Pennsylvania HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• Pennsylvania conditions the association's power to levy a fine on notice and an opportunity to be heard, and requires that the fine be reasonable. The Act does not say how the notice must be sent, what it must contain, or how many days must pass before a fine may be levied, and it sets no cure period, so those details come from the declaration, bylaws and rules rather than from the statute.
• The fine provision reaches communities built long before the Act. Section 5102(b) provides: "Retroactivity.--Except as provided in subsection (c), sections 5105, 5106, 5107, 5203 (relating to construction and validity of declaration and bylaws), 5204 (relating to description of units), 5218, 5219 (relating to amendment of declaration), 5223 (relating to merger or consolidation of planned community), 5302(a)(1) through (6) and (11) through (15) (relating to power of unit owners' association), 5311 (relating to tort and contract liability), 5315 (relating to lien for assessments), 5316 (relating to association records), 5407 (relating to resales of units) and 5412 (relating to effect of violations on rights of action) and section 5103 (relating to definitions), to the extent necessary in construing any of those sections, apply to all planned communities created in this Commonwealth before the effective date of this subpart; but those sections apply only with respect to events and circumstances occurring after the effective date of this subpart and do not invalidate specific provisions contained in existing provisions of the declaration, bylaws or plats and plans of those planned communities." Both the fine power at § 5302(a)(11) and the records provision at § 5316 are on that list. Note the opening words: the retroactivity rule is expressly subject to the small-community exception in § 5102(c), described below.
• Not every Pennsylvania planned community is fully covered, and the exceptions can remove the fine rules entirely. For a community created after the Act took effect, § 5102(a)(1) provides that if it "contains no more than 12 units and is not subject to any rights under section 5215 (relating to subdivision or conversion of units) to subdivide units or to convert into common elements or under section 5211 (relating to conversion and expansion of flexible planned communities) to add additional real estate, create units or limited common elements within convertible real estate or withdraw real estate, it is subject only to sections 5105 (relating to separate titles and taxation), 5106 (relating to applicability of local ordinances, regulations and building codes), 5107 (relating to eminent domain) and 5218 (relating to easement to facilitate completion, conversion and expansion) unless the declaration provides that the entire subpart is applicable" — which leaves § 5302(a)(11), and with it the notice-and-hearing requirement, inapplicable to that community. For a community created before the Act took effect, § 5102(c) does the same thing: "If a planned community created within this Commonwealth before the effective date of this subpart contains no more than 12 units and is not a flexible planned community, it is subject only to sections 5105, 5106, 5107 and 5218 unless the declaration is amended in conformity with applicable law and with the procedures and requirements of the declaration to take advantage of the provisions of subsection (d), in which case all the sections enumerated in subsection (b) apply to that planned community." So in a small community of 12 units or fewer, whether new or old, the statutory right to notice and an opportunity to be heard before a fine may simply not exist, and everything depends on the declaration.
• A separate exception in § 5102(a)(2) covers a planned community "regardless of the number of units" whose common elements or limited common elements "include only storm water management facilities and related devices, real estate containing signage, lighting, landscaping, gates, walls, fences or monuments or open space and is not subject to any rights under section 5215 or under section 5211". Such a community is subject to a listed group of sections plus the whole of Chapter 53, which includes § 5302 — so the fine power and its notice-and-hearing condition do apply there.
• In plain terms, the communities the fine statute does not reach are the smallest ones. Because § 5302(a)(11) is not among the sections that apply to them, there is no statutory right to notice and an opportunity to be heard before a fine in a planned community of 12 units or fewer that either (a) was created after the Act took effect and has no rights under § 5215 to subdivide units or convert them into common elements and no rights under § 5211 to add real estate, create units or limited common elements within convertible real estate, or withdraw real estate (§ 5102(a)(1)), or (b) was created before the Act took effect and is not a flexible planned community (§ 5102(c)). Those communities are subject only to §§ 5105, 5106, 5107 and 5218, and their fine procedure comes entirely from the declaration. Either kind can come within the fine rules through its own documents — a newer one where "the declaration provides that the entire subpart is applicable" (§ 5102(a)(1)), an older one where "the declaration is amended in conformity with applicable law and with the procedures and requirements of the declaration to take advantage of the provisions of subsection (d)" (§ 5102(c)). A community of any size whose common elements are limited to storm water management facilities and related devices, signage, lighting, landscaping, gates, walls, fences, monuments or open space, and that is not subject to any rights under § 5215 or § 5211, is covered in full because § 5102(a)(2) applies the whole of Chapter 53 to it. Two further exclusions apply regardless of size: a planned community in which all units are restricted exclusively to nonresidential use is outside the subpart unless its declaration provides otherwise (§ 5102(e)), and the subpart does not reach planned communities located outside Pennsylvania (§ 5102(f)).
• The Uniform Planned Community Act governs planned communities — the single-family and townhome HOA setting. Pennsylvania condominiums are governed separately by the Uniform Condominium Act, 68 Pa.C.S. § 3101 et seq., whose parallel power at 68 Pa.C.S. § 3302(a)(11)(i) likewise lets a condominium association "Levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws and rules and regulations of the association."
• One limit on the complaint route: 68 Pa.C.S. § 5322 lets a unit owner in good standing complain to the Bureau of Consumer Protection, but only about violations of § 5308 (meetings), § 5309 (quorums) and § 5310 (voting; proxies). A fine dispute is not among them. The separate complaint right in § 5316(c), described above, reaches only the association's failure to make financial statements and records available.