New Hampshire HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• New Hampshire has no homeowners association fine statute. For a subdivision of separately owned lots governed by recorded covenants, no New Hampshire statute requires the association to give notice before levying a fine, sets a cure period, guarantees a hearing, or caps the amount of a fine. Whether such an association may fine at all, how much, and what steps it must take first are set by the recorded declaration, covenants, bylaws and rules, together with whatever corporate statute the association is organized under, which supplies organizational mechanics rather than fine procedure.
• New Hampshire does have homeowners-association provisions, and this entry still records the state as having no HOA fine or enforcement statute, because they are voting, dissolution, records and governance rules that set no fine, notice, cure or hearing procedure. They sit in RSA 292, the chapter on voluntary corporations and associations, under which many New Hampshire homeowners associations are incorporated, rather than in a chapter with a homeowners-association caption. RSA 292:8-m, headed "Homeowners' Associations," provides that "For any homeowners' association established under this chapter, except those associations that include ownership through timeshare, if more than 50 percent of the votes are acquired by a single person after developer control is terminated, a 2/3 majority shall be required to amend bylaws, budgets, and any contracted property management service" (RSA 292:8-m, I), and that "No homeowners' association constituted under this chapter and approved by the planning board or similar land use body that has jurisdiction in the town or city in which the homeowners' association is located, shall be dissolved pursuant to the procedure in RSA 292:9 or RSA 292:10-a, prior to a hearing under RSA 676:2 before that same planning board or land use body" (RSA 292:8-m, II). Neither paragraph confers a power to fine or attaches any procedure to one. The section was added by 2023, 114:1, effective January 1, 2024.
• Three more paragraphs are already law but do not take effect until January 1, 2027. Chapter 306 of the Laws of 2026 (House Bill 1523, signed by the Governor on July 10, 2026, effective January 1, 2027) adds RSA 292:8-m, III, IV and V, and none of the three mentions fines, notice of a violation, a cure period, a hearing before a fine, or a cap on a fine. Paragraph III will require a homeowners' association established under RSA 292 to retain eleven categories of records, among them "Detailed records of receipts and expenditures affecting the operation and administration of the association and other appropriate accounting records," minutes and records of actions taken without a meeting, the names and addresses of members, the organizational documents, land plats or maps "and all rules currently in effect," "All financial statements and tax returns of the association for the past 3 years," "Copies of current contracts to which it is a party," "Records of board of directors or committee actions to approve or deny any requests for design or architectural approval from shareholders or members," and "Ballots, proxies, and other records related to voting by shareholders or members for one year after the election, action, or vote to which they relate." Those records will have to be available for examination and copying by a member "During reasonable business hours or at a mutually convenient time and location" and "Upon 15 days' notice in a record reasonably identifying the specific records of the association requested," subject to eight withholding categories (personnel, salary and medical records; commercial transactions currently being negotiated; existing or potential litigation, mediation, arbitration or administrative proceedings; enforcement proceedings before a government tribunal; attorney-client and work-product communications; disclosures that would violate federal or state law; records of an executive session of the board; and "Individual shareholder or member account records other than those of the requesting owner"), and to a copying fee that "may not exceed the charge for copying a governmental record as provided for in RSA 91-A:4, IV(d)." Paragraph IV will limit executive sessions of the board and its committees to consulting the association's attorney, discussing existing or potential litigation or proceedings, discussing labor or personnel matters, and discussing commercial transactions currently being negotiated, and provides that "No final vote or action shall be taken during an executive session." Paragraph V will bar the association from contracting with a company in which an owner or board member, or an immediate family member of one, has a pecuniary interest unless the interest "is disclosed in writing and prominently to all members before or at the same time as the notice of the meeting held in accordance with the homeowners' association bylaws," the contract "is approved by a majority of the votes cast by the membership at the meeting with a quorum present," and "The interested person recuses from voting."
