Pennsylvania HOA Collections & Liens

Section 1 — Overview

Pennsylvania gives community associations a statutory super-lien — and it enforces that lien through courts, not a trustee or an out-of-court sale. No post-sale right of redemption exists. The Commonwealth adopted both the Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), 68 Pa.C.S. § 3101 et seq., and the Uniform Planned Community Act (UPCA), 68 Pa.C.S. § 5101 et seq., and both acts treat assessment collection almost identically. Under each, the association's lien arises automatically — it attaches "from the time the assessment or fine becomes due," with no requirement that the association first record a separate claim of lien. Recording the declaration itself constitutes record notice and perfects the lien.^{1, 2}

Both acts grant the association a limited super-priority ahead of a recorded first mortgage: six months of unpaid common-expense assessments due immediately before a judicial sale survive the foreclosure and the court pays them from sale proceeds ahead of the mortgage.^{1, 2} Foreclosure is judicial only — the lien "may be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real estate," meaning a mortgage-foreclosure action in the Court of Common Pleas followed by a sheriff's sale.¹ Pennsylvania sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose; the only timing constraint is a four-year statute of limitations.^{1, 2}

Pennsylvania HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Section 2 — The lien and its priority

2A. When and how the lien arises

Pennsylvania's assessment lien arrives automatically, without any filing. Section 3315(a) of the UCA provides that "the association has a lien on a unit for any assessment levied against that unit or fines imposed against its unit owner from the time the assessment or fine becomes due."¹ Section 5315(a) of the UPCA uses identical language for planned communities.² When an assessment is payable in installments and one goes unpaid, the entire outstanding balance becomes effective as a lien from the due date of the delinquent installment.¹

The association does not need to record a separate claim of lien. Under § 3315(c), "recording of the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien," and § 5315(d) does the same for planned communities.^{1, 2} That is the single most important operational fact on this page: an association that recorded its declaration is already perfected. No statutory recording fee, notice-content requirement, or claim-of-lien form needs filing, because both acts dispense with the claim of lien altogether. The recorded declaration carries the lien forward against every unit for assessments that become due over time.

The lien is not permanent. Both acts impose a four-year limitation: a lien for unpaid assessments "is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce the lien or actions or suits to recover sums for which subsection (a) establishes a lien are instituted within four years after the assessments become payable" (§ 3315(d); § 5315(e)).^{1, 2} Each assessment carries its own four-year clock from the date it became payable, so an association tracking a long-running delinquency must file before the oldest unpaid assessments age out.

2B. What the lien secures (recoverable amounts)

The lien covers far more than base assessments. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, "fees, charges, late charges, fines and interest" charged under the association-powers provisions, plus "reasonable costs and expenses of the association, including legal fees, incurred in connection with collection of any sums due the association by the unit owner or enforcement of the provisions of the declaration, bylaws, rules or regulations," are all "enforceable as assessments under this section" (§ 3315(a); § 5315(a)).^{1, 2} Because the recoverable list is expressly subject to the declaration ("unless the declaration otherwise provides"), it is a statutory default that governing documents can narrow.

Two recovery mechanics matter for a running balance. First, both acts cap interest: a past-due assessment "shall bear interest at the rate established by the association at not more than 15% per year" (§ 3314(b); § 5314(b)).⁴ Second, both acts impose a mandatory payment-application waterfall that overrides any contrary instruction a paying owner writes on a check: payments apply first to accrued interest, then to late fees, then to costs and reasonable attorney fees, and only then to the delinquent assessment itself (§ 3315(h); § 5315(i)).^{1, 2} The waterfall applies "notwithstanding any restrictive endorsement, designation or instructions placed on or accompanying a payment," which means a partial payment cannot be unilaterally directed to principal to defeat the association's fee recovery.

