Yes, an HOA can foreclose on your home in Texas if you fall behind on assessments. The authority comes from the Texas Property Code, mainly Chapter 209 for subdivisions and Chapter 82 for condominiums, along with your community’s recorded declaration. The process is strict and slow by design, with multiple notices, waiting periods, and in most cases a court order before a sale can happen. That means you almost always have time and options, but only if you act on the first notice instead of the last.
What Debts Can Actually Lead to Foreclosure
Not every unpaid dollar puts your house at risk. The debts that feed a foreclosure-eligible lien include regular assessments, special assessments, late fees, interest, collection costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees the HOA incurs trying to collect. All of these can be rolled into the lien.
There is one important boundary. An HOA cannot foreclose if the debt consists solely of fines or attorney’s fees tied to fines.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.009 – Foreclosure Sale Prohibited in Certain Circumstances So fines for leaving trash cans out or violating an architectural rule cannot, by themselves, cost you your home. The protection disappears the moment you also owe unpaid assessments, because the debt is no longer only fines.
The Notice Timeline Before a Lien Can Be Filed
Texas law requires two separate delinquency notices before an HOA can even file a lien. The first notice can be sent by regular first-class mail or email to the address the HOA has on file. The second must go by certified mail, return receipt requested, and cannot be sent until at least 30 days after the first. The HOA then has to wait another 90 days after the second notice before filing the assessment lien.2State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0094 – Assessment Lien
Add it up and you have at least 120 days from the first notice to the earliest possible lien filing. Paying the balance during that window stops the process cold. Many homeowners lose ground because they ignore the first notice, and by the time the certified letter arrives, late fees and collection costs have already stacked up.
How the Foreclosure Sale Happens
Once the lien is filed, the HOA still cannot just schedule a sale. For subdivisions under Chapter 209, the association generally must obtain a court order through an expedited foreclosure proceeding first.3State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0092 – Judicial Foreclosure Required It is a streamlined process, not a full lawsuit, but a judge has to confirm the HOA followed the rules. Skip that step and the sale is void.
A homeowner can waive the expedited foreclosure process in writing at the time the foreclosure is sought.3State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0092 – Judicial Foreclosure Required Agreeing to that waiver is almost never in your interest. Read anything the HOA or its attorney asks you to sign during collections very carefully.
After clearing the court requirement, the HOA sends a notice of default with a cure period. If you don’t pay, it issues a notice of acceleration and posts the sale. That notice must go out at least 21 days before the sale, be filed with the county clerk, and be posted at the county courthouse. The sale itself is a public auction held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on the first Tuesday of a month at the courthouse.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 51.002 – Sale of Real Property Under Contract Lien
Your Right to a Payment Plan
If your HOA has more than 14 lots, it must offer you a payment plan for delinquent assessments. The plan runs at least three months and can extend up to 18. While you are making payments, the HOA cannot add monetary penalties, though it can still charge reasonable administrative costs and interest.5State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0062 – Alternative Payment Schedule for Certain Assessments
The right has limits. The HOA does not have to offer a plan if you defaulted on a previous plan within the last two years, and it only has to let you enter a plan once in any 12-month period.5State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0062 – Alternative Payment Schedule for Certain Assessments Treat any plan you get as a lifeline. Missing payments burns your one chance and makes everything after that harder to stop.
How Attorney’s Fees Inflate the Balance
One of the harshest surprises in HOA foreclosures is how quickly attorney’s fees swell the total. Texas law caps the attorney’s fees an HOA can include in a nonjudicial foreclosure sale at the greater of one-third of the total owed (excluding the fees themselves) or $2,500. The HOA also has to give written notice that attorney’s fees will be charged before it starts adding them.
Even with the cap, the numbers move fast. Owe $3,000 in assessments, interest, and late fees, and the HOA can add up to $2,500 in attorney’s fees on top. That nearly doubles what you need to pay to stop the sale. The earlier you deal with a delinquency, before an attorney gets involved, the cheaper it is to fix.
