What Can Your HOA Do if You Don't Follow the Rules?

Consequences of HOA Non-Compliance: Fines, Liens, and Foreclosure

If you buy a house in a neighborhood with a homeowners association (HOA), you most likely have rules and regulations to follow. These rules can range from the logical, like maintaining your yard by cutting your grass regularly, to the wild, like regulating what size and color your doorbell needs to be.

The big question for homeowners, though, is what exactly your association can do if you don't follow the rules. And the answer is one you may not like. While the specifics of exactly what an HOA can do may vary depending on where you live, here are some general steps an association most likely will be able to take if you fail to live up to your obligations.

Your HOA could impose fines

• In most cases, if you do not follow the rules of your homeowners association, the HOA could impose fines.
• State laws do impose certain limitations, restrictions, or requirements on the fines that can be imposed.

Your HOA could correct the problem and charge you for it

• In certain situations, the governing documents of your community might give the HOA the right to correct your violations and then charge you for doing so.
• Associations can do this by getting a lien on your house, which is an ownership claim, and then foreclosing on the lien and forcing the sale of your home.

Your HOA could put a lien on your house and even foreclose

• Associations can do this by getting a lien on your house, which is an ownership claim, and then foreclosing on the lien and forcing the sale of your home.
• If you already have a home in a place with an association, you should read the rules carefully and do your best to comply with them in order to avoid any of these undesirable consequences.