Alabama HOA laws: a board member’s reference.

The Alabama Homeowners’ Association Act applies to developments subject to a declaration providing for a homeowners’ association recorded in the office of the judge of probate on or after January 1, 2016. An association formed before that date is covered only if, by a majority of its members, it elects to be governed by the chapter.

Read that trigger carefully, because it is not the date the neighborhood was built or the date the association was incorporated. It is the recording date of the declaration in the probate office of the county where the development sits. That is a document your board can pull and check, and it is the first thing to establish before relying on anything else here.

The Act also expressly does not reach commercial, industrial, or other nonresidential developments; any association regulated under the condominium chapters; or real estate cooperatives, time-share developments, and campgrounds.

Communities outside the Act are not unregulated. They run on their recorded governing documents plus the Alabama Nonprofit Corporation Law at Title 10A, Chapter 3, if they are incorporated, plus federal law. In some respects the corporate route is broader rather than narrower, which is why the question is worth asking rather than assuming.

Condominiums sit outside Chapter 20 entirely. Those created after January 1, 1991 are governed by the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act at § 35-8A-101 and following, and older regimes by the prior chapter at § 35-8-1. CMGT manages condominium associations on the Alabama Gulf Coast under those separate chapters.

An association created under a declaration on or after January 1, 2016 must be organized as a nonprofit corporation under Chapter 3 of Title 10A and is governed in all respects as one. The association, its members, and its directors take on all the obligations and rights that come with that.

On top of the ordinary corporate filings, a covered association must file two things with the Secretary of State: its bylaws or other governing documents, and the original covenants, conditions, or restrictions it adopted. The Secretary of State maintains an electronic database organized by association name, publicly searchable, holding those documents.

That database is the part most boards do not realize exists. Your community’s governing documents are meant to be publicly retrievable by name, which means a prospective buyer, a lender, or a homeowner can pull them without going through you. It also means a gap in your filings is visible to anyone who looks.

Organizational documents may also provide for indemnification and insurance for the association and its officers and directors, fidelity bonds for anyone handling association funds, periodic audits of financial records, the power to acquire property, and the power to hire and discharge managing agents and contractors. Those are permitted rather than required, which makes them worth checking against what your documents actually say.

A covered association maintains records and information to be made available to each member or potential purchaser, on written request, within a reasonable time not exceeding 30 days, on payment of reasonable associated costs. Records may be provided on paper or electronically, or the requester may be directed to where the public record sits.

The ten categories are: current and pending assessments and mandatory dues with amounts and dates; common areas owned by the association and those it does not own but funds through dues; the current operating budget, reserve funds if any, and a statement of financial condition for the last fiscal year; insurance coverage provided for lot owners including any fidelity bond; loans against the association and any collateral; the official association name with current officer and agent contact information; current covenants and all amendments plus current architectural control regulations; any initiation or transfer fees due at closing; a list of all existing common areas; and identifying information for any pending lawsuit, judgment, lien, arbitration, or other dispute resolution the association is party to and that appears in a public record.

Two things stand out. The duty extends to people who do not yet own in the community, which makes this a closing-timeline obligation as much as a governance one. And the last category means pending litigation is disclosable, which is not something every board expects to hand a buyer.

Unless the declaration or governing documents say otherwise, there is a lien on every lot for unpaid assessments, arising from the date the assessment is due as fixed by the board at an annual meeting after notice. Written notice of the assessment and lien goes to the owner by personal delivery or first class mail.

The 12-month clock. The association must record a statement of lien in the probate office of the county where the lot sits within 12 months from the date the assessment became due. The statement is verified by an officer or director with personal knowledge and must contain the lot description, the association’s name, the owner’s name, the unpaid assessment amounts with their dates, and any other interest and costs claimed.

The 30-day certified mail step. At least 30 days before recording, the association gives written notice by certified mail to the owner or other person obligated, telling them the statement will be recorded. This is a prerequisite, not a courtesy, and it has to be built backwards into the 12-month deadline.

Where the lien ranks. It takes priority over subsequent liens and encumbrances, but it yields to state and county ad valorem taxes, municipal improvement assessments, UCC fixture filings, mortgages, and deeds of trust securing indebtedness. Alabama does not give associations a super-lien position ahead of the mortgage.

Enforcement runs by verified complaint in the county where the lot is located, attaching a copy of the statement of lien. The court may enforce by sale after notice, published once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper in that county. How CMGT approaches delinquency recovery covers the operational side.

The board’s powers here exist to the extent authorized by the declaration and governing documents. The Act does not hand a board fine authority it does not already have. What it does is condition the exercise of that authority.

The board may suspend a member’s right to use facilities or services provided directly through the association for nonpayment of assessments, but only so far as access to the member’s own lot is not denied. And it may assess reasonable penalties for a violation of the declaration or board rules after the member is afforded the opportunity to be heard and represented by counsel before the board of directors.

That clause deserves attention. A hearing right is common. An express right to appear with counsel at a board hearing is not, and it means a fine issued on paper without any opportunity to be heard is exposed in a way many boards do not appreciate. Building a documented hearing step into your violation process is the practical answer.

Where a member’s tenant violates the declaration or rules, the board may take the same suspension actions directly against the tenant, and may assess a penalty directly against the tenant after giving notice to both the tenant and the member and an opportunity to be heard.

This sits outside the HOA Act, in the real estate broker licensing chapter, which is why it rarely appears on pages about Alabama HOA law. It matters anyway, particularly for coastal condominium communities that staff a manager on site.

Among the exemptions from real estate licensing, Alabama lists persons acting as the manager for an apartment building or complex. The statute then adds: this exception shall not apply to a person acting as an on-site manager of a condominium building or complex.

There is no general Alabama requirement that a community association manager hold a real estate license. The carve-out is narrower than that, and it is aimed squarely at on-site condominium management. The Alabama Real Estate Commission has been working through how its licensing framework applies to community management firms, so this is an area to watch rather than assume settled.

If your community is a condominium with an on-site manager, this is worth confirming with counsel and with the Commission before it becomes a problem. CMGT’s On-Site Management places a dedicated team at the property, and licensing is part of how we staff those engagements.