Ohio HOA Foreclosure

Section 1: Overview

Ohio takes a court-only approach to foreclosure, and it runs community associations under two separate, comprehensive statutes. At the first sheriff's sale, an appraisal sets a floor — nobody may buy for less than two-thirds of the appraised value — and the owner's right to redeem does not run on a fixed clock after the sale. It ends the moment the court confirms the sale.¹ The Ohio Condominium Property Act, Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 5311, governs condominiums, while the Ohio Planned Community Law, Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 5312, governs planned communities and took effect September 10, 2010.² Ohio has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and neither chapter hands associations a UCIOA-style super-priority lien ahead of a previously recorded first mortgage.³ Every association foreclosure runs as a civil action in the Court of Common Pleas under the general execution statutes of Chapters 2323 and 2329, moving from lien certificate to complaint, to judgment and decree, to appraisal, to sheriff's sale, and finally to confirmation.⁴ Federal rules attach at every step, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay.⁵ The rest of this page lays out the statutory framework, the procedural sequence, recent legislative and judicial activity, and where Ohio stands nationally.

Section 2: The statutory framework

2A. The Ohio Condominium Property Act and Planned Community Law

Ohio keeps two distinct, purpose-built statutory regimes for community associations, and you cannot swap one for the other. The Ohio Condominium Property Act, Chapter 5311, governs condominium property submitted to its terms.⁶ The Ohio Planned Community Law, Chapter 5312, governs planned communities; Senate Bill 187 of the 128th General Assembly added it, effective September 10, 2010.⁷ Chapter 5312 says outright that a condominium property as defined in Section 5311.01 is not a planned community, which confirms that the two statutes occupy separate fields.⁸ Neither chapter draws on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act or the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act; both are Ohio-specific frameworks.³

Section 5311.18 creates the condominium lien. Unless the declaration or bylaws say otherwise, the unit owners association holds a continuing lien on a unit and its appurtenant undivided interest in the common elements for the unit's share of common expenses, plus interest, administrative late fees, enforcement assessments, collection costs, attorney's fees, and paralegal fees, when the declaration, bylaws, or rules authorize them.⁹ The lien attaches to amounts that stay unpaid for ten days after any portion comes due. It takes effect when the association records a certificate of lien with the county recorder, and it stays valid for five years from filing.⁹

On priority, Section 5311.18(B)(1) makes the condominium lien prior to any lien or encumbrance that arises or is created later, except liens for real estate taxes and political-subdivision assessments and liens of first mortgages already filed for record.¹⁰ There is no super-priority over a previously recorded first mortgage.

Section 5312.12 creates the planned-community lien. The owners association holds a lien on a lot for any assessment or charge levied under Section 5312.11, plus related interest, administrative late fees, enforcement assessments, collection costs, attorney's fees, and paralegal fees, once those amounts go unpaid for ten days after coming due.¹¹ The lien takes effect on recording a certificate of lien, runs as a continuing lien, and stays valid for five years. Under Section 5312.12(B)(4), it is prior to any lien or encumbrance arising or created later, except real estate taxes and political-subdivision assessments and liens of first mortgages filed for record before the recording of the lien, and the association may foreclose it the same way it would a mortgage.¹¹ Again, no super-priority.

2B. The role of the declaration and corporate law

Both chapters work alongside each association's recorded instruments. The statute sets the floor; the recorded declaration, bylaws, and duly adopted rules build on it. The conventional order of precedence puts the statute first, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the board-adopted rules, with each lower instrument valid only so far as it does not conflict with the level above it. Section 5311.18 itself repeatedly defers to the declaration and bylaws — it opens with the phrase "unless otherwise provided by the declaration or the bylaws" — so the instruments can adjust the default lien terms within statutory limits.⁹

Ohio community associations organize as nonprofit corporations, and Section 5312.03(B) requires planned-community owners associations to incorporate.¹² So corporate governance pulls from Ohio's Nonprofit Corporation Law, Chapter 1702 of the Revised Code, which supplies the default rules on board authority, meetings, and member action.¹³ Common-law contract and property principles fill the remaining gaps: Ohio courts treat a condominium declaration and bylaws as contractual agreements among the unit owners and between the owners and the association.¹⁴ No dedicated state HOA regulator exists, and Ohio does not license community association managers. Real estate licensing falls under the Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing within the Department of Commerce, and the courts resolve disputes.¹⁵

