Pennsylvania HOA Laws: Assessments, Records, and Enforcement

Pennsylvania HOA laws are set primarily by two statutes in Title 68 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes: the Uniform Planned Community Act for most single-family and townhome associations, and the Uniform Condominium Act for condos. A third statute, the Real Estate Cooperative Act, governs housing cooperatives. Together these laws define what your association can require of you, what records and meetings you’re entitled to, how unpaid dues become a lien on your home, and where your community’s private rules must give way. Where a declaration or bylaws conflict with the statute, the statute wins.

Which Statute Governs Your Community

Most planned communities operate under 68 Pa. C.S. §§ 5101–5414. You own your lot outright, and the association owns and maintains shared areas like roads, pools, and clubhouses.¹

Condominiums follow a parallel framework at 68 Pa. C.S. §§ 3101–3414. Each owner holds title to an individual unit and shares an undivided interest in common elements such as hallways, elevators, and parking structures.²

Cooperatives run on their own track under 68 Pa. C.S. §§ 4101–4414. Residents don’t own real property; they hold a share in the entity that owns the building and receive a proprietary lease.³ The co-op statute has different rules on assessments, liens, and purchaser protections, so if you live in one, the sections below (which trace the planned community statute) are a starting point, not a full answer.

Meetings and Notice You’re Entitled To

Your association must hold at least one membership meeting per year. Written notice of any meeting, annual or special, has to reach every unit owner between 10 and 60 days beforehand, and it must include the time, place, agenda, and the general nature of any proposed changes to the declaration, bylaws, budget, or assessments.⁴ The condominium version at § 3308 requires the same.⁵

Notice comes by hand delivery or prepaid U.S. mail. Electronic notice works if you’ve agreed in writing or the bylaws allow it.

You can attend by phone or video, and that participation counts as if you were in the room. When a board election has more candidates than open seats, any candidate can ask for a pre-election session at least seven days before the vote so every candidate gets equal time to speak.⁴

Records and Financial Statements You Can Demand

Your association must keep financial records detailed enough to produce the resale certificates required under § 5407, and it must make its financial and other records reasonably available for any unit owner or authorized agent to examine.⁶

In planned communities with more than 12 units, the association has to prepare annual financial statements within 180 days after the end of its fiscal year, including at least a balance sheet and a revenue-and-expense report. If you send a written request, you’re entitled to a copy within 30 days, along with any independent accountant’s report. The association can charge for copies but no more than actual cost.⁶

If your written request is ignored or refused, you can file a complaint with the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Attorney General’s office. That’s one of the few statutory enforcement pathways homeowners have outside the courts.⁶

Assessments, Liens, and Foreclosure

Every owner owes assessments for shared expenses, and the moment an assessment or fine becomes due, the association has a lien on the unit. No separate court filing creates the lien; it attaches automatically.⁷

Unless the declaration says otherwise, the lien covers late charges, fines, interest, and the association’s reasonable collection costs, including attorney fees. If you’re paying an assessment in installments and miss one, the whole remaining balance becomes a lien as of the date the missed installment was due.⁷

Lien Priority

An assessment lien is senior to almost every other claim on the property. It falls behind only three categories:

Liens or encumbrances recorded before the community’s declaration was filed.
Mortgages and deeds of trust recorded before the assessment’s due date, plus judgments securing those loans.
Real estate taxes and other governmental assessments.

Against every other creditor, the association is first in line.⁷

Foreclosure

The association can foreclose its lien the same way a mortgage lender does, which can lead to a sheriff’s sale of your home. Even where a judicial sale happens, the six months of unpaid assessments immediately before the sale date survive and must be paid from the proceeds before the lien is divested. Assessment debt beyond that six-month window is also paid in full if enough money is left.⁷ Unpaid HOA dues in Pennsylvania carry real consequences, and the association doesn’t need the bank’s permission to start enforcement.

Fines and Rule Enforcement

Your association can adopt bylaws, rules, and regulations, and it can fine you for violations. But a fine can only be imposed after the owner has been given notice and an opportunity to be heard. That due-process step is written into the statute, not left to the board.⁸

Fines must be reasonable. The statute sets no fixed dollar cap, so the amount depends on the community’s documents and the board’s schedule of penalties. While assessments are delinquent or violations remain uncured, the board can suspend certain owner rights, including the right to vote, serve on the board or committees, and use common recreational facilities.⁸

The association can also go to court for an order compelling you to fix a physical violation, such as an unapproved structure or exterior change. Ignoring a violation notice doesn’t make the problem go away; it usually raises the cost.

Board Duties and Elections

Executive board members and officers owe a fiduciary duty to the association. They must act in good faith, in a manner they reasonably believe serves the association’s best interests, and with the care and diligence of a reasonably prudent person in similar circumstances. When managing reserve funds, they follow the prudent investor rule under Pennsylvania trust law.⁹

Board members can rely in good faith on employees they reasonably believe are competent, on legal counsel or accountants within those experts’ fields, and on board committees. That defense disappears if a member actually knows facts that would make the reliance unwarranted. Good-faith, reasonably careful decisions don’t create personal liability.⁹

The board can’t unilaterally amend the declaration, terminate the community, or set its own election rules; those powers belong to the membership. The board can fill vacancies between elections, but only until the next regular election. Owners may vote through proxies, which must be dated and are valid for one year unless they specify a shorter term. An undated proxy, or one claiming to be revocable without notice, is void.¹⁰

Buying or Selling: The Resale Certificate

When you sell a unit in a planned community, you have to give the buyer a resale certificate before the contract is signed or the property is conveyed, along with copies of the declaration, bylaws, and association rules. The certificate is a detailed disclosure package, not a formality.¹¹

Among other items, it has to include:

The current common expense assessment and any unpaid or special assessments owed by the seller.
Any additional fees payable by unit owners.
Proposed capital spending for the current and next two fiscal years.
The amount of capital reserves and whether any portion is earmarked for a specific project.
The current operating budget and the most recent balance sheet and income statement.
Any judgments against the association and pending lawsuits it is involved in.
A description of insurance coverage provided for owners.
Whether the board knows of any alterations to the unit or common areas that violate the declaration or government requirements.

