Arkansas HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• Arkansas has no homeowners association act and no statute governing HOA fines. Whether an Arkansas property owners association may fine at all, what notice it must give, whether any cure period applies, whether a hearing is available and how large a fine may be are governed by the recorded declaration, bill of assurance, covenants, bylaws and rules, together with the Arkansas nonprofit corporation law for an association incorporated under it, which supplies corporate mechanics rather than fine procedure. Arkansas law does say when a recorded restriction binds land at all: "An instrument creating a restrictive covenant is not effective to restrict the use or development of real property unless the instrument purporting to restrict the use or development of the real property is executed by the owners of the real property and recorded in the office of the recorder of the county in which the property is located" (Ark. Code § 18-12-103(b)), and a "restrictive covenant" is "a restriction on the use or development of real property regardless of whether the restriction is created by a covenant in a deed or bill of assurance, or by any other instrument" (§ 18-12-103(a)).
• The nearest thing Arkansas has to a common-interest-community statute is the condominium statute, and it has no fine provision either. "This chapter shall be known as the 'Horizontal Property Act'" (Ark. Code § 18-13-101), enacted by Acts 1961 (1st Ex. Sess.), No. 60. Its twenty sections cover the creation of horizontal property regimes, master deeds and plans, bylaws, common elements, conveyances, assessments, insurance, reconstruction and taxation. Nothing in the mandatory contents of the bylaws under § 18-13-108(b) — form of administration and the powers, removal and compensation of the administrator or board; the method of calling co-owners to assemble, the fifty-one percent majority required to adopt decisions, who presides and who keeps the minute book; care, upkeep and surveillance of the building and its common elements and services; the manner of collecting from co-owners for payment of common expenses; and designation and dismissal of personnel — concerns fines, notice of violation, cure periods or hearings. The assessment provision runs to money owed rather than to penalties: "The co-owners of the apartments are bound to contribute pro rata, in the percentages computed according to § 18-13-112, toward the expenses of administration and of maintenance and repair of the general common elements and, in the proper case, of the limited common elements of the building, and toward any other expense lawfully agreed upon" (§ 18-13-116(a)(1)). The one records right the chapter gives is narrow and runs to the accounts book: the administrator, board of administration or other form of administration specified in the bylaws must keep a book with a detailed chronological account of receipts and expenditures affecting the building and its administration, and "Both the book and the vouchers accrediting the entries made thereupon shall be available for examination by all the co-owners at convenient hours on working days that shall be set and announced for general knowledge" (§ 18-13-110). There is no comparable statutory records right for a single-family Arkansas property owners association.
• The Horizontal Property Act is the condominium statute and applies to horizontal property regimes established by a recorded master deed, not to single-family homeowners associations; "Co-owner" is defined as "a person, firm, corporation, partnership, association, trust, or other legal entity, or any combination thereof, who owns an apartment within the building" (Ark. Code § 18-13-102(2)). Arkansas timeshares fall under a separate chapter, the Arkansas Time-Share Act, Ark. Code §§ 18-14-101 to 18-14-703. A differently named body of law, the Property Owners' Improvement District Law, Ark. Code § 14-93-101 et seq. in Title 14 (Local Government), Subtitle 5 (Improvement Districts), governs public improvement districts formed by property owners and their district assessments; it is not a private homeowners association statute and does not supply fine, notice, cure-period or hearing procedure for one.
• That Arkansas has no property owners association statute is confirmed by a 2025 bill that would have created one and failed. House Bill 1453 of the 2025 Regular Session, "AN ACT TO AMEND THE HORIZONTAL PROPERTY ACT; TO REGULATE PROPERTY OWNERS' ASSOCIATIONS; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," would have added to Ark. Code § 18-13-102 a definition of "Property owners' association" as "an incorporated nonprofit organization operating under recorded land agreements through which each: (A) Lot owner in a planned unit or other described land area is automatically a member; and (B) Lot is automatically subject to a charge for a proportionate share of the expenses for the organization's activities and services," would have added bylaw requirements on establishing and changing fee structures, expenses and assessments, would have added an annual financial report and Arkansas Legislative Audit provisions, and would have extended the assessment obligation to full-time residents. Even that bill created no fine, notice, cure-period or hearing procedure. The official Arkansas General Assembly bill page records that House Bill 1453 was filed February 11, 2025, read the first and second time and referred to the House Committee on City, County and Local Affairs the same day, and was "WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR" on February 20, 2025; it never became an act.