West Virginia HOA Collections & Liens

Key Findings

• The lien arises automatically the moment an assessment or fine becomes due under § 36B-3-116(a). An association records a notice of lien not to create the lien, but to lock in priority against later purchasers under § 36B-3-116(h).^{1, 2}
• Section 36B-3-116(b) confirms the six-month super-priority, covering budgeted common-expense assessments that would have come due in the six months before the association institutes an enforcement action.³
• West Virginia law gives condominiums and planned communities no self-executing nonjudicial power-of-sale path — unlike Virginia and Washington. Associations enforce the lien through a judicial action. Cooperatives, however, can proceed under the power-of-sale path in § 36B-3-116(i).⁴
• Fines are foreclosable. The lien attaches to fines and assessments alike under § 36B-3-116(a).¹
• Under § 36B-3-116(a) and (f), the association can recover assessments, fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest — plus costs and reasonable attorney fees for the prevailing party.^{1, 5}

West Virginia HOA Collections & Liens at a glance

Source: W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116; § 36B-1-204; § 36B-1-203; ch. 38, art. 1. Last verified: June 10, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

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

The assessment lien is statutory. West Virginia Code § 36B-3-116(a) gives an association a lien on a unit the moment an assessment or fine against that unit becomes due.¹ When the association sets up installment payments, the full outstanding amount becomes a lien as soon as the first installment falls due.¹ The lien is automatic — it does not depend on recording for its creation. This rule covers condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives.

Recording matters for priority, not creation. Section 36B-3-116(h) discharges the lien as to subsequent purchasers for value without notice unless the association records a notice of lien with the county commission clerk in any county where the community sits.² That notice must include a legally sufficient description of the unit, the names of the owners, the unpaid amounts with due dates, and the date of recordation; the clerk then indexes it in the deed and lien books under the owners' and the association's names.² Before recording, the association must give the owner notice — either through service under W. Va. Code § 56-2-1 or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, in a form reasonably calculated to inform the owner of the liability.² The statute sets no advance day-count for that notice.

What the lien secures is broad. Section 36B-3-116(a) makes fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest enforceable as assessments unless the declaration says otherwise.¹ Interest on past-due assessments runs at whatever rate the association sets, up to a ceiling of 18% per year, under § 36B-3-115(b).⁹ Any judgment or decree enforcing the lien must include costs and reasonable attorney fees for the prevailing party under § 36B-3-116(f).⁵ The lien reaches only the unit itself; § 36B-3-117 makes clear that no other property of a unit owner is subject to the association's creditors' claims.¹¹

2B. Lien priority and any super-priority component

West Virginia recognizes a super-priority. Under § 36B-3-116(b), the association lien outranks all other liens and encumbrances on a unit except three: liens and encumbrances recorded before the declaration; a first security interest recorded before the enforced assessment became delinquent; and liens for real-estate taxes and other governmental charges.³ Critically, the same subsection then elevates the association above that first security interest "to the extent of the common expense assessments based on the periodic budget adopted by the association pursuant to section 3-115(a) which would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the six months immediately preceding institution of an action to enforce the lien."³ That is the six-month super-priority, confirmed against current statutory text.

The super-priority measures itself against the six months preceding the enforcement action — a floating window, not a one-time fixed sum, that moves with the date the association files.³ The statute does not authorize stacking multiple six-month windows in a single enforcement, and West Virginia has no published appellate decision resolving the rolling-lien question. The operative rule is the plain text: six months of budgeted common-expense assessments immediately preceding the action. The subsection expressly leaves mechanics' and materialmen's liens undisturbed.³

Where two or more associations hold assessment liens on the same property, those liens carry equal priority unless the declaration provides otherwise under § 36B-3-116(c).¹² The practical takeaway: in West Virginia, a properly recorded association lien outranks a first mortgage to the extent of six months of regular budgeted common-expense assessments, and otherwise ranks junior to that first mortgage.

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

Recorded declarations and CC&Rs supplement the statute. Section 36B-3-116(a) lets the declaration control whether fees, late charges, fines, and interest are enforceable as assessments, and § 36B-3-115(b) lets the association set the interest rate up to the 18% ceiling.^{1, 9} A declaration cannot shrink the statutory priority scheme or the recording and notice requirements that protect owners and lenders.