Attorney fees earn double protection. Beyond the "enforceable as assessments" language, each act independently provides that a "judgment or decree in any action or suit brought under this section shall include costs and reasonable attorney's fees for the prevailing party" (§ 3315(f); § 5315(g)).^{1, 2} Fines fall squarely within the lien: § 3315(a) and § 5315(a) both attach the lien to "fines imposed against its unit owner," so a properly imposed fine is recoverable and ultimately foreclosable in Pennsylvania.^{1, 2}

2C. Lien priority and the super-priority question

Under both acts, the association's lien ranks ahead of every competing claim on the unit — with three exceptions. The lien does not beat: (i) liens and encumbrances recorded before the declaration; (ii) mortgages and deeds of trust securing first mortgage holders recorded before the assessment's due date, plus judgments on those obligations; and (iii) liens for real estate taxes and other governmental charges (§ 3315(b)(1); § 5315(b)(1)).^{1, 2}

The super-priority is a carefully bounded exception to subordination to the first mortgage. Each act's "limited nondivestiture" provision states that the association's lien survives a judicial sale only as to the unpaid common-expense assessments coming due "during the six months immediately preceding the date of a judicial sale of a unit in an action to enforce collection of a lien," and only to the extent those six months of assessments are paid from the sale proceeds (§ 3315(b)(2)(i)).¹ The UPCA carries the same six-month structure for planned communities (§ 5315(b)(2)).² In plain terms: when a senior mortgage forecloses, six months of association assessments survive, and the court pays them from sale proceeds ahead of the mortgage. This is a real priority slice — but it is far narrower than Nevada's nine-month model, and even narrower than Connecticut's, which the legislature raised to nine months in 2013 (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258, as amended by P.A. 13-156). Pennsylvania's six-month super-priority does not extinguish the first mortgage; it guarantees the association a six-month recovery from sale proceeds.⁵

Foxfield at Naaman's Creek Homeowner's Association v. Eventoff sharpened this distinction. The Superior Court held there that an HOA's foreclosure cannot divest a first mortgage of record, and clarified that "first mortgage" in the priority exception means the most senior recorded mortgage at the time of foreclosure — including a refinance — not merely the original purchase-money mortgage.⁶ The practical lesson for associations: the equity above a first mortgage is usually thin, and the reliable recovery in a mortgage-foreclosure scenario is the six-month slice, not the full balance.

The underlying assessment debt carries the same four-year statute of limitations discussed above (§ 3315(d); § 5315(e)).^{1, 2}

Every Pennsylvania association also operates under a federal overlay that sits on top of the UCA/UPCA framework. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act reaches association collections handled by law firms and third-party collectors; the automatic stay of the federal Bankruptcy Code halts collection and foreclosure the moment an owner files; and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act constrains foreclosure against active-duty servicemembers. These federal rules apply regardless of Pennsylvania's statutory scheme.

Section 3 — The collection and foreclosure process

This section is the operational core. Where a step has a statutory source it is cited and labeled as applying to condominiums (§ 3315), planned communities (§ 5315), or both. Steps imposed only by typical governing documents are labeled contractual.

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

Pennsylvania sets no statutory pre-lien notice requirement for either condominiums or planned communities. The lien is perfected the moment the declaration is recorded and attaches automatically when an assessment becomes due (§ 3315(a),(c); § 5315(a),(d)), so the association needs no notice of intent and need not file any document to create or perfect the lien.^{1, 2} Any demand letters, late notices, or courtesy reminders that associations send in practice are contractual or discretionary, not statutory prerequisites.

The owner has one affirmative statutory right at this stage that bears on collection: on written request, the association must furnish a recordable statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days, and that statement binds the association (§ 3315(g); § 5315(h)).^{1, 2} Neither act mandates that the association offer a payment plan, mediation, or an itemized dispute process before pursuing the lien, although declarations and the acts' alternative-dispute-resolution provisions may add such steps contractually.

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

Because perfection flows from the recorded declaration, an association does not record a separate claim of lien in the county recorder's office to enforce assessments — and Pennsylvania case law has warned associations against trying to enforce through a second, redundant prothonotary lien instead of a proper foreclosure complaint. In Forest Highlands Community Association v. Hammer, the Superior Court held that an association cannot execute on its assessment lien by writ of execution without first commencing a mortgage-foreclosure action by complaint, and that doing otherwise violates the owner's due-process right to notice and an opportunity to contest the amount. This holding applies to both condominiums and planned communities given the parallel statutory text.

