HOA Super-Priority Lien Status by Jurisdiction

Legal information, not legal advice. This is a comparative reference compiled from the wiki’s 56 jurisdiction pages; every cell traces to a cited primary source on the linked page. Verify against those sources before acting. Last verified: 2026-06-10.

Overview

A homeowners’ or condominium association (HOA/COA) “super-priority” lien is a statutory device — most often a feature of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) or a parallel state condominium act — that elevates a limited slice of unpaid common-expense assessments ahead of an otherwise-senior first mortgage. This table aggregates, for each of the 56 US jurisdictions, four fields already researched on that jurisdiction’s page in Module 7b (Lien Survival & Purchaser Exposure): (1) whether a super-priority lien exists at all; (2) the cap on the super-priority amount (typically expressed in months of assessments); (3) whether the HOA lien survives a tax sale / tax deed; and (4) whether it survives a mortgage foreclosure by the senior lienholder.

Two patterns dominate. First, on the tax-sale axis the answer is nearly uniform: in every jurisdiction surveyed, the ad valorem property-tax lien is statutorily senior to the HOA assessment lien (the UCIOA-pattern statutes expressly except “liens for real estate taxes and other governmental assessments” from the association’s priority), so the HOA lien does not survive a properly noticed tax sale ahead of the tax title. The recurring caveat is procedural — if the association held a recorded lien and was not given the notice the tax-sale statute requires, its lien may survive on a void-as-applied theory. Most pages flag the absence of a squarely-on-point appellate decision confirming extinguishment, so the “survives tax sale” cells frequently carry a needs_verification flag even where the statutory logic is clear. Second, the super-priority concept itself is split roughly down the middle: a UCIOA/condo-act bloc grants a true super-priority over the first mortgage (most commonly a 6-month slice), while a large group of states have no super-priority at all and rank HOA liens purely by recording date.

The super-priority, where it exists, is almost always condominium-specific: several states grant it under their condominium act but provide no equivalent for planned-community / single-family HOAs (e.g., Oregon, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, DC, Illinois). The cap is most often six months of regular assessments, sometimes with an attorney-fee/cost add-on (Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut) or a percentage-of-mortgage ceiling (Tennessee’s ≤1% of principal); Oregon’s condominium super-priority (a notice-triggered “jumping” lien) is uncapped. Because the super-priority slice primes the first mortgage, it generally does survive a mortgage foreclosure to the extent of the capped amount, with the balance of the HOA lien extinguished as a junior interest.

Comparative table

Notable clusters / outliers

Super-priority bloc (condominium-anchored). A substantial group grants a true super-priority over the first mortgage, almost always traceable to UCIOA or a state condominium act and almost always capped at six months of regular assessments: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii (condos only under § 514B-146(g) — planned communities under § 421J-10.5 have recording-date priority only and no super-priority), Massachusetts, Nevada (9 months), New Hampshire (condos only under RSA 356-B:46), New Jersey (limited; condominiums under N.J.S.A. 46:8B-21 and planned developments under 45:22A-44.1 — both subordinate to municipal tax liens), Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Connecticut. Several of these are condominium-only — the super-priority evaporates for planned-community / single-family HOAs (Oregon, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, DC, Illinois). The cap is not always a clean six months: Maryland uses a flat $1,200 ceiling, Tennessee layers a ≤1%-of-mortgage-principal limit on its six months, Rhode Island adds up to $7,500 in fees and costs, Nevada caps at nine months, and Oregon’s condominium “jumping” priority (triggered by a 90-day notice the mortgagee ignores) is uncapped. New Hampshire’s RSA 356-B:46 cap is confined to regular assessments only (excluding special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, and interest), and requires prescribed notice steps before the priority attaches.

Leading-edge and outlier mechanics. Nevada is the recognized leading super-priority jurisdiction — under NRS 116.3116, a non-judicial HOA foreclosure of its nine-month super-priority slice can extinguish a first deed of trust entirely unless the lender pays the slice in advance (sfr-investments-pool-1-v-us-bank). Oregon stands out for an uncapped, notice-triggered condominium super-priority confirmed by its Supreme Court. Puerto Rico has no formal super-priority but reaches a functionally similar result through a statutory six-month look-back cap on the liability of an “involuntary acquirer” (the foreclosing mortgagee).

