| Alabama | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | An Alabama HOA covered by the Act can only assess a "reasonable" penalty against a member after giving the opportunity to be heard and represented by counsel before the board, under Ala. Code § 35-20-11(a)(2). There's no statutory dollar cap, so the hearing right is your real leverage. |
| Alaska | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Alaska law says an association may levy only a reasonable fine, and only after notice and an opportunity to be heard (AS 34.08.320(a)(11)). The catch: once levied, fines are enforceable as assessments and ride the association's automatic lien — so contest the fine at the hearing stage, before it becomes secured debt. |
| Arizona | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | An Arizona association can't fine you without notice, a real chance to respond, and, if it skips the details, a path to an administrative hearing at the Department of Real Estate. Sections 33-1803 (HOA) and 33-1242 (condo) spell out exactly what the board owes you before a fine can stick. |
| Arkansas | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | No Arkansas statute authorizes association fines, caps them, or requires a hearing — for condos or HOAs. Every fine must trace to the recorded master deed, bylaws, or bill of assurance, and Arkansas courts strictly construe those documents in favor of the free use of land. The authority trail is the whole fight, so start there. |
| California | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | California HOAs can only fine according to a pre-published penalty schedule, after notice and a chance to be heard. Davis-Stirling gives you procedure you can hold the board to. |
| Colorado | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Colorado HOA must enforce covenants through a written policy and the CCIOA framework in C.R.S. §§ 38-33.3-123 and -209.5. Here's how to use the required process to challenge a fine. |
| Connecticut | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Connecticut association governed by CIOA can only fine you after notice and a chance to be heard, and before it can sue you over the same violation, § 47-278 generally requires a separate hearing before the executive board first. Here's how to use both gates. |
| Delaware | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Under DUCIOA, a fine for violating your declaration, bylaws, or rules requires notice and a chance to be heard first, and the rule you broke has to have been noticed to owners before it applies. Delaware's older Unit Property Act condos don't have a board fining power at all. |
| District of Columbia | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A DC condo association can fine you only after notice and an opportunity to be heard, and only a reasonable amount (D.C. Code § 42-1903.08(a)(11)). The hearing is mandatory, the rule behind the fine had to be adopted in the open, and the minutes that prove or disprove all of it are examinable. |
| Florida | $1,000 | 14 days' notice | Florida HOAs can't just mail you a fine. Chapter 720 requires 14 days' notice and a hearing before an independent owner committee, and it caps most fines at $1,000. Here's how to use that. |
| Georgia | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Georgia association can only fine you "if and to the extent provided" in your recorded declaration, for rules that were properly adopted and actually given to you. There's no statewide cap or hearing requirement, so your documents are where the real fight starts. |
| Hawaii | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Hawaii's condo statute requires a fining procedure with a stated basis and an appeal to the board on notice and an opportunity to be heard (HRS § 514B-104). Its planned-community statute has no fine section at all, so an HOA's process comes from your documents — but a fine-only lien still can't be foreclosed nonjudicially, and paid-in-full owners get mediation and a refund right. |
| Idaho | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 30 days' written notice | An Idaho homeowner's association can only fine you if the authority to do so is clearly written into your covenants, a majority of the board actually votes on it, and you get 30 days' written notice first. Idaho Code section 55-3206 spells out the process, and a working cure stops the fine cold. |
| Illinois | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Illinois requires notice and a hearing before your board can fine you, HOA fines under 765 ILCS 160/1-30(g), condo fines under 765 ILCS 605/18.4(l), and an unpaid condo fine can turn into a lien on your unit. Here's how to use the process instead of just paying. |
| Indiana | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Indiana sets no statutory fine procedure or cap, so the covenants control what an association may charge. What the state does mandate is the forum: under Ind. Code ch. 32-25.5-5, a fine dispute must go through the grievance process before either side can sue. |
| Iowa | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 7 days' notice | Iowa's condo statute never authorizes fines by name, sets no cap, and requires no hearing — a penalty must trace to your recorded declaration and bylaws. Your leverage: § 499B.14's recording rule, § 499B.15(2)'s open-meeting remedy that voids improperly adopted board action, and the 499C.2 records right that forces the paper trail into the open. |
| Kansas | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Kansas doesn't hand owners a dollar-capped fine or a guaranteed hearing before a charge lands, but K.S.A. § 58-4608 bars the board from enforcing 'arbitrarily or capriciously,' and § 58-4604 layers a duty of good faith on top. Here's how to use both. |
