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Your rights · Oregon
Oregon splits your rights across two statutes — the Condominium Act for units, the Planned Community Act for lots — and both let the board levy a 'reasonable' fine once it gives you written notice and a chance to be heard. What most owners don't expect: that fine doesn't just sit in a file if you ignore it. Under ORS § 94.709(5), an unpaid fine can ride into the same lien the association uses to chase unpaid dues, and from there into foreclosure of your home.
Guides in this state
Controlling law: Oregon Condominium Act (ORS §§ 100.005–100.990) & Oregon Planned Community Act (ORS §§ 94.550–94.783)
Last reviewed July 6, 2026· Citations link to the statute text
If you own a unit in an Oregon condominium, your association runs on the Oregon Condominium Act (ORS Chapter 100, §§ 100.005 to 100.990). If you own a lot in an HOA, the statute calls your community a 'planned community' and the controlling law is the Oregon Planned Community Act (ORS 94.550 to 94.783). The two acts are close cousins — same notice-and-hearing structure for fines, same lien mechanics for unpaid assessments, same meeting and quorum rules — but the section numbers differ and a few real gaps open up between them. Confirm which one applies before you build an argument on a specific citation.
Oregon doesn't hand owners a dedicated regulator the way some states do; there's no board that reviews HOA complaints the way, say, a state real estate commission might review a broker complaint. Your leverage is the statute's own procedural requirements — the notice, the hearing right, the recordkeeping duty — and the courts. And Oregon backs that up in a way worth knowing: ORS § 94.777 (planned community) and § 100.545 (condo) make clear that failure to comply with the bylaws, rules, or declaration is 'grounds for an action maintainable by the association ... or by an aggrieved owner,' and §§ 94.780 and 100.470 let the prevailing party in an enforcement suit recover attorney fees. That cuts both ways: it's a tool the board uses against you, and a tool you can use against the board or an unevenly enforced restriction.
Before a board can levy a fine, ORS § 94.630(1)(n) (HOA) and § 100.405(4)(k) (condo) require written notice and an opportunity to be heard, and require that the fine be based on a schedule in the declaration or bylaws, or a board resolution, that was actually delivered or mailed to every lot or unit. On records, § 94.670 (HOA) and § 100.480 (condo) make the association's books, financial records, and minutes reasonably available for examination and, on written request, duplication — subject to a specific, limited list of things the board can withhold. Both statutes also require a reserve account and reserve study for major common-property repairs (§ 94.595 / § 100.175), so owners have a real check on whether the money they're paying toward future roof and paving replacement actually exists.
On meetings, Oregon requires at least one annual meeting, sets a default 20 percent quorum, and lets owners force a special meeting (and even notice it themselves if the board sits on the request) — §§ 94.650, 94.655, 100.407, and 100.408. Board meetings are generally open to owner attendance, and the statute flatly bars boards from evading the notice rules 'by chance or social meetings or any other means' (§ 94.644(3) / § 100.420(3)). And condo owners get something Oregon's Planned Community Act doesn't hand HOA lot owners: ORS § 100.023 voids specific architectural and landscaping restrictions — on drought-driven irrigation cutbacks, on using a unit as a licensed home child care business, and on portable cooling devices — that a board might otherwise try to enforce. None of this is the board's favor to grant. It's the statutory floor.
The local twist
ORS § 94.709(5) says that, unless your declaration or bylaws provide otherwise, fees, late charges, fines, and interest the HOA board imposes under its § 94.630(1)(L), (n), and (o) powers are enforceable as assessments — meaning they can be swept into the same lien statute used for unpaid dues, and from there into foreclosure. Oregon's condo lien statute (§ 100.450(1)) doesn't use the word 'fines' by name, but its catch-all — 'other amounts levied under the declaration or bylaws' — reaches the same result, since a valid fine has to be levied under a declaration/bylaws schedule or board resolution in the first place. Don't treat a small fine as a contained, separate debt.
Unlike some states, Oregon's fine statutes (§ 94.630(1)(n) / § 100.405(4)(k)) don't set a maximum dollar amount or a specific number of days for requesting or holding a hearing. The two hard statutory requirements are that the fine be 'reasonable' and that it trace to a fine schedule or resolution actually delivered or mailed to your lot or unit — everything else about the hearing procedure comes from your declaration and bylaws.
ORS § 100.450(4) bars a condo association from maintaining a foreclosure suit or recovering a money judgment for unpaid assessments unless its own Condominium Information Report and Annual Report (filed under § 100.250) are designated current. A board that hasn't kept its own state filings current has a real procedural problem before it can come after your unit — the Planned Community Act does not carry an identical gate for HOA lot foreclosures.
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.
Oregon Condominium Act (ORS §§ 100.005–100.990) & Oregon Planned Community Act (ORS §§ 94.550–94.783), full text, section by section — the primary source behind every guide above.
The HOA and condo legislation we track in Oregon, 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 Oregon rights that apply.
Browse Oregon associations — homeowner reviews, ratings, and the public records behind each community.