• New Hampshire's only common-interest-community act is the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, which "shall apply to all condominiums and to all condominium projects" (RSA 356-B:2, I) — that is, to condominiums and not to a development of separately owned lots. New Hampshire is also unusual in that its condominium act confers no fine power at all, so even a New Hampshire condominium owner has no statutory notice or hearing right before a fine. The Act's enforcement provision is a right to sue, not to fine: "The declarant, the board of directors, every unit owner, and all those entitled to occupy a unit shall comply with all lawful provisions of this chapter and all provisions of the condominium instruments. Any lack of such compliance shall be grounds for an action or suit to recover sums due, for damages or injunctive relief, or for any other remedy available at law or in equity, maintainable by the unit owners' association, or by its board of directors or any managing agent on behalf of such association, or, in any proper case, by one or more aggrieved unit owners on their own behalf or as a class action" (RSA 356-B:15, I), and "The prevailing party shall be entitled to all costs and attorneys' fees incurred in any proceeding under RSA 356-B:15, I" (RSA 356-B:15, II). The mandatory bylaw contents in RSA 356-B:35 include no fine, notice, cure-period or hearing item.
• The word "fine" appears in RSA 356-B in only one operative place, and it is a limit on the association rather than a grant of power: in the lien-priority provision, the six months of unpaid regular monthly common assessments that outrank a first mortgage are described so that "The lien shall not include any amounts attributable to special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, or interest assessed by the unit owners' association, nor shall the lien apply to regular assessments or costs of collection coming due prior to the effective date of this section" (RSA 356-B:46, I(c)). The word "heard" does not appear anywhere in the chapter, and no hearing in the chapter concerns an association's treatment of an owner: the hearings in RSA 356-B are the Attorney General's registration, reconsideration and cease-and-desist proceedings (RSA 356-B:51, 356-B:54, 356-B:61 and 356-B:62) and judicial review of them (RSA 356-B:63), the statutory notices of hearing served on the association in a condemnation of the common areas (RSA 356-B:6), and a municipality's local land use board hearing (RSA 356-B:40). The chapter's only penalty section is RSA 356-B:64, and it is criminal rather than associational: "Any person who willfully violates any provision of this subdivision IV or of a rule adopted under it or any person who willfully, in an application for registration, makes any untrue statement of a material fact or omits to state a material fact shall be guilty of a class B felony if a natural person, or guilty of a felony if any other person" — subdivision IV being the Attorney General's Administration and Enforcement subdivision. Nothing in the chapter lets an association levy a fine.
• What RSA 356-B does give condominium owners is disclosure, meeting and budget machinery. On records, "Financial information shall be presented on a profit and loss statement and shall be available to the unit owners 30 days prior to the annual meeting" (RSA 356-B:37-e, I); "Each unit owner shall have access to all financial information within 15 days of the unit owner's request regarding any contracts, mortgages, loans, and the terms of such loans, and any outstanding debts and balances of all accounts held by the association. The individual accounts of unit owners shall not be included unless a lien for nonpayment of assessments or fees has been recorded, in which case, the account shall be disclosed pursuant to a request for financial information under this section" (RSA 356-B:37-e, II); and "The board of directors shall make copies of the minutes of all meetings available to the unit owners within 60 days of the meeting or 15 days of the date such minutes are approved by the board, whichever occurs first" (RSA 356-B:37-e, V). On notices generally, "An association shall deliver any notice required to be given by the association under this chapter to any mailing or electronic mail address a unit owner designates. If the unit owner does not designate an address, the association shall deliver notices by hand delivery, United States mail postage paid, or commercially reasonable delivery service to the mailing address of each unit" (RSA 356-B:37-a). Budgets and special assessments must be circulated and put to a ratification meeting set "not less than 10 days or more than 60 days after providing the summary" (RSA 356-B:40-c, I). And in a conflict, "In the event of a conflict between the declaration or bylaws, the provisions of RSA 356-B shall control" (RSA 356-B:6-a, I). New Hampshire's earlier condominium statute, RSA 479-A (Unit Ownership of Real Property), still governs property submitted to it before September 10, 1977 (RSA 356-B:2, I) and contains no fine, hearing or penalty provision either — the words "fine," "penalty," "hearing" and "heard" do not appear anywhere in its 28 sections.