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Your rights · Vermont
Vermont doesn't just tell your board it can fine you — it makes the board run a notice-and-comment process before a rule can even take effect, then a separate notice-and-hearing before a fine under that rule can stick, and it says outright that the board 'may not be arbitrary or capricious' in deciding who gets enforced against. The Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act (27A V.S.A.) is the controlling law for HOAs and condos built after 1999, and it reaches back into older communities too, just not all the way.
Guides in this state
Controlling law: Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act (27A V.S.A. §§ 1-101 to 4-120) & Condominium Ownership Act (27 V.S.A. §§ 1301-1329, legacy)
Last reviewed July 6, 2026· Citations link to the statute text
If your condominium or planned community (Vermont's term for an HOA) was created after January 1, 1999, the Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act (27A V.S.A. §§ 1-101 et seq.) governs it automatically, in full, the moment the declaration is recorded. That's true whether you're in a condo or a subdivision-style HOA; unlike states that split condos and HOAs into separate acts, Vermont's Act was written to cover both under one statute (§ 1-103(23) even lets an HOA-style 'planned community' contain condominiums within it). There's one real-world limit worth knowing up front: a planned community with 24 or fewer units and no reserved development rights, or one whose declaration caps average per-unit assessments below a low statutory threshold, is subject only to three narrow sections (§§ 1-105, 1-106, 1-107) unless its declaration affirmatively opts into the whole Act. If you're in a very small HOA, check your declaration before assuming the rest of this page automatically covers you.
If your community predates 1999, the picture is layered rather than all-or-nothing. Vermont's § 1-204 imports a defined list of CIOA sections into every pre-1999 common interest community automatically: for conduct after December 31, 1998, that includes the fining authority, the lien statute, and the records statute covered on this page; for conduct after December 31, 2011, it adds the meetings, quorum-adjacent voting, and executive-board sections. What's conspicuously left out of both waves: the notice-and-comment rulemaking process and the flag/political-sign display protections (§ 3-120), and the board-recall right (§ 3-122). Those only reach an older community if it amended its declaration under § 1-204(b) or § 1-206 to opt into the full Act. And if your condo dates from 1967 through 1998 and never resubmitted, the older Condominium Ownership Act (27 V.S.A. §§ 1301-1329) still supplies its own, thinner rules for the mechanics CIOA hasn't swept back in. One more scope note worth being honest about: Vermont's Act defines a 'cooperative' out of its coverage entirely (§ 1-103(10)); if you own a share in a Vermont housing co-op, none of this page's citations apply to you the way they'd apply to a condo or HOA owner.
Before a rule can be enforced against you at all, § 3-120(a)-(b) requires the executive board to give every owner advance notice of its intent to adopt, amend, or repeal the rule, the actual text of the change, and a date on which the board will act after considering owner comments — a real notice-and-comment procedure baked into the statute, not left to your bylaws. Then, separately, before the board can actually impose a fine for violating that rule, § 3-102(a)(11) requires notice and a hearing. The board's discretion here has a real ceiling too: § 3-102(h) says the executive board 'may not be arbitrary or capricious in taking enforcement action,' one of the more direct statutory anti-selective-enforcement lines you'll find in any state's common interest ownership law.
On money, § 3-116 gives the association a lien for both unpaid assessments and unpaid fines, perfected automatically the moment the declaration itself is recorded (no separate certificate to file), but it wraps foreclosure in real friction: the association generally can't start a foreclosure action unless you're at least three months behind on assessments and have failed to accept or comply with a payment plan the association offered you, and if what you actually owe is only fines with no unpaid assessment behind it, the association can't foreclose at all until it already holds a money judgment against you. On records, § 3-118 requires the association to keep a real list of documents, including the committee's own design and architectural approval decisions, and to make them available to any owner on five days' written notice. None of this is the board's favor to grant. It is the statutory floor, and for most owners, regardless of how old their community is, it already applies.
The local twist
A planned community (HOA) of 24 units or fewer with no reserved development rights, or one under a low assessment cap, gets only §§ 1-105 through 1-107 unless its declaration opts into the full Act (§ 1-203). Communities created before January 1, 1999 automatically pick up the fining, lien, and records sections for conduct after 1998, and the meetings, quorum, and voting sections for conduct after 2011 (§ 1-204) — but not the rulemaking-notice-and-comment or flag/political-sign protections of § 3-120, or the board-recall right of § 3-122, unless the declaration was formally amended in.
Section 3-116(m) bars an association from starting a foreclosure action unless you owe at least three months of common-expense assessments and have failed to accept or comply with a payment plan the association offered. Section 3-116(o) goes further: if the amount you owe doesn't include an actual unpaid assessment — if it's just fines and fees — the association can't foreclose at all until it has already won a money judgment against you and perfected a judgment lien.
Section 3-102(g) lets the executive board decide not to pursue enforcement in specific circumstances (a shaky legal position, an immaterial violation, a rule that looks legally unenforceable), but § 3-102(h) draws the line: the board 'may not be arbitrary or capricious in taking enforcement action.' Paired with § 4-117, which lets any unit owner (not just the association) sue to enforce the Act, the declaration, or the bylaws, that's real, on-point statutory language for a selective-enforcement fight, not an imported common-law doctrine.
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.
Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act (27A V.S.A. §§ 1-101 to 4-120) & Condominium Ownership Act (27 V.S.A. §§ 1301-1329, legacy), full text, section by section — the primary source behind every guide above.
The HOA and condo legislation we track in Vermont, 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 Vermont rights that apply.
Browse Vermont associations — homeowner reviews, ratings, and the public records behind each community.