Delaware · HOADelaware HOA assessment lien: six-month priority, the 3-year limit and the payoff statement

Under the Delaware Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, the association has a statutory lien on a unit for any assessment levied against it or fines imposed on its owner, and late charges, fees, interest and collection costs are enforceable the same way; an installment assessment is a lien for the full amount once the first installment is due, and interest runs at the lesser of 18% or the legal maximum unless the declaration says otherwise. Except as the declaration provides, the lien is prior to all other liens except those recorded before the declaration, a first or second security interest recorded before the assessment became delinquent, and real estate taxes and governmental charges. It does have priority over those mortgages for up to six months of customary common expense assessments under the budget – but only if the association has recorded a document with its name, address and contacts and, at least 30 days before a sheriff's sale of the unit, a notarized statement of lien; such statements expire on the first day of the sixtieth month after recording. Recording the declaration perfects the lien, and the lien is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce it start within 3 years after the full amount becomes due, tolled for the owner's bankruptcy. On written request the association must give a unit owner a statement of unpaid assessments – in recordable form when the unit is real estate – within 10 business days; it binds the association and every owner, and the fee can't exceed $25 unless the account has been referred to counsel (25 Del. C. §81-316).