Texas HOA Fining Authority

Section 1: Overview

Ask whether a Texas community association can fine you, and the answer depends on where you live — because Texas doesn't run everything through one common-interest code. It uses two separate statutes. Condominiums answer to the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, Property Code Chapter 82,¹ which governs any condominium whose declaration was recorded on or after January 1, 1994; for condominiums created before that date, Section 82.002 extends a defined subset of the Act, including the core fining and lien provisions.² Planned communities and residential subdivisions with a mandatory owners' association answer to a different law: the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, Property Code Chapter 209 — a statute Texas wrote for itself, not a version of any uniform act.³

Chapter 209 doesn't just permit fines; it dictates how a board imposes one. It lays out a prescriptive sequence: written notice by certified mail describing the violation and any amount due, a reasonable period to cure a curable violation, and the owner's right to request a hearing before the board under Section 209.007.⁴ The consequence that defines Texas sits in Section 209.009. It bars an association from foreclosing its assessment lien when the debt securing that lien consists solely of fines, or of attorney's fees tied to those fines;⁵ Chapter 82 carries a parallel bar for condominiums in Section 82.113(e).⁶ That prohibition drives the practical question this page answers. When you can't foreclose a fines-only debt, how do you collect it? An association turns to other means — chiefly a suit against the owner for a personal money judgment. The Quick-Reference table below lays out these mechanics for both statutory tracks, and Section 3 walks through them in detail.

Section 2: Quick-Reference Fining Mechanics Table

Here's Texas's fining mechanics at a glance. The Condominiums column reflects the Texas Uniform Condominium Act (Property Code Chapter 82); the Planned Communities column reflects the Residential Property Owners Protection Act (Property Code Chapter 209). Texas amends both chapters at a steady clip, so treat every numeric and procedural value below as something to reverify against the current statute. Section 3 sources each one in detail and cites the controlling Property Code section.

The Condominiums column reflects the Texas Uniform Condominium Act (Property Code Chapter 82); the Planned Communities column reflects the Residential Property Owners Protection Act (Chapter 209). A fines-only debt cannot be foreclosed (Section 209.009). Last verified: July 14, 2026.

Section 3: Fining mechanics in detail

3A. Source and outer limits of fining authority

Start with condominiums; that track runs through Chapter 82. Section 82.102(a)(12) lets a unit owners' association, acting through its board, impose "reasonable fines" for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules — as long as it gives notice and an opportunity to be heard under Section 82.102(d).⁷ Because the statute itself confers that power, a Texas condominium association can fine whether or not its declaration separately says so. Chapter 82 applies in full to condominiums recorded on or after January 1, 1994. For older condominiums, Section 82.002 extends a defined list of provisions — and that list includes both the fining power in Section 82.102(a)(12) and the assessment-lien provision in Section 82.113. So the core fining and lien mechanics reach pre-1994 condominiums, even though the older Texas Condominium Act, Chapter 81, still governs those communities generally.²

The planned-community track runs through Chapter 209 — and here's a distinction that matters. Chapter 209 is a bespoke Texas statute, not a version of any uniform common-interest act, and it doesn't itself hand a subdivision association the power to fine. That authority has to come from the declaration or another dedicatory instrument. What Chapter 209 does is govern how a board exercises the power it already has, layering a notice-and-hearing procedure and a fine-schedule requirement on top of whatever the declaration grants.⁸ A subdivision board that finds no fining authority in its dedicatory instruments can't manufacture it out of Chapter 209.

Neither statute sets a dollar cap. Chapter 82 asks only that a fine be "reasonable," and Section 82.102(c) separately bars any bylaw or rule that is arbitrary or capricious.⁷ For subdivisions, the measure is reasonableness as the declaration and the mandatory Section 209.0061 fine schedule constrain it.⁸ In both tracks, then, the declaration does the heavy lifting on amount, category, and escalation, while the statute supplies the procedural floor.

3B. The required fining procedure

For subdivisions, Section 209.006 sets the predicate. Before an association can levy a fine, suspend a common-area right, charge for property damage, or report a delinquency to a credit service, it — or its agent — must send the owner written notice by certified mail. That notice has to describe the violation and state any amount due; give the owner a reasonable period to cure, if the violation is curable and doesn't threaten public health or safety; tell the owner about the right to request a hearing under Section 209.007 on or before the 30th day after the notice was mailed; and flag the owner's possible rights under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Cure within the cure period, and the association may not fine you for that violation.⁴ Section 209.007 then runs the hearing. The board must hold it within 30 days of receiving the request and must tell the owner the date, time, and place at least 10 days ahead, with a postponement of up to 10 days available on request. And at least 10 days before the hearing, the association has to hand the owner a packet of every document, photograph, and communication it plans to introduce; skip that step, and the owner earns an automatic 15-day postponement.⁹ Since 2024, Section 209.0061 has required any subdivision association that fines to adopt — and distribute — an enforcement policy that spells out which covenant categories carry fines, a schedule of fine amounts, and the details of the Section 209.007 hearing.⁸

