Arizona Revised Statutes section 33-1807 is the law that gives a planned community’s homeowners association an automatic lien on your property the moment an assessment goes unpaid, and it sets the conditions the association must meet before it can foreclose. The short version: your HOA can only force a sale of your home if you have been delinquent for at least eighteen months or owe $10,000 or more in unpaid assessments, and unpaid fines alone can never get you to that point.
What the Lien Actually Covers
Under ARS 33-1807(A), the association’s lien attaches the instant an assessment becomes due and goes unpaid. Nothing has to be recorded for each delinquency; the original declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions filed with the county recorder gave constructive notice to every current and future owner that this lien power exists.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
The statute draws a sharp line between two kinds of money an owner might owe, and the distinction decides what the HOA can do about it.
Common expenses are the regular and special assessments that fund shared obligations such as landscaping, insurance, and reserves. These create the statutory lien and can eventually support a foreclosure action.
Member expenses are fines, penalties, and charges tied to rule violations or architectural infractions. Subsection B says plainly that these are not enforceable as common expense liens. To collect unpaid fines, an association has to file a civil lawsuit and win a money judgment, and even the resulting judgment lien cannot be foreclosed. It only pays out when the property is later sold or transferred.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice Your HOA cannot take your home because you painted the front door the wrong color or left the trash cans out too long.
When the HOA Can Foreclose
Arizona raised the bar for HOA foreclosures through SB 1494. Under the current ARS 33-1807(A), an association may foreclose only if, on the date it files suit, the owner has been delinquent at least eighteen months or owes $10,000 or more in unpaid assessments, whichever happens first.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
The statutory language refers to “any assessment or portion of the assessment,” which means only actual assessment dollars count toward the $10,000 figure. Late charges, interest, collection costs, and attorney fees are all recoverable as part of the overall debt, but they do not push an account across the foreclosure threshold on their own. An account sitting at $8,000 in unpaid assessments plus $3,000 in late fees still cannot be foreclosed until either the assessments themselves reach $10,000 or the eighteen-month clock runs out.
Where the HOA Lien Stands Against Your Mortgage
ARS 33-1807(C) gives the association’s lien priority over most other recorded interests, with three exceptions:
- Liens or encumbrances recorded before the community’s declaration was filed with the county recorder.
- A recorded first mortgage, first deed of trust, or seller’s interest in a first contract for sale that was recorded before the assessment lien arose.
- Liens for real estate taxes and other governmental assessments or charges against the property.
Second mortgages, judgment liens from other creditors, and most other recorded claims fall behind the HOA’s lien.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
The practical effect for a homeowner: if your primary mortgage lender forecloses first, the HOA lien is typically wiped out because the first deed of trust is senior. If the HOA forecloses, the first mortgage survives, and whoever buys the property at the HOA auction takes it subject to that mortgage. That reality tends to depress bids at HOA sales.
The Notices You Should Get First
Before an association can take you to court, ARS 33-1807(A) requires the board to make reasonable efforts to communicate with you and to offer a reasonable payment plan. The statute does not define “reasonable” in either context, which gives boards flexibility but also gives homeowners room to challenge a foreclosure that was filed without any genuine outreach.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
Subsection L adds a hard procedural requirement. At least thirty days before turning the account over to an attorney or collection agency, the association must send you a written notice stating that the account is delinquent, warning that collection proceedings including possible foreclosure may follow, and giving contact information for someone at the association who can discuss payment. The notice has to be in bold or all-capital letters and sent by certified mail with return receipt requested.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
That thirty-day window is your clearest opening to negotiate or catch up before legal fees start compounding. Once an attorney or collection agency gets involved, every letter and filing adds to the balance.
How Your Payments Get Applied
ARS 33-1807(K) controls the order payments hit a delinquent account, and the order favors the homeowner. Unless you direct otherwise, each payment applies first to unpaid assessments, then to assessments due but not yet delinquent, then to authorized late charges, then to reasonable collection fees, then to court-awarded attorney fees, and finally to any remaining fines, penalties, or interest.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
That structure matters directly to the foreclosure threshold. Partial payments reduce the actual assessment balance first, which is the number that determines whether you cross the $10,000 line. An association or its management company cannot flip the order to apply your money to fees and interest while leaving the core assessment untouched.
The Sale and the Chance to Buy It Back
HOA foreclosures in Arizona are judicial. The association files suit in superior court, the court reviews the debt and confirms that every statutory prerequisite was met, and if the judgment of foreclosure is granted, the county sheriff schedules a public auction. Anyone can bid, including the association. If the sale brings in more than the total debt, junior lienholders are paid in priority order, and any remaining surplus belongs to the former owner.
Subsection I lets the court award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party. A homeowner who defeats a premature or procedurally defective foreclosure can recover legal costs; a losing homeowner may owe the association’s attorney fees on top of the underlying debt.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33-1807 – Common Expense Liens, Priority, Mechanics and Materialmens Liens, Notice
After the sale, you still have a redemption window. Under ARS 12-1282, the standard period is six months from the date of sale, during which you (or a successor in interest) can buy the property back by paying the full purchase price plus any applicable costs.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 12-1282 – Time for Redemption
One exception shortens that window sharply. If the court found as part of the foreclosure judgment that the property was both abandoned and not used primarily for farming or grazing, the redemption period drops to thirty days.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 12-1282 – Time for Redemption If no redemption occurs within the applicable period, the sheriff issues a deed to the purchaser and ownership transfers.
Federal Protections That May Apply
Bankruptcy
Filing for bankruptcy triggers the federal automatic stay, which halts most collection activity including an HOA foreclosure. In a Chapter 13 case, you can propose a three-to-five-year repayment plan that addresses the pre-petition arrears while you keep the home. Post-petition assessments, the ones that come due after the filing date, still have to be paid on time. If they are not, the association can ask the bankruptcy court to lift the stay and resume foreclosure.
Military Service
Active-duty servicemembers get added protection under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. A foreclosure sale conducted during a period of military service or within one year afterward is invalid unless the creditor first obtains a court order.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 50-3953 – Mortgages and Trust Deeds Courts can also stay the proceedings, adjust the payment obligation, or extend the redemption period by a length equal to the servicemember’s period of service. Knowingly conducting a prohibited sale is a federal misdemeanor carrying up to one year in prison.
Debt Collection Rules for Outside Collectors
When your HOA hands the account to an outside attorney or collection agency, that third party is generally a “debt collector” under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and federal courts have recognized HOA assessments as “debts” the Act covers. The outside collector has to send validation notices, avoid harassment, and not misrepresent the amount owed. The association itself usually is not subject to the FDCPA because managing the community, not collecting debts, is its primary business. The collector it hires is fully bound.