Two limitation periods govern timing. The lien is extinguished unless the association institutes proceedings to enforce it within three years after the full amount of the assessments comes due under § 36B-3-116(d).¹³ A separate in personam action on the underlying debt runs on the general contract limitation in W. Va. Code § 55-2-6: ten years for a written contract, five years for others.¹⁴ The shorter three-year lien-enforcement clock is the binding constraint for preserving the secured remedy.

Federal law operates on top of the West Virginia framework. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.) can reach an association's attorneys and outside collection agents.¹⁵ The bankruptcy automatic stay (11 U.S.C. § 362) halts collection and foreclosure the moment an owner files. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3953) restricts foreclosure against protected servicemembers. Each operates independently of the West Virginia rules.

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

West Virginia imposes no statutory pre-lien waiting period. The lien already exists by operation of § 36B-3-116(a) the moment an assessment or fine falls due, so there is no notice-of-intent-to-record day-count to run before the lien attaches.¹ This applies to condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives alike. The one statutory notice step is the perfection notice under § 36B-3-116(h): to preserve priority against later purchasers, the association gives the owner notice — through § 56-2-1 service or certified mail, return receipt requested — and records a notice of lien with the county commission clerk.² The statute attaches no advance day-count to that notice.

Owners hold a statutory information right, not a statutory cure or payment-plan right. On written request, the association must deliver a statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days, and that statement binds the association, the executive board, and every unit owner under § 36B-3-116(g).¹⁶ Any payment plan or formal dispute process before a lien is recorded is contractual — arising from the declaration or board policy, not from § 36B-3-116. Because Fleet v. Webber Springs treats assessment collection as debt collection, the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act constrains how the association and its agents communicate at this stage, regardless of what the declaration says.¹⁷

3B. Recording and the pre-foreclosure sequence

Section 36B-3-116(h) governs recording the claim of lien: the association files the notice with the county commission clerk of any county where the community sits, and the notice must state the unit description, the owners' names, the unpaid amount with due dates, and the date of recordation.² The statute sets no deadline to record, but the three-year enforcement limitation in § 36B-3-116(d) is the outer boundary for acting on the lien.¹³ This recording mechanism applies to both condominiums and planned communities.

Section 36B-3-116 imposes no association-specific notice-of-intent-to-foreclose with a fixed advance day-count for condominiums or planned communities. That absence contrasts sharply with Virginia, where Va. Code § 55.1-1833(J)(1) requires a pre-sale notice specifying a date "not less than 60 days from the date the notice is given to the lot owner" before a trustee may be appointed.¹⁸ In West Virginia judicial foreclosures, procedural notice comes from the rules governing civil actions and any decree of sale — not from § 36B-3-116. Where governing documents instead secure assessments with a deed of trust containing a power of sale, the deed-of-trust foreclosure notices in ch. 38, art. 1 apply — including the trustee's notice of sale served by certified mail at least 20 days before sale and published as a Class II legal advertisement under § 38-1-4.⁷

Section 36B-3-116 specifies no prerequisites a board must satisfy before foreclosing. The statute requires no recorded board vote, payment-plan offer, or mandatory mediation as a condition of enforcement; any such prerequisite is contractual, arising from the declaration or bylaws.⁶ The board can delegate the enforcement decision to counsel as a matter of association governance, subject to the WVCCPA constraints on debt-collection conduct.¹⁷

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

For condominiums and planned communities, the association enforces the WVCIOA assessment lien judicially. Section 36B-3-116 speaks throughout in the language of court action: the super-priority window runs to the "institution of an action to enforce the lien" (subsection (b)), the lien is extinguished unless "proceedings to enforce the lien are instituted" within three years (subsection (d)), and "a judgment or decree in any action brought under this section" must include costs and fees (subsection (f)).^{3, 5, 13} The statute contains none of the trustee-appointment, advertisement, and statutory-agent-to-convey machinery that Virginia and Washington added to allow a nonjudicial association sale.¹⁸ The practical path is a civil action in the circuit court of the county where the unit sits, resulting in a judgment and a decree of sale. A nonjudicial trustee sale is available only where the governing documents secure the assessment obligation with a deed of trust containing a power of sale — in which case the general ch. 38, art. 1 power-of-sale process applies.⁷ West Virginia has no published appellate decision squarely labeling the § 36B-3-116 condominium or planned-community lien as judicial-only; this conclusion rests on the statutory text and the structure of West Virginia foreclosure law. Associations should confirm the mechanism against their own governing documents.