This is where buyers often first learn about special assessments, underfunded reserves, or pending litigation. If the certificate reveals a problem, the buyer has a short statutory window after receiving it to cancel the purchase.¹¹

Capital Improvement Fees on Resale

The association can charge a one-time capital improvement fee when a unit changes hands, but the statute caps it. The fee cannot exceed the total annual general common expense assessment charged to that unit during the most recently completed fiscal year. For unimproved lots, the cap is half of that annual assessment. The money has to go into a separate account and can only be spent on new capital improvements or replacing existing common elements. Capital improvement fees are not refundable, and they can’t be charged on transfers between close family members such as spouses, parents, children, or siblings.⁸

Insurance the Association Must Carry

No later than the first sale of a unit to someone other than the developer, the association has to maintain property insurance on the common and controlled facilities. Coverage must protect against standard risks of direct physical loss, and the insured amount (after deductibles) must be at least 80% of the actual cash value of the insured property, excluding land, foundations, and similar items typically excluded from property policies.¹²

The association also has to carry comprehensive general liability insurance, including medical payments coverage, in an amount the board sets and no less than what the declaration requires. Both policies may include deductibles, and their cost is a common expense paid through assessments.¹²

The association’s coverage does not extend to the inside of your unit or your personal belongings. You need your own policy: an HO-6 for condos, or a standard homeowners policy in a planned community, to cover interior improvements and liability inside your home.

Federal Laws That Override HOA Rules

Pennsylvania HOAs are private organizations, not government actors, so the First Amendment and state free-speech protections don’t directly restrict their rules. Two federal laws, however, do override anything in your community’s documents.

Fair Housing Act and Disability Accommodations

Under the federal Fair Housing Act, your association can’t discriminate in the sale, rental, or terms of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. For owners with disabilities, the law goes further: the association must allow reasonable modifications to a unit or common area at the owner’s expense, and must make reasonable changes to rules, policies, or services so the person can fully use and enjoy their home.¹³

An HOA that bans pets must allow a service animal or emotional support animal when a resident provides proper documentation. An HOA that restricts exterior changes must permit a wheelchair ramp. The test is whether the accommodation is reasonable and necessary for the disability, and a blanket refusal violates federal law regardless of what the declaration says.

Satellite Dishes and Antennas

The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule blocks HOAs from enforcing restrictions that unreasonably delay or prevent installation of certain antennas and satellite dishes, unreasonably increase the cost, or prevent an acceptable signal. It covers dishes one meter or smaller used for direct broadcast satellite service, antennas for video programming, and antennas for television broadcast signals, as long as the device sits in the owner’s exclusive-use area.¹⁴

Legitimate safety restrictions on installation are still enforceable, and historic preservation measures in qualifying districts may apply. But a flat ban on dishes on balconies or patios is unenforceable.

Liability and the Developer Control Period

Individual owners generally can’t be sued for the association’s actions. Tort and breach-of-contract claims against the association must be brought against the association itself, and your personal property beyond the unit is not on the line for association debts.¹⁵

While the developer still controls the board, the developer is personally liable for unreimbursed losses the association suffers from torts or breaches of contract. The statute of limitations on the association’s claims against the developer is paused until developer control ends, so the homeowner-elected board has time to find and pursue problems the developer left behind.¹⁵

Resolving a Dispute with Your HOA

Larger planned communities, condominiums, and cooperatives are required to include mediation or alternative dispute resolution procedures in their bylaws, covering disputes between unit owners or between an owner and the association. ADR is only available when all parties agree; it isn’t mandatory. Costs of the process, other than attorney fees, are split equally.

If your governing documents offer an ADR procedure, you generally have to attempt it before filing a complaint with the Bureau of Consumer Protection. You can move on to the Bureau once ADR has been exhausted without a resolution, or once 100 days have passed since you started the process without an agreement. For refusal-to-produce-records complaints, § 5316 lets you go directly to the Bureau without waiting through ADR.⁶

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5101-5414 – Uniform Planned Community Act
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Chapter 32 – Creation, Alteration and Termination of Condominiums
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Real Estate Cooperative Act
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5308 – Meetings
5
Pennsylvania e-Laws. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 3308 – Meetings
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5316 – Association Records
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5315 – Lien for Assessments
8
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5302 – Power of Unit Owners Association
9
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5303 – Executive Board Members and Officers
10
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5310 – Voting and Proxies
11
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5407 – Resales of Units
12
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5312 – Insurance
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 42 Section 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing
14
eCFR. 47 CFR 1.4000 – Restrictions Impairing Reception of Television Broadcast Signals, Direct Broadcast Satellite Services, or Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services
15
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 68 Pa.C.S. 5311 – Tort and Contract Liability