2C. Judicial foreclosure, sale mechanics, and federal overlays

Every Ohio foreclosure, including those an association starts, is a judicial action filed in the Court of Common Pleas and governed by the general execution provisions of Chapters 2323 and 2329.⁴ Non-judicial power-of-sale foreclosure is not available for residential real property. After judgment and a decree of foreclosure, the court has the property appraised: under Section 2329.17, the sheriff calls an inquest of three disinterested freeholders who live in and own real property in the county, and for residential property they must return an estimate within twenty-one calendar days.¹⁶ Under Section 2329.20, no tract of land may sell for less than two-thirds of the appraised value at the first sale.¹⁷

The court must confirm the sale. Under Section 2329.31, after examining the proceedings the court confirms the sale within thirty days of the return of the writ, and it may stay confirmation to give the owner time to redeem.¹⁸ Section 2329.33 sets the owner's right to redeem: at any time before confirmation, the debtor may redeem by depositing the judgment amount, costs, and interest at eight per cent with the clerk.¹⁹ Confirmation cuts off the right to redeem; Ohio provides no separate post-confirmation statutory redemption period. For vacant and abandoned residential property, the expedited procedure in Chapter 2308 — which H.B. 390 enacted, effective September 28, 2016 — and the private-selling-officer mechanism in Section 2329.152 allow faster handling, though the expedited track is built around residential mortgage foreclosure.²⁰

Federal rules apply. Under the FDCPA, pre-foreclosure dunning by third-party collectors counts as debt-collection conduct; Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029 (2019), limited the security-interest-enforcement carve-out to non-judicial foreclosure, so Ohio's judicial process generally falls outside that narrow holding, and broader FDCPA exposure may attach.²¹ The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act provides stays and protections for active-duty servicemembers, and the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 halts foreclosure activity the moment an owner files.⁵

Section 3: The Ohio HOA foreclosure procedural sequence

A. Lien establishment and recording

For condominiums, the lien arises under Section 5311.18 for common expenses and authorized charges that go unpaid ten days after coming due, and it takes effect when the association records a certificate of lien with the county recorder describing the unit, naming the record owner, and stating the unpaid amount.⁹ For planned communities, the parallel lien arises under Section 5312.12 for assessments and charges levied under Section 5312.11, effective when the association records a certificate of lien describing the lot.¹¹ Both liens are continuing and stay valid for five years from filing. Priority for both runs by recording date relative to later encumbrances, but both sit behind real estate taxes, political-subdivision assessments, and a first mortgage filed for record before the lien.¹⁰ Neither statute imposes a minimum dollar delinquency or a procedural precondition before an association may proceed.

B. Pre-foreclosure notice and demand

Neither Section 5311.18 nor Section 5312.12 spells out a detailed statutory pre-suit notice script, so the recorded declaration and bylaws usually supply the demand and notice requirements an association must meet, and many instruments require a written demand before the board authorizes a lien or suit.⁹ Practitioners layer federal compliance on top at this stage. Where a third-party collector or law firm runs pre-suit dunning, the FDCPA's validation and communication rules apply, and post-Obduskey exposure runs broader in Ohio's judicial setting than in non-judicial states.²¹ Counsel also run pre-filing checks for bankruptcy, which triggers the automatic stay, and for active military service, which triggers SCRA protections.⁵ These checks apply to both condominium and planned-community matters.