On the high-stakes question of Act 6 of 1974 (41 P.S. § 101 et seq.) and Act 91 of 1983 (35 P.S. § 1680.401c et seq.) — these pre-foreclosure notice regimes apply to "residential mortgage obligations" and bind mortgage lenders, not associations enforcing a statutory assessment lien. Act 6's notice of intention to foreclose (§ 403) applies to a "residential mortgage obligation," defined in 41 P.S. § 101 as "an obligation to pay a sum of money in an original bona fide principal amount of the base figure or less … secured by a lien upon real property located within this Commonwealth containing two or fewer residential units" — a base figure currently set at $260,404.⁷ Act 91 requires lenders to send a HEMAP notice before foreclosing a residential mortgage and to stay foreclosure during the HEMAP application window (35 P.S. § 1680.403c).⁸ An association's lien is a creature of § 3315/§ 5315, not a consensual residential mortgage loan, and is foreclosed "in like manner as a mortgage" only as a matter of procedure. No provision of the UCA or UPCA, and no controlling Pennsylvania appellate decision, imposes Act 6 or Act 91 notice duties on an association collecting assessments; those acts govern the mortgage lenders whose loans hold first-mortgage priority. Counsel sometimes send the notices out of caution where the underlying instrument might independently qualify, but for a pure assessment-lien foreclosure they are not association prerequisites.

Neither act requires a recorded board vote, a mandatory payment-plan offer, or mandatory mediation as a statutory precondition to foreclosure; whether a board vote is needed and who may authorize suit is left to the declaration, bylaws, and Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation law — contractual, not statutory.

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Foreclosure in Pennsylvania is judicial only; there is no nonjudicial or power-of-sale option for association liens or mortgages. The lien "may be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real estate" (§ 3315(a); § 5315(a)), which routes the association into a mortgage-foreclosure action under Pa.R.C.P. 1141 through 1150 in the Court of Common Pleas of the county where the unit sits.^{1, 2, 3} The association files a complaint, serves the owner, and on judgment obtains a writ of execution directing the sheriff to sell the unit; the sheriff must post, serve, and advertise notice of the sale before the auction.³

Pennsylvania sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency period before an association may foreclose — unlike California, Arizona, and Colorado, the UCA and UPCA contain no floor on the size or age of the debt.^{1, 2} The only outer boundary is the four-year statute of limitations. Because fines and the full menu of fees and costs are "enforceable as assessments," a foreclosure in Pennsylvania can in principle rest on fines and fees, not just base assessments — both acts attach the lien to "fines imposed against its unit owner."^{1, 2}

The sale process follows ordinary mortgage-foreclosure timing: after judgment and issuance of the writ, the sheriff schedules the sale, the highest bidder posts a deposit at the auction with the balance due within a set period, and the court confirms the sale before a sheriff's deed issues.³ From first delinquency through sale, a contested association foreclosure commonly runs several months to over a year depending on county docket and any defenses raised.

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

Redemption. Pennsylvania provides no post-sale right of redemption following a mortgage-foreclosure sheriff's sale; a statutory right to redeem exists only for properties sold at a tax sale, not for mortgage or association-lien foreclosures.³ Once the court confirms the sale and delivers the sheriff's deed, the former owner cannot buy the property back. Every protection Pennsylvania offers is front-loaded before the gavel falls.