Right of Redemption After the Sale
Even after a sale, you have a window to get the property back. Texas law gives you 180 days from the date the HOA mails you written notice of the sale to redeem.6State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 209.011 – Right of Redemption After Foreclosure The HOA must send that notice by certified mail within 30 days of the sale.
What redemption costs depends on who bought the property. If the HOA itself bought it, you owe everything you owed at the time of sale, interest (the rate in your declaration, or 10% annually if none is stated), any assessments levied since the sale, the HOA’s foreclosure costs including reasonable attorney’s fees, and any maintenance expenses the HOA incurred. If a third party bought it, you owe the HOA any shortfall not covered by the sale proceeds plus interest and costs, and you owe the buyer the purchase price, any assessments or property taxes they paid, and the deed recording fee. During the 180-day window, the buyer cannot transfer the property to anyone else.6State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 209.011 – Right of Redemption After Foreclosure
What Happens to Your Mortgage
For condominiums under Chapter 82, the HOA’s assessment lien is explicitly junior to a first mortgage or deed of trust recorded before the assessment became delinquent.7State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 82.113 – Lien for Assessments A condo HOA foreclosure does not wipe out the first mortgage; the buyer takes the property subject to that debt. That is why the HOA itself, rather than an outside investor, is usually the buyer at these sales.
For residential subdivisions under Chapter 209, lien priority depends on the recorded declaration. Because the declaration is typically recorded before any individual lot mortgages, the HOA lien can technically have priority over a later mortgage. In practice, many declarations subordinate the HOA lien to first mortgages, so check yours. Even where the HOA lien has priority, the mortgage lender has its own 180-day redemption right under Section 209.011 to protect its interest after the sale.
If You Own a Condominium
Condo foreclosures work under Chapter 82 instead of Chapter 209. The rules overlap but are not identical. Condo associations can foreclose either through the courts or through a nonjudicial sale using the power of sale in the declaration, and they still cannot foreclose a lien based solely on fines.7State of Texas. Texas Property Code PROP 82.113 – Lien for Assessments One important difference: Chapter 82 does not include the same 180-day statutory redemption right found in Chapter 209. Read your declaration to see if it grants one, because the statute does not.
Bankruptcy and Military Protections
Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts an HOA foreclosure.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay In a Chapter 7, you can discharge personal liability for past-due assessments, but assessments that come due after your filing date are not discharged and keep accruing as long as you own the home. In a Chapter 13, you can fold the arrears into a three-to-five-year repayment plan and keep the home while catching up. Bankruptcy does not erase the HOA’s lien on the property. If you surrender the home in Chapter 7, the lien follows the property, and assessments accruing between filing and title transfer are still your problem.
Active-duty servicemembers get separate protection. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act caps interest on pre-service debts at 6% per year, and assessments that were delinquent before you entered active duty qualify. Interest above 6% must be forgiven, and the HOA cannot accelerate principal to compensate.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3937 – Maximum Rate of Interest on Debts Incurred Before Military Service To claim it, send the HOA or its collection attorney written notice with a copy of your orders within 180 days of leaving active duty. The SCRA also gives servicemembers broader foreclosure protections, including the right to ask a court to stay proceedings. Assessments that become delinquent after you enter active duty are not covered by the 6% cap.
How to Stop an HOA Foreclosure
The cleanest way to stop a foreclosure is paying the full balance, including assessments, late fees, interest, and any properly charged attorney’s fees, at any point before the sale. Once paid, the HOA must release the lien.
If you cannot pay in full, request a payment plan the moment you receive the first delinquency notice. The earlier you ask, the smaller the balance and the more manageable the plan. Put the request in writing and document any financial hardship; that context can help during negotiations with the board.
You can also challenge the foreclosure itself if the HOA failed to follow procedure. Skipping the two-notice sequence, filing the lien too early, or proceeding without the court order required under Section 209.0092 makes the sale void.3State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 209.0092 – Judicial Foreclosure Required An attorney who handles Texas HOA cases can walk the timeline and notices to find procedural failures that could invalidate the process. If a sale has already happened, the 180-day redemption window under Section 209.011 is your last practical opportunity to reclaim the property, so calendar it the day the notice arrives.