Virginia HOA Assessment Limits

Section 1: Overview

Virginia does not cap how much a homeowners or condominium association can raise its assessments. The state does not require owners to ratify an annual budget, and it sets no percentage ceiling on increases. Each association's recorded declaration carries the limits — and two statutes provide the structural framework: the Property Owners' Association Act (POAA), Va. Code § 55.1-1800 et seq., for planned communities, and the Virginia Condominium Act, Va. Code § 55.1-1900 et seq., for condominiums.^1,2 When the board adopts the annual budget under the declaration and bylaws, the assessment takes effect — no percentage ceiling applies, and no membership vote is required by statute.³ The law requires a reserve study at least once every five years. Special assessments flow from what the recorded documents authorize. Virginia's assessment lien ranks behind prior recorded deeds of trust — Virginia is not a super-lien state.^3,4 On the national spectrum, Virginia holds a distinct position: separate from statutory-cap states like California and from the ratification-mechanism states that adopted versions of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, and Washington).⁵ Virginia is a declaration-driven state — the recorded instrument sets the limits, the statute requires a reserve study, and the lien is subordinate. The sections that follow cover the authority to levy, the limits and reserve obligation, lien priority, operative procedures, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The assessment framework

2A. Authority to levy and allocate assessments

In planned communities, the POAA grants the association authority to levy assessments and adopt an annual budget. Va. Code § 55.1-1826 requires the board to make the annual budget — or a summary — available to lot owners before the fiscal year begins.³ The board holds the power to set the assessment; it exercises that power through the budget, and the declaration controls how the total is allocated among lots.¹

In condominiums, the Virginia Condominium Act grants the unit owners' association authority to levy and allocate common expenses. Va. Code § 55.1-1965 places the parallel budget and reserve obligations on the executive board.⁶ The recorded condominium instruments fix each unit's share of common expense liability, and the executive board converts that allocation into a periodic assessment through the annual budget.²

In both settings, the source of assessment authority is the recorded declaration or condominium instruments, read together with the governing statute. Neither act vests rate-setting authority in any state body.⁷

2B. Limits on regular assessment increases, including the reserve study

Virginia imposes no percentage cap on regular assessment increases and prescribes no budget-ratification meeting. The board adopts the annual budget under the declaration and bylaws.³

The principal statutory constraint is financial, not numeric. Va. Code § 55.1-1826 requires a POAA board to conduct a reserve study at least once every five years — to determine the necessity and amount of reserves for capital components — review the results at least annually to confirm reserves remain sufficient, and adjust the budget and assessment as needed to maintain those reserves.³ Va. Code § 55.1-1965 imposes the same five-year cadence and annual review on a condominium executive board.⁶ Because the budget must reflect the reserve study's recommended funding when reserves are indicated, the reserve obligation operates as a practical floor on assessments — not a ceiling.³

The statute requires the board to make the budget or a summary available to owners before the fiscal year. It sets no percentage trigger for additional notice.³ Any member-approval threshold or cap on increases exists only if the recorded declaration creates one; the statute supplies none.¹ Associations that skip timely reserve studies or omit required reserve disclosures from the budget face complaints, enforcement proceedings, or litigation. An increase imposed outside the authority the recorded documents grant is open to challenge.⁸

2C. Special assessments, the assessment lien, and its priority

Special assessments draw their authority and their limits from the declaration and bylaws in planned communities, and from the condominium instruments in condominiums. The 2024 amendments removed the former statutory right that let owners vote, within 60 days of notice, to rescind or reduce an additional assessment levied for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of capital components.⁹

The POAA assessment lien under Va. Code § 55.1-1833 is perfected by recording a memorandum of lien — verified by the principal officer — in the circuit court clerk's office where the development sits. The association must file within 12 months of when the first assessment came due, and the owner must receive at least 10 days' certified-mail notice before filing.⁴ The condominium lien under Va. Code § 55.1-1966 follows the same mechanism but carries a 90-day filing deadline.¹⁰

Both liens, once perfected, rank ahead of later encumbrances — but they remain subordinate to real estate tax liens, encumbrances recorded before the declaration, and sums owed under deeds of trust or first mortgages recorded before the lien was perfected. Virginia confers no six-month super-priority over a prior first mortgage.^4,10 Liens enforce through judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure, and no foreclosure may begin more than 120 months after the memorandum was recorded.⁴ Operationally, an association funds reserves through the budget, records the memorandum to perfect, and collects behind any prior deed of trust.⁴