Reinstatement. The owner may cure the default and stop the sale by paying all past-due amounts, late charges, and costs at any time up to one hour before bidding begins at the sheriff's sale. The owner may exercise this right a maximum of three times in any calendar year (41 P.S. § 404).³

Deficiency. If the unit sells for less than the debt, a deficiency may be pursued, but the Deficiency Judgment Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8103, requires the judgment creditor seeking a deficiency to petition the court to fix the property's fair market value. The petition must be filed within six months of the sale, and the former owner receives credit for fair market value — not merely the sale price.⁹

Surplus. Sale proceeds are distributed under a sheriff's schedule of distribution (Pa.R.C.P. 3136): after the costs of sale and senior liens, the association's protected six-month assessments are paid, and to the extent proceeds remain, additional unpaid assessments are paid "before any remaining proceeds may be paid to any other claimant, including the prior owner of the unit" (§ 3315(b)(2)(ii); § 5315(b)(2)).^{1, 2, 10}

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No bill in the 2025–2026 regular session — or enacted in the prior 24 months — amends 68 Pa.C.S. § 3315 or § 5315 or changes how associations collect assessments, perfect liens, set lien priority, or foreclose. The Title 68 condominium/HOA bills active in the 2025–2026 session address governance and use questions — for example, HB 1239, which concerns association powers over solar-energy installations — not collections or liens.¹¹

4B. Recent appellate rulings

Pennsylvania's courts are reshaping how the existing statutes apply in practice. The 2024 Foxfield ruling answers the question that most directly affects collection strategy: whether an HOA foreclosure can extinguish a senior bank mortgage.

4C. Active legislative debates

No active Pennsylvania proposal would alter the assessment-collection, lien-priority, or foreclosure framework of §§ 3315/5315. Current legislative energy in Title 68 is directed at governance and use issues — solar access and meetings — rather than collections.¹¹

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Pennsylvania sits in the middle of the national collections spectrum: it grants a real super-priority lien, but a bounded one. At the aggressive end, Nevada gives associations a nine-month super-priority that they can foreclose to extinguish a first deed of trust entirely (NRS 116.3116; SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank).⁵ Pennsylvania's six-month slice, by contrast, survives a senior foreclosure and the court pays it from proceeds — it never wipes out the first mortgage. It is even shorter than Connecticut's UCIOA-derived nine-month priority portion (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258, raised from six to nine months by P.A. 13-156 in 2013).⁵ At the protective end sit threshold-restricted states that bar foreclosure below a dollar or time minimum: California prohibits collecting a delinquency of less than $1,800 (excluding late charges, fees, collection costs, attorney fees, and interest) through foreclosure unless the assessments are more than 12 months delinquent (Cal. Civ. Code § 5720); Arizona, after SB 1494 (effective Sept. 26, 2025), permits planned-community foreclosure only once an owner is delinquent for 18 months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever comes first (Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807); and Colorado allows foreclosure only when the unpaid balance equals at least six months of assessments and the board votes to approve, while barring foreclosure on fines-only debt (Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316).¹⁴ Pennsylvania sets no such floor, but its judicial-only process and absent redemption period make it procedurally rigorous rather than threshold-gated. For a multi-state operator the lesson is concrete: a collection sequence, notice, or foreclosure path valid in one state can be defective or barred in another, so notice templates and timelines must be state-specific. Pennsylvania's current direction of travel on collections is essentially static — the legislature has not touched the lien or foreclosure provisions in years, and recent change has come from the courts, not the General Assembly.

Recommendations

Immediate (a live delinquency with a running clock):

1. Confirm perfection, then move straight to a foreclosure complaint. If the declaration is recorded, the lien is already perfected — do not waste time recording a separate claim of lien, and never attempt to execute by writ without a foreclosure complaint (Forest Highlands v. Hammer). File the action in mortgage foreclosure in the Court of Common Pleas under Pa.R.C.P. 1141 et seq.
2. Calendar the four-year limitation per assessment. Each unpaid assessment ages out four years after it became payable (§ 3315(d)/§ 5315(e)); file before the oldest installments expire.
3. Pull a current title report and the senior mortgage payoff. After Foxfield, an HOA sale will not divest a recorded first mortgage; if equity above the mortgage is thin, weigh a personal money-judgment action (debt/contract) instead of, or alongside, foreclosure.

