Educational Resources

Assessments are how an Arizona community association keeps the lights on — landscaping, insurance, reserves, and everything in between. When an owner stops paying, the shortfall doesn't disappear; it shifts to every other homeowner.

Arizona law gives associations real tools to collect, but those tools come with procedural requirements that have tightened significantly since 2024. This page covers how the system works and where boards get tripped up.

§ 33-1807 - The assessment lien for planned communities — what it secures, and the limits on foreclosing it.

§ 33-1256 - The condominium equivalent — similar structure, meaningful differences.

§ 33-1803 - Late charges on assessments — capped at the greater of $15 or 10%.

HB 2648 (2024) - Reasonable payment plan requirements before escalation.

SB 1494 (2025) - Judicial foreclosure now requires 18 months of delinquency or $10,000 owed, whichever occurs first.

Yes. The association's lien for assessments arises by statute — it doesn't require recording a separate document to exist, although recording practices still matter for priority and notice. The lien secures unpaid assessments and, depending on the statute and your governing documents, certain related charges. What it does not secure is fines — see below, because this is the single most common misunderstanding in Arizona collections.

Yes, but the threshold moved. Since SB 1494 took effect in September 2025, a planned community association cannot initiate judicial foreclosure until the owner has been delinquent for 18 months or owes $10,000 in unpaid assessments — whichever occurs first. That is now the highest foreclosure threshold in the country, and it makes early, consistent collection action more important, not less: the longer an account ages before anyone acts, the harder it becomes to resolve without a large balance and an entrenched dispute.

No. Fines and monetary penalties are treated fundamentally differently from assessments under Arizona law — they are not secured the way assessments are, and an association cannot foreclose to collect fines. Some budgets try to relabel fines as "compliance assessments"; labels don't override the statute. Fine recovery runs through the reasonableness standard and the courts, which is a different process entirely. This is covered in our "Fines & Enforcement" section below.

Since 2024, associations must offer delinquent owners a reasonable payment plan meeting statutory requirements. Practically, "reasonable" is much easier to achieve when the balance is small — a $600 delinquency divides into workable monthly payments; a $9,000 one often doesn't. This is another reason prompt, consistent collection action protects both the association and the homeowner.

This became a live issue after the Sunland Springs decision in 2026 addressed how open meeting requirements interact with board decision-making. The practical protection is a properly adopted Collection Policy that automates escalation at defined thresholds — so accounts move to collections by standing policy rather than case-by-case votes.

The automatic stay pauses collection activity immediately — but it doesn't erase the debt or the lien, and post-petition assessments generally continue to accrue as the owner's personal obligation. Bankruptcy cases require proofs of claim, plan review, and sometimes stay-relief motions. This is where many collection programs quietly hand the file back or convert to hourly billing; it's also where experienced counsel earns the result.

Nothing — if your firm's incentives are aligned with yours. Arizona law allows collection costs and attorney fees to be charged to the delinquent owner. Our firm built Arizona's original true contingency collection program on that principle in 2006: we advance all fees and costs, bill them to the homeowner on top of the full balance, and your association recovers 100% of its assessments. How the program works →

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