| Kentucky | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Kentucky planned-community board can't charge you a fine, damage charge, or individual assessment without written notice and the opportunity to be heard first, under KRS § 381.797(2). Condo owners have a real lien exposure for unpaid fines but no equivalent explicit hearing right in state law. Here's how to use what you actually have. |
| Louisiana | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Louisiana lets your condominium association levy a fine only after notice and "an opportunity to be heard," under La. R.S. § 9:1123.102(11), and only if it's reasonable. There's no statutory dollar cap on that fine, but a $250 threshold controls whether it can ride into a privilege on your unit, and the same paragraph lets the board cut off services over an unpaid bill. |
| Maine | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Maine association can only fine you after notice and a chance to be heard, for violating a rule that was actually adopted, under 33 M.R.S. § 1603-102(a)(11), and it can't cut off your access to your own unit or shut off a health-and-safety service to collect. Here's how to use that. |
| Maryland | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 10 days' notice | Maryland condo owners get a real notice-cure-hearing sequence under § 11-113 before a fine can stick. HOA lot owners get no equivalent statute at all, so the fight starts in your own declaration, not the state code. |
| Massachusetts | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Massachusetts lets your condo association fine you for violating the master deed, bylaws, or rules under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 10(b)(5), but the statute doesn't itself require a hearing, and an unpaid fine can quietly become a lien on your unit under § 6. Here's how to fight it before it compounds. |
| Michigan | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Michigan condo association can fine you, but MCL § 559.206 frames that power as running "after notice and hearing." If you're in an ordinary subdivision HOA, state law says nothing about fines at all, so your declaration is the whole fight. |
| Minnesota | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Minnesota association can only fine you after notice and a chance to be heard, and if you dispute the fine and the board doesn't uphold it, the association can't charge you for its legal costs. Here's how the notice-and-hearing process under Minn. Stat. § 515B.3-102 actually works. |
| Mississippi | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Mississippi's condominium statute never uses the word "fine." Whether your association can charge you a penalty at all, and how, depends entirely on what your own recorded declaration of restrictions set up under Miss. Code § 89-9-17, tested against the statute's "reasonable" equitable-servitude standard. |
| Missouri | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 5 business days' written notice | Missouri's nonprofit corporation law says nothing about HOA fines, caps, or hearings — that power comes entirely from your declaration. Condo owners in condominiums created after September 28, 1983 get a real statutory notice-and-hearing right instead. Here's how to use whichever one actually covers you. |
| Montana | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Montana has no statute requiring notice, a hearing, or a dollar cap before your HOA can charge you for a violation. Whatever process you're entitled to lives in your own declaration and bylaws, except for one real protection: a rule can't be enforced against you if it's a harsher use restriction than existed when you bought. |
| Nebraska | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Nebraska condo association can only fine you after notice and a chance to be heard, and the fine has to be reasonable, under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-860. That floor applies only to condos under the modern Act; here's how to use it, and what's honestly missing if you're in an HOA instead. |
| Nevada | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Nevada HOA can't fine you without notice and a hearing under NRS 116.31031, and the fine schedule and continuing-violation rules are set by statute. Here's how to use that — and the Ombudsman backstop. |
| New Hampshire | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | New Hampshire has no dedicated notice-and-hearing statute for an HOA or condo violation fine. Condo owners lean on RSA 356-B:15's general right to sue over noncompliance, with fees available to whoever wins; non-condo HOA owners have only their own recorded declaration to stand on. |
| New Jersey | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A New Jersey association cannot impose a fine without written notice of its basis and advising you of your right to dispute resolution before a neutral. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-15(e) makes the ADR offer a precondition, and using ADR never waives your right to court. |
| New Mexico | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 14 days' written notice | A New Mexico fine isn't valid unless the association gave you written notice, a chance to dispute, and — if you asked — a hearing on fourteen days' notice, followed by a majority board vote (NMSA § 47-16-18). Condo boards owe notice and an opportunity to be heard under § 47-7C-2. Because fines become foreclosable liens here, the hearing is where the fight belongs. |
| New York | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | New York's Condominium Act doesn't hand your board a fining statute, it hands them a lawsuit. Here's what § 339-j actually authorizes, and why a 'fine' that gets billed as a common charge is a much bigger deal than it looks. |
| North Carolina | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A North Carolina HOA can only fine you after notice and a real opportunity to be heard, and the law caps late fees and draws a line most owners never hear about: a lien built solely on fines can't be fast-tracked through foreclosure. Here's how to use that. |