Condominiums get a parallel but distinct predicate in Section 82.102(d). Before it levies a fine, the association must give written notice that describes the violation, states the proposed fine amount, tells the owner a hearing before the board is available within 30 days of the notice, and allows a reasonable time to cure. Then Section 82.102(e) requires the association to give notice of a levied fine within 30 days after it imposes one.⁷

Neither statute expressly authorizes per-day or continuing fines; whether a fine accrues daily is a question for the declaration and, in subdivisions, the fine schedule. The practical upshot: a fine imposed without the required notice and hearing is exposed to challenge, and Texas's procedure runs more prescriptive than the CC&R-only approach many states take.

3C. Enforcement of unpaid fines: assessments, liens, and the foreclosure prohibition

The rule that controls here is Section 209.009: an association may not foreclose its assessment lien when the debt securing it consists solely of fines, of attorney's fees incurred solely in connection with those fines, or of certain records and recount charges added under Sections 209.005(i) and 209.0057(b-4).⁵ Fines otherwise sit among the amounts an association may pursue — but the Section 209.0063 payment-priority ladder puts them dead last, behind delinquent and current assessments and collection-related attorney's fees, so any payment lands on foreclosable assessment debt before it ever reaches a fine.¹⁰ When the debt is fines and nothing else, foreclosure is off the table, and the association's realistic move is to sue the owner for a personal money judgment — which it can then enforce like any other judgment.

Where the debt isn't fines-only, Chapter 209 routes the association through court. Before foreclosing, Section 209.0091 makes it send written notice by certified mail of the total delinquency to any inferior lienholder of record whose lien rests on a deed of trust, with a chance to cure before the 61st day after the notice goes out.¹¹ Section 209.0092 then requires a court order — obtained through an expedited foreclosure proceeding under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 736 — before the association can foreclose an assessment lien, unless the owner waives the expedited process in writing or the association opts for traditional judicial foreclosure. Both provisions run "subject to" Section 209.009, so the fines-only bar governs no matter which procedural route the association takes.¹²

Condominiums handle the same problem through Chapter 82. Section 82.113(a) folds fines into the definition of "assessments," so a fine rides along on the association's continuing lien. Section 82.113(e) then lets the association foreclose that lien judicially or nonjudicially — with one exception that mirrors the subdivision rule: it may not foreclose a lien for assessments made up solely of fines.⁶ A condominium owner can redeem within 90 days after the foreclosure sale under Section 82.113(g); a subdivision owner gets 180 days after the association mails the post-foreclosure notice under Section 209.011.¹³ Suspension of rights follows the same logic. Section 82.102(a)(17) lets a condominium association suspend voting privileges or the use of certain general common elements,⁷ and for subdivisions, Section 209.006 treats a suspension of common-area use as an enforcement action that needs the same notice-and-hearing predicate as a fine.⁴ One related compliance point bears on collection: Section 209.004 requires a subdivision association to record a management certificate with the county clerk and electronically file it with the Texas Real Estate Commission within seven days of recording — and an owner isn't liable for the association's assessment-collection attorney's fees or interest that accrue during any period the certificate isn't properly recorded or filed.¹⁴

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

The 89th Texas Legislature met in regular session in 2025 — Texas convenes only in odd-numbered years — and Governor Greg Abbott signed several measures that touch association enforcement.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Search the past 36 months of Texas appellate sources, and no Texas Court of Appeals or Supreme Court of Texas opinion squarely construes the Chapter 209 fining procedure, the Section 209.009 fines-only foreclosure bar, or the lien treatment of fines. The leading recent authority on fine-related enforcement predates that window, so we include it for context, not as an in-window ruling.

C. Active legislative debates

Because the Legislature meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years, the next scheduled chance to amend the fining, notice, hearing, lien, or foreclosure provisions is the 2027 regular session. One 2025 proposal already came and went: Senate Bill 2586 would have added Section 209.00405 to make associations file extra information with the Texas Real Estate Commission and to impose administrative penalties for noncompliance. It passed the Senate, died in a House committee, and never became law.¹⁹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Step back, and Texas lands among the multi-statute states: condominiums run through the Uniform Condominium Act (Chapter 82), planned communities through the bespoke Residential Property Owners Protection Act (Chapter 209). It also ranks among the more prescriptive planned-community regimes, alongside high-engagement states like California, Florida, and Nevada. What defines Texas is the Section 209.009 bar on foreclosing a debt made up solely of fines or fine-related attorney's fees, matched by a condominium bar in Section 82.113(e) — a pairing that pushes associations toward money-judgment collection for punitive charges. On process, the Chapter 209 notice-and-hearing sequence, backed since 2024 by the mandatory Section 209.0061 fine schedule, runs more detailed than the CC&R-primary approach many states use, and it hands Texas owners a statutory due-process floor that owners elsewhere reach mainly through their governing documents.