C. Judicial foreclosure complaint, judgment, appraisal, and sheriff's sale

The association files a civil complaint to foreclose its lien in the Court of Common Pleas of the county where the property sits, and it joins the owner and every lienholder of record, including the first mortgagee. Both Section 5311.18(B)(1) and Section 5312.12(B)(4) let the association foreclose its lien the same way it would a mortgage.^10,11 After service and any answer, the court enters judgment on the debt and a decree of foreclosure fixing the amounts and priorities of the liens.²² The court then issues an order of sale. Three disinterested freeholders appraise the property under Section 2329.17, with a twenty-one-day return window for residential property; if they do not return the appraisal in time, the court uses the county auditor's most recent value unless it orders a separate appraisal for good cause.¹⁶ Under Section 2329.20, the property cannot sell for less than two-thirds of the appraised value at the first sale.¹⁷ The association must publish notice of the sale, and Ohio has modernized sales through online auction and the optional use of a private selling officer who holds an Ohio auctioneer license and works as a real estate broker or salesperson; if a property fails to sell at the first sale, a second sale may go forward without the two-thirds minimum.²⁰ These mechanics apply to both condominium and planned-community foreclosures.

D. Confirmation, redemption cutoff, and post-sale remedies

After the sale, the court confirms it under Section 2329.31, examining the proceedings for regularity and confirming within thirty days of the return of the writ, with discretion to stay confirmation to allow redemption.¹⁸ The owner's equity of redemption under Section 2329.33 runs until confirmation and ends with it; Ohio has no separate post-confirmation redemption period.¹⁹ On confirmation, the court orders the sale proceeds distributed according to the priorities the decree fixed, with taxes and superior liens paid first; a junior lienholder that was named but lands out of the money takes nothing from the proceeds, while an omitted lienholder is not bound.²² The sheriff or private selling officer records the deed, and the purchaser may obtain a writ of possession. Because association liens generally sit junior to a first mortgage, an association foreclosure usually does not wipe out that mortgage. A deficiency may remain a personal obligation, subject to the limits of Section 2329.08.²³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Ohio's recent legislative attention has split three ways: one enacted overhaul that rewrote both association statutes, one pending measure aimed at political yard signs, and one super-lien proposal that stalled. Here is where each stands.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Ohio's appellate courts aren't rewriting association law from the bench. They're doing something more practical: holding parties to what they pleaded, and confirming that recorded condominium instruments work like contracts. Two recent Eighth District decisions show the pattern.

C. Active legislative debates

Lawmakers have talked about — but not passed — mandatory reserve-study requirements for associations in the wake of the 2021 Surfside collapse, and the political-yard-sign measure in HB 16 is still alive.²⁵ The association super-lien concept, which HB 572 carried in the 135th General Assembly, has not resurfaced in the 136th as far as we can verify.²⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Ohio sits firmly in the court-only camp: every association foreclosure runs as a civil action in the Court of Common Pleas, with no power-of-sale shortcut for residential property. It belongs to a minority of states that keep two separate, comprehensive community-association statutes — a condominium act in Chapter 5311 and a distinct planned-community law in Chapter 5312 — rather than folding both into a single code. It grants no UCIOA-style super-priority, so an association lien generally sits behind a previously recorded first mortgage, unlike in the 21 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, that have assessment priority lien statutes.²⁹ And its redemption right ends at confirmation of the sale rather than running for a fixed window afterward, which separates Ohio from states with six-month or one-year statutory redemption periods and from non-judicial trustee-sale states. For anyone operating across state lines, the practical takeaway is simple: in Ohio, recovery turns on equity above the senior liens and on disciplined management of the court process — not on a statutory priority shortcut.

Boards and managers working in Ohio should treat the recorded declaration as the day-to-day companion to Chapters 5311 and 5312, calendar the appraisal and confirmation milestones that drive timing and redemption, and verify every statutory citation and bill status each quarter against the primary sources — because the super-lien question is still live in the General Assembly.