| North Dakota | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | No North Dakota statute authorizes association fines — the condo chapter never mentions them, and the Nonprofit Corporations Act doesn't either. A fine must trace to your own recorded documents, and the condo chapter's own enforcement standard ('equitable servitudes where reasonable') plus its court-action remedy are your levers against one that doesn't. |
| Ohio | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Ohio calls it an 'enforcement assessment,' not a fine, but the board still can't charge you one without written notice, a chance to cure, and — if you ask in time — a hearing before it's imposed. Here's how §§ 5311.081 and 5312.11 work. |
| Oklahoma | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Oklahoma has no statutory fine mechanism for condos or owners associations. There's no dollar cap and no mandated hearing anywhere in Title 60. Whatever fine authority your association claims has to trace back to your own recorded covenants, which makes those documents the whole fight. |
| Oregon | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | An Oregon board can only levy a 'reasonable' fine after written notice and a chance to be heard, and only if the fine traces to a schedule or resolution actually mailed to you. There's no dollar cap — and an unpaid fine can turn into a lien on your home. Here's how ORS §§ 94.630(1)(n) and 100.405(4)(k) work. |
| Pennsylvania | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Pennsylvania association can't fine you without notice and a hearing under 68 Pa.C.S. § 3302 (condo) and § 5302 (planned community), and an unpaid fine can become a lien on your home just like an unpaid assessment. Here's how to use the process before it gets there. |
| Rhode Island | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | If your condo was created after 1982, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.20 caps fines by statute alone, no declaration can set its own number, and guarantees a hearing before a fine is assessed. Older condos work differently. Here's how to tell which rules apply to you. |
| South Carolina | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | South Carolina's HOA Act sets no dollar cap and no hearing requirement for a violation charge; its real leverage is that a rule has to be recorded and made accessible to you before it can be enforced. Condo enforcement runs through a civil action, not a board-issued fine. |
| South Dakota | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 50 days' written notice | No South Dakota statute authorizes an HOA or condo fine, caps one, or requires a hearing first. Whatever fining power your association claims has to come from your own recorded covenants or bylaws, and that document, read as the contract it is, sets both the power and its limits. |
| Tennessee | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Tennessee condo fines require notice and an opportunity to be heard under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-27-402(a)(11), and unless the declaration says otherwise they become lienable assessments. Subdivision HOA fines rest entirely on the covenants, which cuts both ways. |
| Texas | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Texas HOAs generally must give written notice, a chance to cure, and a hearing before the board before fining you. Chapter 209 turns a surprise fine into a process you can contest. |
| Utah | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Utah HOA can't open with a fine. Utah Code § 57-8a-208 requires a written warning first, at least 48 hours to cure a continuing violation, an informal hearing on request, and a 180-day window to take the fine to court. Here's how to use each step. |
| Vermont | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Vermont association has to run a notice-and-comment process before a rule takes effect, and give you notice and a hearing before a fine under it sticks, and it can't be arbitrary or capricious about who it enforces against. Here's how §§ 3-120 and 3-102 work together. |
| Virginia | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A Virginia HOA can't charge you for a violation without properly adopted rules and a notice-and-hearing process under Va. Code § 55.1-1819, and the charge is capped by statute. Here's how to use that. |
| Washington | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | Washington ties a board's power to fine you to a previously adopted schedule, notice, and a hearing, whether you're under the newer WUCIOA or a legacy HOA. The board also can't be arbitrary or capricious about who it goes after. |
| West Virginia | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | See guide | A West Virginia association can only levy a fine "after notice and an opportunity to be heard," under W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102(a)(11), and only for a reasonable amount. There's no statutory dollar cap, so knowing the hearing right is your leverage. |
| Wisconsin | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 10 business days' written notice | Wisconsin law gives you no statutory hearing before a fine and no dollar cap — and a condo fine can even become a foreclosable lien under Wis. Stat. § 703.165. Your leverage is different here: the authority trail in your documents, and the registration check under § 710.18 that voids an unfiled HOA's late fees and fines on arrears. |
| Wyoming | Not a fixed dollar cap — see guide | 15 days' written notice | No Wyoming statute authorizes association fines, caps them, or requires a hearing first; the power must come from your recorded declaration. But if the board suspends your privileges as punishment, Wyo. Stat. § 17-19-621 requires a fair procedure: fifteen days' written notice with reasons and a chance to be heard. |