No-super-priority bloc. The larger group rejects super-priority entirely and ranks HOA assessment liens by recording date, expressly subordinating them to both tax liens and first mortgages: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Guam. North Dakota’s position was reinforced by Industrial Commission of North Dakota v. Gould, 2024 ND 32, which rejected an HOA declaration purporting to create automatic seniority over a later-recorded mortgage. Iowa’s § 499B.17 expressly makes condominium assessment liens subordinate to tax liens; Nebraska’s § 76-874 expressly subordinates HOA assessment liens to first mortgages recorded before the assessment notice and to real estate tax liens. Montana’s § 70-23-610 expressly protects first-mortgage foreclosure purchasers from pre-acquisition HOA assessment liability. Mississippi confirmed no super-priority statute exists (§§ 89-9-21 and 27-35-1 primary-source verification completed June 2026).

Tax-sale uniformity with a procedural asterisk. Across the entire table the property-tax lien is senior to the HOA lien, so the HOA lien does not survive a tax sale ahead of the tax title — even in super-priority states, the statutes that prime the first mortgage expressly except real-estate tax liens. The recurring qualifier is procedural: where the association held a recorded lien and was not given the notice the tax-sale statute requires, the lien may survive on a void-as-applied theory (flagged for New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Connecticut, Kentucky, and others). Most pages also note the absence of a squarely on-point appellate decision confirming extinguishment, which is why so many “survives tax sale” cells carry a needs_verification flag despite a clear statutory answer.

Territorial and structural gaps. The US Virgin Islands page could not retrieve the specific condominium lien-priority section, so all four cells are carried as needs_verification. The CNMI and American Samoa located no condominium/HOA assessment-lien priority statute at all, and both sit outside the tax-sale fact-pattern (the CNMI has no property-tax-sale regime; American Samoa has no tax-sale equity-forfeiture regime), so their cells reflect “none located” rather than a confirmed negative.

▸ For Investors / Operators — The HOA cap is a quantifiable carrying cost, not a title-killer. On the tax-sale track the assessment lien is junior to the tax lien nearly everywhere, so a tax-deed buyer rarely takes subject to a pre-sale HOA lien — but post-deed assessments (and, in states like Michigan, the recorded covenant duty to keep paying) bind the new owner regardless. On the mortgage track, the super-priority slice is real exposure: a foreclosing first lender or its purchaser must satisfy the capped amount (commonly six months) in the super-priority states, and in Nevada an unpaid nine-month slice can wipe a first deed of trust entirely. Confirm the recording order, whether the association was noticed into the proceeding, and the exact cap on each linked page before bidding.

▸ For Former Owners — Unpaid HOA assessments rarely defeat your surplus claim, but they do affect the waterfall: in many states the association can claim against tax-sale surplus for its extinguished lien before any residue reaches you, and a foreclosing lender may have advanced the super-priority slice. The cap, claim venue, and notice requirements are on each linked jurisdiction page; whether the association was properly served can determine whether its lien survives at all.

Sources

Per-cell statuses are compiled from each linked jurisdiction page’s Module 7b (Lien Survival & Purchaser Exposure), specifically its HOA / condominium super-priority subsection. The statute citations shown in the right-hand column are the controlling authorities cited and retrieved on those pages; follow the wiki-link for the full primary-source URL, the surrounding analysis, and any retrieval dates. Cells marked ⚠ needs_verification carry that flag forward from the source page — most commonly because no squarely on-point appellate decision confirming the tax-sale extinguishment (or the exact statutory cap) was retrieved — and were not independently re-verified for this table. The landmark cross-reference for the super-priority concept is sfr-investments-pool-1-v-us-bank (Nevada) and the concept page hoa-super-priority.

Disclaimer. This page provides legal information, not legal advice. Tax and foreclosure law changes frequently and varies by jurisdiction and fact pattern. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Verify every classification and citation against the linked jurisdiction page and its underlying primary sources before relying on it. Last verified: 2026-06-10.