South Dakota HOA Collections & Liens

South Dakota HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Field	South Dakota
Governing collections statute(s)	Condominium Act, SDCL ch. 43-15A (contains no assessment-lien section)¹; foreclosure under SDCL Title 21 (ch. 21-47 judicial; ch. 21-48 by advertisement)²; planned communities via recorded covenants plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act, SDCL ch. 47-22 et seq.³
Lien arises	Not specified by statute (no statutory assessment lien); for condominiums and planned communities alike, the lien exists only as the recorded declaration or covenants provide (contractual), typically on recording a claim of lien⁴
Super-priority over first mortgage	No⁴
Lien priority (general rule)	Not set by statute; a contractual association lien takes priority by recording date and is subordinate to earlier-recorded mortgages and to real-property tax liens³
Minimum debt before foreclosure	None set by statute²
Minimum delinquency duration before foreclosure	None set by statute²
Foreclosure type	Either, by election (judicial under ch. 21-47; nonjudicial by advertisement under ch. 21-48 only where the instrument contains a power of sale)²
Pre-lien notice required	No (none by statute; governed by the declaration or covenants)⁴
Pre-foreclosure notice required	Yes, 21 days (notice of sale in a foreclosure by advertisement, SDCL 21-48-6.1)⁵
Mandatory payment-plan offer	No⁴
Board vote required to foreclose	Not specified by statute (governed by the declaration or bylaws)³
Redemption period after sale	One year (SDCL 21-52-11); 180 days for a short-term redemption mortgage; 60 days on abandonment⁶
Recoverable in the lien	Not set by statute; limited to amounts the declaration or covenants authorize, commonly unpaid assessments, interest, late charges, collection costs, and attorney fees⁷
Fines foreclosable	Not specified by statute (depends on whether the declaration makes a fine a secured charge)³
Applies to	Both: condominiums (SDCL ch. 43-15A) and planned communities (recorded covenants plus SDCL Title 47), with no statutory assessment lien for either¹

Source: SDCL ch. 43-15A; SDCL Title 21, ch. 21-47, 21-48, 21-49, 21-52; SDCL ch. 47-22. Last verified: June 10, 2026.

Section 1: Overview — How assessment collection and liens work in South Dakota

South Dakota governs condominiums through the Condominium Act, SDCL Chapter 43-15A. An association joins the statute by recording a master deed or declaration. Planned communities have no comparable statute⁸ — they operate through recorded covenants, the South Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law. South Dakota is not a UCIOA state. Its court structure is also worth noting: no intermediate appellate court sits between the Circuit Courts and the South Dakota Supreme Court, so every appeal goes straight to the top.¹

The most important fact for collections professionals is this: Chapter 43-15A contains no assessment-lien provision. The only lien in the chapter — SDCL 43-15A-29 — covers construction and improvement claims among units, not unpaid assessments.⁴ A South Dakota association lien does not arise automatically on the date an assessment comes due by force of statute. It exists only as the recorded declaration or covenants provide, and associations typically perfect it by recording a claim of lien.¹ South Dakota grants no super-priority ahead of the first mortgage. It is not a super-lien state.⁴ Foreclosure is available judicially or nonjudicially by advertisement, by election, following the same path as a mortgage.² No statute sets a minimum dollar threshold or minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose.⁴ This places South Dakota among the CC&R-primary states — at the opposite end of the spectrum from super-priority states such as Nevada and Connecticut and from threshold-restricted states such as California and Arizona. The sections that follow detail the lien, its priority, the operational foreclosure sequence, and recent activity.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

In South Dakota, an association's assessment lien comes from its governing documents, not from state law. The Condominium Act sets out how a condominium is established — by recording a master deed or lease — and what that instrument must contain.⁹ It does not create a lien for unpaid common expenses or assessments. A full reading of Chapter 43-15A confirms this: the chapter's only lien provision, SDCL 43-15A-29, applies to construction and improvement claims among units — not to unpaid assessments.⁴ For planned communities, no statute exists at all. The lien is whatever the recorded covenants create.³

