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Your rights · District of Columbia
The District's Condominium Act hands unit owners real procedural power: board meetings open to every owner in good standing with a required comment period, 21-day meeting notice, fines only after notice and an opportunity to be heard, examinable books, and a foreclosure process with a recorded 31-day notice and a right to cure up to the moment of sale. It also hands associations one of the sharpest collection tools anywhere, a six-month super-priority lien that forecloses without a lawsuit and can, in the right posture, wipe out even a first mortgage. Knowing which lever is which is most of the game in DC.
Guides in this state
Controlling law: District of Columbia Condominium Act (D.C. Code §§ 42-1901.01 et seq.)
Last reviewed July 10, 2026· Citations link to the statute text
If you own a condominium unit in Washington, DC, your association is governed by the District of Columbia Condominium Act, D.C. Code §§ 42-1901.01 and following, a 1976 statute modeled on Virginia's act and rebuilt in the owner's favor by the Condominium Owner Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Amendment Act of 2016 (D.C. Law 21-241, effective 2017). The Act sits above your declaration and bylaws, and its owner protections are specific rather than aspirational: meetings of the association and its executive board are open to all unit owners in good standing, with at least 21 days' notice of annual or regularly scheduled meetings and 7 days' notice of others, a designated owner-comment period at each regularly scheduled meeting, and executive sessions confined to enumerated topics like personnel, contract negotiations, and litigation (§ 42-1903.03). Fines require notice and an opportunity to be heard and must be reasonable (§ 42-1903.08(a)(11)). Officers and board members owe unit owners the care of a fiduciary (§ 42-1903.08). Minutes and financial records are examinable (§§ 42-1903.03, 42-1903.14).
Scope matters in the District. The Condominium Act covers condominiums, which are most of DC's common-interest housing. Housing cooperatives are a different legal animal, governed by their bylaws and proprietary documents under the Cooperative Association Act (D.C. Code § 29-901 et seq.); a co-op shareholder's rights run through corporate law, not the Condominium Act. And DC has no general HOA statute for the small number of non-condo homeowners associations, which run on their recorded covenants plus, when incorporated, the D.C. Nonprofit Corporation Act (D.C. Code § 29-401.01 et seq.), a modern statute whose member rights, records inspection that bylaws cannot take away (§ 29-413.02) and without-cause removal of member-elected directors (§ 29-406.08), are stronger than most owners realize.
Read § 42-1903.13 before any collection dispute, because both of its faces matter. The dangerous face: unpaid assessments are automatically a lien on your unit, with no recording required, the lien enjoys a six-month super-priority even over a first deed of trust, and the association can foreclose by power of sale, without a lawsuit. The D.C. Court of Appeals confirmed in 2014 that foreclosing the six-month priority portion can extinguish a first mortgage, which is why lenders, and owners, learned to treat small condo delinquencies here with unusual seriousness. The protective face: the sale cannot happen until a Notice of Foreclosure Sale is recorded and sent, by tracked delivery and first-class mail, at least 31 days ahead, stating the exact amount that stops the foreclosure and expressly saying whether the sale is for the six-month priority amount (free of the first trust) or more (subject to it), with an enclosure breaking down the amount and listing housing-counseling resources in at least 18-point font. You can cure at any time before the sale by paying the past-due amount with charges and reasonable fees. The lien lapses if not enforced within three years of the assessment coming due. And if the association misses the 10-day deadline to give a requested statement of unpaid assessments, the statute extinguishes the lien outright.
The 2017 reforms also built a paper regime a diligent owner can actually use: minutes available for examination and copying within a defined window, financial records open with only enumerated withholding categories, copying at actual cost, and an association-funded audit on the demand of owners holding a third of the votes (§§ 42-1903.03, 42-1903.14). None of this is a favor from the board. It is the statutory baseline, and in the District it is unusually concrete.
The local twist
Under D.C. Code § 42-1903.13(a)(2), the association's lien primes even a first deed of trust to the extent of six months of assessments, and Chase Plaza Condominium Ass'n v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (D.C. 2014) held that foreclosing that slice can extinguish the first mortgage entirely. Post-2017, the foreclosure notice must state expressly whether the sale is for the six-month priority amount and not subject to the first trust, or for more and subject to it. If you receive one, that single sentence tells you what is actually at stake.
No recording is needed to perfect the assessment lien; the recorded condominium instruments are themselves record notice (§ 42-1903.13(a)). But the lien lapses if foreclosure or other enforcement isn't instituted within 3 years from when the assessment came due, and a blown 10-day deadline on a requested statement of unpaid assessments extinguishes it too. Old, never-enforced balances are weaker than collection letters make them sound.
Section 42-1903.03 opens association and board meetings to all unit owners in good standing, requires 21 days' notice of annual or regularly scheduled meetings, mandates a designated owner-comment period at each regularly scheduled meeting, confines executive sessions to enumerated topics by recorded vote, and makes minutes available for examination and copying on written request. A DC board that governs by private email thread is operating outside its statute.
D.C. Code § 42-1903.08(a)(11) permits an association to levy a fine only after notice and an opportunity to be heard, and only a reasonable one, and the same section holds officers and board members to the care of a fiduciary. There's no dollar cap, but the hearing is mandatory and the reasonableness requirement is enforceable, which is more than owners in most no-statute jurisdictions can say.
Owner guides
Each guide explains your rights from the owner’s side, cites the controlling statute, walks the steps, and answers the questions boards hope you won’t ask.
Notice, hearing, and cure rights before a fine can stick.
When unpaid dues become a lien, and what limits foreclosure of your home.
The books and records you can inspect, how to ask, and the clock the board is on.
Quorum, ballots, proxies, recalls, and open-meeting rights that check board power.
ARC timelines, approvals, and the laws that protect solar, flags, and antennas.
Fined when a neighbor wasn't? How the docs and statute frame the defense.
District of Columbia Condominium Act (D.C. Code §§ 42-1901.01 et seq.), full text, section by section — the primary source behind every guide above.
The HOA and condo legislation we track in District of Columbia, with plain-English notes on what each bill means for homeowners.
The violation-letter analyzer reads your fine or notice and points you at the District of Columbia rights that apply.
Browse District of Columbia associations — homeowner reviews, ratings, and the public records behind each community.