Process discipline:

4. Apply payments per the statutory waterfall (interest → late fees → costs/attorney fees → assessment), and ignore restrictive endorsements on partial-payment checks (§ 3315(h)/§ 5315(i)).
5. Keep interest at or below 15% per year (§ 3314(b)/§ 5314(b)) and document fines and fees so they qualify as amounts "enforceable as assessments."
6. Furnish the statutory statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days of any written request — it binds the association, so it must be accurate.

Benchmarks that would change this guidance:

• A General Assembly amendment to §§ 3315/5315 (e.g., a new dollar/time threshold, a pre-foreclosure notice, or a fine-foreclosure bar like Colorado's) — monitor the Title 68 amending-bill tracker each quarter.
• A Pennsylvania Supreme Court grant of allocatur in a future priority case (the Court declined review in Foxfield on July 9, 2025, leaving the Superior Court rule controlling).
• Federal developments (FDCPA, bankruptcy, SCRA) that change collector conduct or stay timing.

Caveats

• Statutory super-priority is six months under both acts — confirmed in § 3315(b)(2) and § 5315(b)(2). Do not assume a longer period by analogy to Nevada (nine months) or Connecticut (nine months since 2013).
• The super-priority is a recovery slice, not a mortgage-killer. Unlike Nevada's foreclosable super-lien, Pennsylvania's six months survive a senior foreclosure and the court pays them from proceeds; an HOA foreclosure does not extinguish a senior first mortgage (Foxfield).
• "No claim of lien required" is specific to Pennsylvania's recorded-declaration perfection rule. It does not mean the association can skip a foreclosure complaint — Hammer requires the complaint.
• Act 6/Act 91 applicability is interpretive. No controlling appellate decision squarely holds that a pure assessment-lien foreclosure is exempt; the conclusion rests on the statutes' "residential mortgage obligation" scope and the lender-directed structure of the notice regimes. Counsel handling a unit where the underlying instrument might independently qualify should evaluate the notices case by case.
• Appellate court routing: civil HOA appeals run Court of Common Pleas → Superior Court → Supreme Court. The Commonwealth Court occasionally appears in older HOA opinions (e.g., London Towne v. Karr; Logans' Reserve v. McCabe) because of how some cases were docketed, but the standard civil intermediate appellate court for these disputes is the Superior Court, as in Foxfield.
• This page is regulatory intelligence, not legal advice; verify current statutory text and county-specific sheriff's-sale procedure before acting on a live file.

Footnotes

1. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3315 (Lien for assessments), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
2. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5315 (Lien for assessments), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
3. 231 Pa. Code, Subchapter I, Action of Mortgage Foreclosure (Pa.R.C.P. 1141–1150) ↩
4. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5314(b) (interest cap of 15% per year); see also § 3314(b), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
5. SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014); NRS 116.3116 (nine-month super-priority); cf. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258 (nine months, per P.A. 13-156) ↩
6. Foxfield at Naaman's Creek Homeowner's Ass'n v. Eventoff, 2024 PA Super 316, 329 A.3d 1271 (Pa. Super. Dec. 31, 2024) ↩
7. Act 6 of 1974, 41 P.S. §§ 101, 403 ("residential mortgage obligation" definition and current base figure of $260,404), as discussed by Friedman Schuman ↩
8. Act 91 of 1983, 35 P.S. § 1680.401c et seq. (Homeowner's Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program), PHFA ↩
9. 42 Pa.C.S. § 8103 (Deficiency Judgment Act), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
10. Pa.R.C.P. 3136 (schedule of distribution of sheriff's sale proceeds) ↩
11. Pennsylvania HB 1239 (2025–2026 Reg. Sess.) (association powers; solar-energy installations), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
12. Act 115 of 2022 (HB 1795), Real and Personal Property (68 Pa.C.S.) Omnibus Amendments, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
13. Foxfield at Naaman's Creek v. Eventoff, No. 56 MAL 2025 (Pa. July 9, 2025) (allocatur denied) ↩
14. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720 ($1,800 / 12-month foreclosure threshold); see also Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807 (18 months or $10,000, per SB 1494) and Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-316 (six-month / board-vote threshold) ↩