HOA Weekly updates its Texas Fining Authority coverage every quarter as the Legislature and the Texas appellate courts act. Federal frameworks reach Texas associations too, whatever the state framework says: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can govern third-party collection of fines, and the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the OTARD rule all apply as well — a fuller treatment of each is coming once that coverage is built.

Recommendations

• Immediate — subdivision associations: Confirm the association has adopted and distributed a written enforcement policy and fine schedule under Section 209.0061, and that every fine follows the Section 209.006 certified-mail notice and, on request, the Section 209.007 hearing. A fine that skips these steps is exposed — and skipping a timely-requested hearing can forfeit collection attorney's fees under Section 209.008(b), exactly as Dao shows.
• Immediate — all associations: Treat fines and fine-related attorney's fees as non-foreclosable. Route punitive charges into a suit for a personal money judgment, not any lien-foreclosure track, and make sure any foreclosure filing rests on delinquent assessments rather than fines. This is the single highest-risk error in Texas enforcement.
• Near term — condominiums: Verify management-certificate filing with TREC within seven days of recording, and confirm whether the new Section 82.1142 website requirement covers your association — it reaches associations of 60 or more units or those using a management company, and SB 711 set a March 1, 2026 transition deadline.
• Ongoing: Reverify every day-count, priority rule, and the fines-only bar against the current statute before each enforcement cycle, because Texas amends Chapters 82 and 209 in most regular sessions. Benchmarks that would change this guidance: a 2027 statute that caps fines in dollars, fixes a cure-period day-count, or alters Section 209.009 or Section 82.113(e); or a Texas Court of Appeals or Supreme Court of Texas opinion construing the fines-only foreclosure bar or the Section 209.006/209.007 predicate.

Caveats

• No recent appellate ruling lands squarely on point. Within the past 36 months, no Texas appellate opinion could be verified against a primary source as squarely construing the Chapter 209 fining procedure, the Section 209.009 fines-only foreclosure bar, or the lien treatment of fines. Dao v. Mission Bend (2022) appears here for context only and falls outside that 36-month window.
• The 30-day figures are hearing deadlines, not cure periods. Section 209.006 and Section 82.102(d) require a "reasonable" cure period, not a fixed number of days. The recurring 30-day figures on this page mark the deadline to request a hearing — don't read them as a fine-specific cure deadline.
• Per-day fines and written hearing decisions depend on the declaration. The subdivision statute doesn't address per-day or continuing fines, or written notice of a hearing decision; both turn on the declaration. Don't assume either without a governing-document basis.
• Senate Bill 2586 is not law. It's a failed proposal; its Section 209.00405 administrative-penalty scheme never took effect.

1. Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 82 (Uniform Condominium Act) ↩
2. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.002 (Applicability; provisions extended to condominiums recorded before January 1, 1994, including §§ 82.102(a)(12)-(21) and 82.113) ↩
3. Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 209 (Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act) ↩
4. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.006 (Notice Required Before Enforcement Action) ↩
5. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.009 (Foreclosure Sale Prohibited in Certain Circumstances) ↩
6. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.113 (Association's Lien for Assessments), subsecs. (a), (e), (g) ↩
7. Tex. Prop. Code § 82.102 (Powers of Unit Owners' Association), subsecs. (a)(12), (a)(17), (c), (d), (e) ↩
8. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0061 (Association Policy; Fines), added by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 666 (H.B. 614), eff. Jan. 1, 2024 ↩
9. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.007 (Hearing Before Board; Alternative Dispute Resolution) ↩
10. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0063 (Priority of Payments) ↩
11. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0091 (Prerequisites to Foreclosure: Notice and Opportunity to Cure for Certain Other Lienholders) ↩
12. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0092 (Judicial Foreclosure Required) ↩
13. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.011 (Right of Redemption After Foreclosure) ↩
14. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.004 (Management Certificates) ↩
15. Tex. H.B. 517, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025), adding Tex. Prop. Code § 202.008; eff. Sept. 1, 2025 ↩
16. Tex. S.B. 711, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025), amending Chs. 82, 202, 209 and adding Tex. Prop. Code § 82.1142; eff. Sept. 1, 2025 ↩
17. Tex. Prop. Code § 209.008 (Attorney's Fees), subsec. (b) ↩
18. Dao v. Mission Bend Homeowners Ass'n, Inc., No. 01-20-00597-CV (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] Aug. 2, 2022, no pet.) (mem. op.) ↩
19. Tex. S.B. 2586, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025) (proposed Tex. Prop. Code § 209.00405; passed Senate, died in House committee; did not become law) ↩