Cooperatives receive different treatment. Section 36B-3-116(i) refers to disposition of a cooperative unit "under the power of sale" and to a "security agreement," reflecting the Act's treatment of cooperative interests as security-agreement collateral.⁴ For cooperatives, the statute itself contemplates a power-of-sale disposition.

West Virginia sets no minimum dollar threshold and no minimum delinquency duration before foreclosure. Virginia, by contrast, authorizes a foreclosure sale only where "the total sums secured are in excess of $5,000, exclusive of attorney fees and costs" under Va. Code § 55.1-1833; § 36B-3-116 permits enforcement without any statutory minimum.¹⁹ Fines support the lien and are foreclosable because § 36B-3-116(a) gives the association a lien for "fines imposed against its unit owner" and makes fines enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise.¹

The sale timeline depends on the enforcement path. A judicial enforcement runs on the circuit court's docket. A deed-of-trust power-of-sale path runs on the ch. 38 timeline: certified-mail notice to the grantor at least 20 days before sale and publication once a week for two weeks as a Class II legal advertisement under § 38-1-4.⁷

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

West Virginia provides no post-sale right of redemption. The deed-of-trust foreclosure scheme in ch. 38, art. 1 contains no statutory redemption window, so an owner cannot reclaim the property after a properly conducted trustee's sale. The only pre-sale cure is paying the debt before the sale.⁸ For cooperatives, § 36B-3-116(i) gives the unit owner or a subordinate security-interest holder the right to cure the default before disposition by tendering the amounts due plus the reasonable expenses of proceeding to foreclosure, including reasonable attorney fees.⁴

A deficiency judgment is available. West Virginia lets a creditor seek a deficiency after a trustee's sale, and W. Va. Code § 38-1-7 bars the defendant from arguing that the property failed to sell for fair market value.²⁰ An association also retains the right to pursue an in personam money judgment for the unpaid assessment debt — § 36B-3-116(e) expressly preserves that remedy; a senior mortgage foreclosure does not eliminate the owner's personal obligation to the association.²¹

Surplus proceeds flow under § 38-1-7: the trustee applies proceeds first to the expenses of executing the trust, including the trustee's commission, then to the secured debt, and pays any surplus to the grantor, heirs, personal representatives, or assigns as their interests appear.²⁰ Junior lienholders are paid by recorded priority, and a trustee facing competing claims may file an interpleader action in circuit court.

A right to reinstate by paying arrears before the sale exists by practice in the deed-of-trust path and by statute for cooperatives under § 36B-3-116(i).⁴ For judicial enforcement of a condominium or planned-community lien, an owner may satisfy the judgment before the decreed sale.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months has amended West Virginia's assessment-collection, lien, or foreclosure mechanics in § 36B-3-116. Recent legislative activity touching common interest communities has centered on UCIOA applicability and restrictive-covenant reform, not collection mechanics. The 2024 session produced the Mountain Homes Act (SB 188) and companion Uniform Unlawful Restriction in Land Records Act measures (HB 4916, SB 494); none altered the assessment lien, its priority, or the foreclosure process. The 2023 effort to exempt certain communities from UCIOA (HB 3558) failed and was pulled from the floor.²² Because none of these changed the collection or lien framework, no per-bill metadata or audience tables are warranted; the operative collection statute remains as enacted.

4B. Recent appellate rulings

The controlling collections precedent is a Supreme Court of Appeals decision that predates the current 36-month window but governs every West Virginia association collection.