Because the lien is contractual, when it arises and what it must contain are governed by the declaration or covenants, not by a uniform statutory rule. South Dakota's appellate courts enforce these instruments as written. In Eagle Ridge Estates Homeowners Association v. Anderson, the South Dakota Supreme Court treated a covenant providing that a "delinquent assessment together with interest and collection costs … shall become a continuing lien" as the operative source of the lien, and held that covenants cannot expand an owner's obligation beyond their recorded terms.⁷ Recording a claim of lien is done in the register of deeds for the county where the property sits. What the lien secures — unpaid assessments, interest, late charges, collection costs, and attorney fees — is set by the instrument, not by statute. In Eagle Ridge, the covenants expressly authorized recovery of reasonable attorney fees in a lien foreclosure.⁷ The lien reaches the unit or lot to which the assessments pertain, not other property of the owner.

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

South Dakota has no statute that fixes the priority of an association lien. Priority follows the ordinary recording rule: a recorded contractual lien is generally subordinate to interests recorded earlier — including a first mortgage recorded before the claim of lien and recorded real-property tax liens — and takes priority over interests recorded later.³

South Dakota recognizes no super-priority portion ahead of the first mortgage. The Condominium Act creates no assessment lien and therefore no priority carve-out. There is no planned-community statute to supply one.⁴ South Dakota is not a super-lien state, which means that on a first-mortgage foreclosure the association's subordinate lien is typically extinguished, and the association recovers only from any surplus after the senior debt is paid. Because there is no statutory super-priority, the "rolling lien" question — whether a super-priority amount can be reasserted in successive periods — does not arise. No South Dakota authority creates or reasserts such a portion. For multi-state operators, this distinction matters: a notice sequence and recovery strategy built around a Nevada-style super-priority lien has no analogue in South Dakota. Nevada fixes its super-priority by statute — NRS 116.3116(2) — giving the association lien priority over a first security interest to the extent of common-expense assessments that would have become due during the nine months immediately preceding an enforcement action. The Nevada Supreme Court enforced this in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (en banc). South Dakota law contains no equivalent.

2C. CC&R interaction, corporate-law overlay, and federal overlay

In South Dakota, the recorded CC&Rs are not simply a supplement to the statutory lien — for most associations, they are the entire source of lien authority. Covenants can define assessments, set interest and late charges, authorize collection costs and attorney fees, grant a power of sale, and specify the foreclosure method. What they cannot do is enlarge an owner's obligation beyond their recorded terms or override mandatory state foreclosure procedure and homestead protections.⁷ An incorporated association also operates under the South Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act, which supplies the corporate formalities — board action, meetings, records — that a board should observe when it authorizes collection or foreclosure.³

The statute of limitations on the underlying assessment debt is six years. That is the general South Dakota limitation for an action on a contract, obligation, or liability, express or implied, under SDCL 15-2-13.¹⁰ That period governs how long the association can sue to collect the debt itself.

Three federal frameworks apply on top of the South Dakota rules regardless of state law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can reach associations and their attorneys and outside collection agents when they collect consumer assessment debts. The automatic stay in bankruptcy halts collection and foreclosure the moment an owner files, until the stay is lifted or the case closes. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act restricts default judgments and foreclosure against active-duty servicemembers and can toll deadlines.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

South Dakota imposes no statutory pre-lien notice. There is no statute requiring a notice of delinquency or a notice of intent to record a lien — no statutory advance day-count, and no prescribed delivery method or required contents, for either condominiums or planned communities.⁴ Any such notice requirement is contractual. It arises only from the declaration or covenants, and the prudent practice is to follow whatever the recorded instrument specifies. Likewise, no statute gives an owner the right to demand a payment plan, to dispute the debt through a defined administrative process, or to receive an itemized statement before a lien is recorded. Those rights exist only if the governing documents create them. The corporate-records provisions of the Nonprofit Corporation Act do give a member general access to association records — an owner can use that right to obtain a ledger — but that is a corporate right, not a collections-specific protection.³