Section 3: Assessment limits and procedures in practice

A. Regular assessment increase procedure

The board adopts the annual budget under the declaration and bylaws, conducts and reviews the reserve study, and makes the budget or a summary available to owners before the fiscal year. The increase takes effect with the new budget — no statutory percentage limit applies (planned communities, Va. Code § 55.1-1826; condominiums, Va. Code § 55.1-1965).^3,6

B. Special assessment procedure

Authority, purpose, and any member-approval threshold for a special assessment come from the declaration and bylaws in planned communities, or from the condominium instruments in condominiums. The statute provides written-notice content for additional assessments but sets no cap — and since 2024, owners no longer hold a right to rescind.⁹

C. Caps, ceilings, and override mechanisms

Virginia supplies no percentage cap and no ratification meeting. Any cap is declaration-defined. The reserve study sets a funding floor rather than a ceiling — under both Chapter 18 and Chapter 19.^3,6

D. Notice, documentation, and disclosure tied to assessments

Notice follows the recorded documents and statute. Recording the memorandum of lien perfects the assessment lien — planned communities, Va. Code § 55.1-1833; condominiums, Va. Code § 55.1-1966. The association resale certificate discloses current assessments to a buyer. An owner who exhausts the association's internal complaint procedure may file a notice of final adverse decision with the Common Interest Community Ombudsman under Va. Code § 54.1-2354.3 and § 54.1-2354.4.^4,10,8,11

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

The Virginia General Assembly enacted two significant measures on association assessments in 2024. Both took effect on July 1, 2024 — one resetting the rules on reserve funding and removing the owner rescission right, the other directly answering a court ruling that had restricted how associations could use their assessment revenue.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Virginia's appellate courts have been drawing sharper lines around assessment authority — both who holds it and what it covers. Two recent decisions show how those lines work in practice.

C. Active legislative debates

The 2024 reserve-study and borrowing changes in HB 1209 trace back to a specific event: the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people. The Virginia Housing Commission convened a stakeholder work group through the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, which studied the issue for roughly 18 months before recommending the changes the legislature adopted.¹⁵ Reserve adequacy and capital-component funding remain the active policy focus for community association legislation in Virginia. No pending Virginia bill imposes a percentage cap on assessment increases or requires a budget-ratification meeting.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Virginia occupies the third of three positions on the assessment-limit spectrum. The first is the statutory-cap model — California, under Cal. Civ. Code § 5605, bars a board from imposing a regular assessment more than 20 percent above the prior year, or special assessments exceeding 5 percent of budgeted gross expenses in the aggregate, without a member vote.⁵ The second is the ratification-mechanism model found in states that adopted versions of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, and Washington — many of which also grant a limited super-priority lien. Virginia holds the third position: declaration-driven. The recorded declaration sets the limits, the statute requires a reserve study, and the lien is subordinate to prior recorded deeds of trust. Virginia's distinctive features are a state regulator — the Common Interest Community Board — paired with the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, and a mandatory five-year reserve study. For multi-state operators entering Virginia, compliance turns on reading each association's recorded documents and maintaining the reserve study — not on tracking a statutory percentage ceiling.

1. Code of Virginia, Property Owners' Association Act, § 55.1-1800 et seq. ↩
2. Code of Virginia, Virginia Condominium Act, § 55.1-1900 et seq. ↩
3. Va. Code § 55.1-1826, Annual budget; reserve study; reserves for capital components ↩
4. Va. Code § 55.1-1833, Lien for assessments; foreclosure ↩
5. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605, Assessment Increases; Requirements and Limitations ↩
6. Va. Code § 55.1-1965, Annual budget; reserve study; reserves for capital components ↩
7. Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Common Interest Community Board ↩
8. Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman ↩
9. Virginia Legislative Information System, HB 1209, 2024 Regular Session, Bill Summary ↩
10. Va. Code § 55.1-1966, Lien for assessments; foreclosure ↩
11. Va. Code § 54.1-2354.4, Association complaint procedures; final adverse decisions (see also § 54.1-2354.3) ↩
12. Virginia Legislative Information System, SB 672, 2024 Regular Session, Bill Summary ↩
13. Court of Appeals of Virginia, Terrace View Property Owner's Ass'n, Inc. v. Jannah, Record No. 2007-24-3 (Feb. 3, 2026) (published) ↩
14. Court of Appeals of Virginia, Burkholder v. Palisades Park Owners Ass'n, Inc., 76 Va. App. 577, 882 S.E.2d 906, Record No. 0187-22-4 (Feb. 7, 2023) (published) ↩
15. Virginia Legislative Information System, HB 1209, 2024 Regular Session, Bill Summary; Virginia Housing Commission and DPOR stakeholder work group legislative history ↩