The Intermediate Court of Appeals, operational since July 1, 2022, has begun handling association disputes — for example, Lindemuth v. The Woods Homeowners Association, No. 23-ICA-379, a memorandum decision issued October 1, 2024 — but no published appellate decision in this window has altered the § 36B-3-116 lien-priority or foreclosure framework.^{24, 25}

4C. Active legislative debates

Developers have pressed the Legislature to narrow UCIOA's reach — reflected in the failed HB 3558 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 25 — while homeowner advocates have urged adoption of the Uniform Law Commission's later UCIOA amendments. Neither line of debate has produced any change to the collection, lien-priority, or foreclosure rules.²²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

West Virginia sits in the super-priority tier of the national collections landscape. Like other UCIOA states, it grants a limited priority portion ahead of the first mortgage, but its six-month window is shorter than Nevada's nine-month super-lien — construed as "true lien priority" in SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) under NRS 116.3116(2) — and it sits alongside Connecticut and other UCIOA adopters that grant priority portions.¹⁹ West Virginia is not a threshold-restricted state on the model of California, Arizona, or Colorado: it imposes no dollar floor or minimum delinquency period before enforcement. Yet it is more creditor-cautious than pure power-of-sale states because the statutory condominium and planned-community lien is enforced judicially rather than through a self-executing trustee sale. For a multi-state operator, the practical lesson is that a notice or process valid in a nonjudicial UCIOA state can be defective or barred in West Virginia, where the lien is judicially enforced and the federal debt-collection overlay is sharpened by the WVCCPA. West Virginia's current direction of travel is static on collection mechanics, with legislative energy focused on UCIOA applicability rather than lien or foreclosure rules.

Recommendations

• Immediate (live delinquency, condo or planned community): Treat the lien as already existing on the due date and move first to perfect it — send the owner the § 36B-3-116(h) notice (via § 56-2-1 service or certified mail, return receipt requested) and record the notice of lien with the county commission clerk, including the unit description, owners' names, unpaid amount with due dates, and recordation date. Calendar the three-year enforcement deadline from the date the full amount became due as the controlling clock; do not rely on the longer § 55-2-6 contract periods to preserve the secured remedy.
• Before foreclosing: Confirm the governing documents. If they secure assessments with a deed of trust containing a power of sale, the ch. 38 nonjudicial route is available with its 20-day certified-mail notice and Class II publication. If they do not, plan for a judicial action in circuit court to obtain a judgment and decree of sale, because § 36B-3-116 supplies no self-executing trustee sale for condominiums and planned communities. For cooperatives, the § 36B-3-116(i) power-of-sale path applies.
• Throughout: Run every notice and communication through WVCCPA compliance, because Fleet v. Webber Springs makes assessment collection "debt collection." Route attorney and agent communications to satisfy both the WVCCPA and the FDCPA, and screen each file for bankruptcy (automatic stay) and active-duty military status (SCRA) before advancing a sale.
• Notice-generator configuration: Set the West Virginia profile with no pre-lien day-count, no debt threshold, no delinquency-duration minimum, a six-month super-priority cap, a three-year lien-enforcement limitation, no post-sale redemption period, and a judicial-default foreclosure flag with a deed-of-trust override that triggers the ch. 38 day-counts.
• Thresholds that would change this guidance: A future amendment to § 36B-3-116 adding a nonjudicial association sale, a dollar threshold, or a pre-foreclosure notice period; an Intermediate Court of Appeals or Supreme Court of Appeals decision construing the rolling-lien question or expressly authorizing nonjudicial enforcement; or any change to the 18% interest ceiling in § 36B-3-115(b). Re-verify each quarter.

Caveats

• The judicial-foreclosure conclusion for condominiums and planned communities rests on the statutory text of § 36B-3-116 and the structure of West Virginia foreclosure law, not on a West Virginia appellate decision that expressly labels the lien "judicial-only." A practitioner whose governing documents secure assessments with a deed of trust may have a nonjudicial route. Confirm against the specific declaration.
• The rolling-lien question — whether the six-month super-priority can be reasserted in successive periods — is unresolved by West Virginia authority; the plain text measures the window against the six months preceding the enforcement action.
• Fleet v. Webber Springs involved a Limited Expense Liability Planned Community and grounded the lien on the common-law-lien statutes (§ 38-16-201, § 38-16-202(a)), separate from the statutory assessment lien of § 36B-3-116. The WVCCPA "debt collector" holding applies broadly to association collections; the common-law-lien holding is specific to its facts.
• Pre-1986 condominiums may fall under the prior Unit Property Act (ch. 36A); however, § 36B-1-204 applies § 36B-3-116 to preexisting communities for events occurring after the Act's effective date. Verify the creation date and the declaration for any given community.
• Several secondary practitioner sources reviewed during research contained copy-paste errors — for example, citing another state's code for a West Virginia rule. All statutory numbers in this article were verified against the official wvlegislature.gov text.

1. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(a), W. Va. Legislature (lien arises when assessment or fine becomes due; fees, charges, late charges, fines, interest enforceable as assessments) ↩
2. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(h), W. Va. Legislature (perfection by notice to owner and recording with county commission clerk; required contents) ↩
3. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(b), W. Va. Legislature (priority and six-month super-priority over a first security interest; mechanics'/materialmen's lien carve-out) ↩
4. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(i), W. Va. Legislature (cooperative power of sale; pre-disposition cure right; security agreement language) ↩
5. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(f), W. Va. Legislature (judgment or decree must include costs and reasonable attorney fees for prevailing party) ↩
6. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116, W. Va. Legislature, Lien for assessments (full text; official source) ↩
7. W. Va. Code § 38-1-4, W. Va. Legislature (trustee's notice of sale; certified mail at least 20 days before sale; Class II legal advertisement) ↩
8. Monroe County, WV Clerk, Deeds of Trust (West Virginia does not provide a statutory right of redemption after a deed-of-trust foreclosure); see also W. Va. Code ch. 38, art. 1 ↩
9. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-115(b), W. Va. Legislature (past-due common-expense assessments bear interest at a rate not exceeding 18% per year) ↩
10. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-204, FindLaw (applicability of § 36B-3-116 and other sections to preexisting common interest communities) ↩
11. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-117, W. Va. Legislature (other liens; no other property of a unit owner subject to claims of the association's creditors) ↩
12. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(c), W. Va. Legislature (equal priority among multiple association liens unless the declaration provides otherwise) ↩
13. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(d), W. Va. Legislature (lien extinguished unless proceedings to enforce instituted within three years) ↩
14. W. Va. Code § 55-2-6, W. Va. Legislature (limitation of actions on contracts; ten years for written contract, five years for other contracts) ↩
15. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (federal overlay; bankruptcy stay at 11 U.S.C. § 362; SCRA at 50 U.S.C. § 3953) ↩
16. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(g), W. Va. Legislature (statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days; binding) ↩
17. Fleet v. Webber Springs Owners Ass'n, Inc., No. 14-0637 (W. Va. Apr. 23, 2015), Justia (WVCCPA debt-collection provisions apply to association assessment collection; assessments are "claims" under § 46A-2-122(b)) ↩
18. Va. Code § 55.1-1833, Virginia Law (Virginia Property Owners' Association Act; 60-day pre-sale notice in subsection (J)(1); nonjudicial trustee sale machinery, by comparison) ↩
19. Va. Code § 55.1-1833(I), Virginia Law ($5,000 minimum to foreclose, by comparison); Nevada NRS 116.3116(2) and SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014) (nine-month super-priority) ↩
20. W. Va. Code § 38-1-7, W. Va. Legislature (application of sale proceeds and surplus; deficiency action; bar on fair-market-value defense) ↩
21. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(e), W. Va. Legislature (section does not prohibit actions to recover sums; deed in lieu permitted) ↩
22. West Virginia Organization of HOAs, Legislation tracker (SB 188 Mountain Homes Act, HB 4916/SB 494, HB 3558, SCR 25); verify each on wvlegislature.gov Bill Status ↩
23. Fleet v. Webber Springs Owners Ass'n, Inc., FindLaw (full text; Syl. pts. on consensual common-law liens under W. Va. Code § 38-16-201 and § 38-16-202(a)) ↩
24. Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia, West Virginia Judiciary (opened July 1, 2022); see W. Va. Code § 51-11-3 ↩
25. Lindemuth v. The Woods Homeowners Association, Inc., No. 23-ICA-379 (W. Va. Ct. App. Oct. 1, 2024), Justia (memorandum decision) ↩