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

Recording a claim of lien, where the governing documents authorize it, is done in the register of deeds for the county where the unit or lot is located. The contents and any deadline are set by the declaration or covenants, because no statute prescribes them. This applies to both condominiums and planned communities and is contractual in both cases.³

Where an association forecloses nonjudicially by advertisement, state law requires a pre-sale notice. SDCL 21-48-6.1 provides: "At least twenty-one days prior to the date set for sale, the foreclosing creditor shall serve a written copy of the notice of foreclosure sale on the mortgagor and any lien holder or encumbrancer whose interest in the property being foreclosed would be affected by the foreclosure," and the notice must also be published once each week for four successive weeks.⁵ That requirement flows from the mortgage-foreclosure-by-advertisement chapter — it applies because the association lien is foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage. It is not a condominium-specific or planned-community-specific rule.² No statute requires a recorded board vote, an offer of a payment plan, or mandatory mediation before foreclosure. Whether the board must vote, and whether the decision can be delegated to management or counsel, is governed by the declaration and bylaws and by ordinary nonprofit-corporation governance.³

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

An association may foreclose either judicially or nonjudicially by advertisement, by election. The lien is enforced in the same manner as a mortgage. Judicial foreclosure proceeds as a civil action under SDCL Chapter 21-47, ending in a judgment, a sale, and a sheriff's certificate.¹¹ Nonjudicial foreclosure by advertisement under SDCL Chapter 21-48 is available only where the instrument contains a power of sale and a default has occurred. Absent a power of sale in the declaration or covenants, the association must foreclose judicially.² Even when the association elects advertisement, the owner can require the matter to proceed judicially by applying to the court.¹² This structure applies to both condominiums and planned communities, since both depend on the same Title 21 machinery.

South Dakota sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before an association may foreclose. The only statutory prerequisite for a foreclosure by advertisement is that a default in a condition of the instrument has occurred.² Whether fines — as opposed to assessments — can support a foreclosure depends entirely on the governing documents. If the declaration makes a fine a secured charge enforceable as a lien, the association can foreclose it like any other secured amount. If it does not, the fine is an unsecured debt that supports only a money action. No statute makes fines foreclosable on their own. The sale process tracks the mortgage timeline: for a judicial foreclosure, the action runs through judgment and a court-ordered sale; for an advertisement foreclosure, the 21-day notice and four-week publication precede the sale.⁵

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

South Dakota provides a post-sale right of redemption. SDCL 21-52-11 provides that all persons entitled to redeem have one year from the date of sale to do so, except where a 180-day redemption mortgage applies. The right runs to the judgment debtor — the former owner — and to junior lienholders, called redemptioners.⁶ The period can be cut to 60 days if the property is abandoned.¹³ A redemptioner can extend it for an additional year by making the payments specified by statute during the first year.¹⁴

A deficiency judgment is available against the former owner. In a judicial foreclosure, the court can permit an execution for the deficiency. After an advertisement foreclosure where the lender buys the home at the sale, the deficiency is limited to the difference between the borrower's total debt and the home's fair market value under SDCL 21-48-14.¹⁵ Surplus sale proceeds are applied to the debt and costs. Any remaining surplus is distributed to junior interests by priority, and the balance is held for the owner. Unclaimed surplus is invested as the statute directs.¹⁶ On reinstatement: in a judicial foreclosure, South Dakota law lets the owner stop the action by paying the installments then due before judgment — in which case the court dismisses — or by paying before sale, in which case the court stays the action.¹⁷ In an advertisement foreclosure there is no statutory right to reinstate, though the instrument may grant one.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

South Dakota's collection, lien, and foreclosure mechanics for associations are largely static. No bill in the 2025 or 2026 sessions amended the assessment-collection, lien, or foreclosure rules. The most recent enactment that directly affects the covenant instruments that create non-condominium association liens dates to the 2024 session.

