. Cline v. Wedgewood Hills HOA, 2024-Ohio-2179 (10th Dist.), supremecourt.ohio.gov ↩
16. Lakeview Loan Servicing, L.L.C. v. Soldat, 2024-Ohio-4676 (8th Dist.), supremecourt.ohio.gov ↩