1. Ohio Rev. Code §§ 5311.18, 5312.12, 2329.17, 2329.20, 2329.31, 2329.33 (synthesis of the controlling lien, appraisal, confirmation, and redemption statutes) ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5311 (Condominium Property); ch. 5312 (Ohio Planned Community Law), effective September 10, 2010 ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code chs. 5311 and 5312 (stand-alone Revised Code chapters, not enactments of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; priority limits in §§ 5311.18(B)(1) and 5312.12(B)(4)) ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 2329 (Execution Against Property); §§ 5311.18(B)(1) and 5312.12(B)(4) (foreclosure "in the same manner as a mortgage on real property") ↩
5. 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (FDCPA); 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq. (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act); 11 U.S.C. § 362 (bankruptcy automatic stay) ↩
6. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.02 (chapter applies only to property submitted to its provisions) ↩
7. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.12, "Latest Legislation: Senate Bill 187 - 128th General Assembly," effective September 10, 2010 ↩
8. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.01 ("A condominium property as defined in section 5311.01 of the Revised Code is not a 'planned community.'") ↩
9. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.18(A) (lien for common expenses; ten-day trigger; certificate of lien; five-year validity; deference to declaration and bylaws), effective September 13, 2022 ↩
10. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.18(B)(1) (lien "is prior to any lien or encumbrance subsequently arising or created except liens for real estate taxes and assessments of political subdivisions and liens of first mortgages that have been filed for record") ↩
11. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.12(A), (B)(2)–(4) (lien for assessments under § 5312.11; continuing lien; five-year validity; priority except prior-recorded first mortgages; foreclosable as a mortgage) ↩
12. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.03 (administration; owners association; board of directors; incorporation requirement) ↩
13. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 1702 (Nonprofit Corporation Law); see also § 5312.01(B) (bylaws as "regulations" pursuant to Chapter 1702) ↩
14. 701 Lakeside, LLC v. Pinnacle Condominium Unit Owners' Assn., 2024-Ohio-2899 (8th Dist.) (condominium declaration and bylaws are contractual agreements among unit owners and between owners and the association) ↩
15. Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Real Estate and Professional Licensing, Landlord's Property Management Guide (real estate licensing administered by the Division; Ohio has no community-association-manager license) ↩
16. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.17(A)–(C) (inquest of three disinterested freeholders; twenty-one-day return for residential property; auditor's value if not timely returned), effective March 20, 2019 ↩
17. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.20 ("no tract of land shall be sold for less than two-thirds the amount of the appraised value") ↩
18. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.31(A) (court confirms within thirty days of return of the writ; may stay confirmation to permit a property owner time to redeem) ↩
19. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.33 (debtor may redeem any time before confirmation by depositing the judgment or decree, costs, and interest at eight per cent with the clerk) ↩
20. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 2308 (Expedited Foreclosure on Vacant and Abandoned Properties), added by H.B. 390, effective September 28, 2016; § 2329.152 (private selling officer); § 2308.03(C) (redemption rights expire upon confirmation of sale) ↩
21. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 139 S. Ct. 1029 (2019) (entity engaged in no more than non-judicial security-interest enforcement is not a "debt collector" except under 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(6); leaving open judicial enforcement) ↩
22. Farmers State Bank v. Sponaugle, 2019-Ohio-2518 (a decree determining each lienholder's interest, setting priority, and ordering sale is a final, appealable order); see also CitiMortgage, Inc. v. Roznowski, 2014-Ohio-1984 ↩
23. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.08 (limitation of enforcement of deficiency judgment) ↩
24. Senate Bill 61, 134th General Assembly (amending §§ 5311.18, 5312.12 and others regarding condominiums, planned community properties, and new communities), passed and effective September 13, 2022 ↩
25. House Bill 16, 136th General Assembly (prohibit certain restrictions on display of political yard signs; amends Ohio Rev. Code § 5301.072; in House committee following January 28, 2025 referral) ↩
26. House Bill 572, 135th General Assembly (to amend §§ 5311.18 and 5312.12 regarding assessment lien priority and continuing lien), reported by House committee, not enacted before adjournment ↩
27. Lakeview Loan Servicing, L.L.C. v. Soldat, 2024-Ohio-4676 (8th Dist.) (§ 5311.18(B)(5); lender's failure to plead condominium dues and to appeal the foreclosure order barred recovery; affirmed) ↩
28. 701 Lakeside, LLC v. Pinnacle Condominium Unit Owners' Assn., 2024-Ohio-2899 (8th Dist.) (standing to enforce condominium instruments under § 5311.23; instruments are contracts) ↩
29. Community Associations Institute, Priority Lien advocacy materials ("the 21 states ... the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have assessment priority lien statutes") ↩