Status Signed

⌾ Last verified June 10, 2026

Docket

HB 1240 · 2024 Regular Session

Effective

July 1, 2024

Sunset

N/A

An Act to permit a homeowner's association, development, or incorporated community to modify a restrictive covenant

Synopsis

This act created SDCL 11-5-11, which establishes a default amendment procedure for declarations or contracts that are silent on how to modify their terms. Where no modification procedure exists, a two-thirds vote of the owners governed by the instrument is now required to change it. The two-thirds default applies only as a gap-filler — it kicks in only when the recorded instrument is silent on amendment. The bill matters to collections because the covenant is the source of the lien in non-condominium communities. The rules for amending covenants determine how an association can revise — or an owner can resist revising — the assessment and lien terms it will later enforce.[18]

Operational impact

What this means, by role

Property managers	Where a community's declaration is silent on amendments, assessment and lien provisions can now be changed only by a two-thirds owner vote, so plan amendment campaigns around that threshold.
HOA board members	A board cannot unilaterally tighten lien or collection terms in a silent declaration; it needs two-thirds owner approval to amend.
Community association attorneys	Confirm whether the declaration contains its own amendment clause, because SDCL 11-5-11 supplies the two-thirds default only when it does not.
Homeowners	Owners gain a defined supermajority check on changes to covenant-based assessment and lien obligations where the declaration was previously silent.

4B. Recent appellate rulings

One recent South Dakota Supreme Court ruling bears directly on the covenant instruments that create association liens in planned communities.

Status Final

⌾ Last verified June 10, 2026

Case

Hood v. Straatmeyer, 2025 S.D. 12

South Dakota Supreme Court · No. 30180-a-SPM

Decided

Mar 5, 2025

Court

S.D. S. Ct.

Synopsis

The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a Circuit Court ruling that a restrictive covenant can be declared void and unenforceable through waiver and acquiescence. Where owners tolerated widespread, unchallenged violations, selective enforcement became inequitable. The Court quoted its earlier ruling in Vaughn v. Eggleston, 334 N.W.2d 870, 873 (S.D. 1983): "The right to enforce [a] restrictive covenant[] may be lost by waiver or acquiescence of violation of the same." The Circuit Court concluded it would be inequitable to enforce the covenant because it had never been previously enforced despite numerous violations, and declared it null and void. The Supreme Court affirmed. This case is not an assessment-lien dispute, but it bears directly on collections. In a covenant-based community, the enforceability of the recorded covenant is the foundation of the assessment lien. A covenant undermined by non-enforcement is a weaker platform on which to record and foreclose a lien.[19]

Operational impact

What this means, by role

Property managers	Consistent, documented enforcement of covenants protects the instrument that underlies the association's lien rights.
HOA board members	Selective or lapsed enforcement can render covenants void, jeopardizing the basis for assessment liens and foreclosure.
Community association attorneys	Expect waiver and acquiescence defenses in covenant-lien foreclosures, and build an enforcement record before filing.
Homeowners	An owner facing a covenant-based lien may have a defense if the association tolerated comparable violations elsewhere.

4C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal in South Dakota would create an assessment-lien statute, a super-priority, a threshold, or a planned-community act. Recent association-related bills have addressed covenant modification and covenant content — including firearm-restriction bills HB 1080 of 2025 and SB 39 of 2024 — rather than collection or foreclosure mechanics.

Section 5: National positioning

South Dakota sits at the deregulated end of the national collections spectrum. It is the opposite of super-priority states, where Nevada's nine-month priority lien sets the reference point and Connecticut and several UCIOA states also grant priority portions ahead of the first mortgage. South Dakota grants no priority portion at all. It also differs from the threshold-restricted states — California, Arizona, and Colorado — that bar foreclosure below a dollar amount or a time minimum. South Dakota sets no threshold by statute.

Functionally, South Dakota is a CC&R-primary state with no assessment-collection statute. The lien, its contents, and its enforceability all turn on the recorded instrument and on the general mortgage-foreclosure and redemption machinery of Title 21. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is direct: the collection sequence and foreclosure economics differ enough between states that a notice or process valid elsewhere can be defective or even barred in South Dakota. The absence of a super-priority changes the recovery calculus on every senior-mortgage foreclosure. South Dakota's direction on collections is static, with recent legislative attention focused on covenant modification rather than lien or foreclosure rules.

South Dakota HOA Collections & Liens