Minnesota HOA Law Changes on January 1, 2027

Last verified: October 27, 2026 · See updates

On January 1, 2027, most of Laws 2026, chapter 82 takes effect and changes how every Minnesota association fines, collects, meets and buys. Your board has 66 days from October 27. Six documents need a board vote before that date: a fine schedule, a collection policy, a payment application rule, a grievance procedure, a bid procedure, and a written procedure for unit alteration requests.

What changes, and on what date

On section 5. Sections 1 to 4 and 6 to 14 each carry their own effective date clause. Section 5 carries none, and section 15 says sections 1 to 13 are effective “on the dates provided.” Our reading is that the general rule in Minn. Stat. sec. 645.02 then applies, which makes section 5 effective August 1, 2026, so the annual report duty is already live. That is our interpretation of the act, not a statement in it. If your next annual report is close, ask your attorney rather than relying on this paragraph.

The four numbers that change what you can charge

When can the board fine more than $100?

The cap is on a fine “for a single violation of the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations.” The act names four routes above it:

1. A subsequent violation for the same conduct.
2. A violation that has a serious and immediate impact on the health or safety of a resident, occupant or guest.
3. A violation that causes physical damage to another unit or a common element.
4. A violation that involves using the property for financial enrichment, which the act defines to include renting or offering for rent a unit against the declaration, bylaws, or a rule prohibiting short-term or long-term rentals.

Separately, owners of units to which a majority of the votes in the association are allocated may approve a greater amount at a board meeting. That is an owner vote taken at a board meeting, not a board vote.

Those same three categories, health and safety, physical damage, and financial enrichment, reappear twice more: in the payment application rule below, and in the foreclosure limit. A Minnesota board that writes its fine schedule around those three words will find the rest of the chapter easier to apply.

The fine schedule you now have to publish

If your governing documents let you fine, section 3 requires the association to give every unit owner a list of fines for common violations of the governing documents and a description of the remedies available to the association. Delivery is “in any reasonable manner,” and the act names electronic mail and posting on the association website as examples. The duty repeats whenever the schedule is amended.

This is a document your board has to produce, approve and send. Our violation process page and its letter templates cover the notice itself; the schedule is a separate one-page list of violation types and the fine attached to each.

The hearing clock, and who pays the lawyer

An owner who gets a violation notice or a notice of an assessment under 515B.3-115(g) or 515B.3-1151(g) may contest it before the board or a committee the board appoints. The new text sets out the machinery:

• The owner must request a hearing within 30 days after receiving the notice, unless the declaration sets a different period.
• The owner may be advised by an attorney or a designated representative at the hearing.
• If a hearing is requested, attorney fees and costs must not be charged or collected from the owner unless the hearing is held and the board adopts a final resolution upholding the fine or assessment.
• The association must give the owner a copy of the final resolution within 30 days of adopting it, and the resolution must explain why the fine or assessment stands.

The notice that starts the clock also changed. Section 3 adds two items to the dated written notice an association sends: it must describe the owner’s right to be heard and the steps the owner takes to schedule the hearing, and it must tell the owner that dispute resolution and other information services are available from the common interest community ombudsperson. The lien warning in that notice narrows too, from “all unpaid fines” to unpaid fines for certain violations subject to 515B.3-116(h).

Minnesota’s ombudsperson is real and already staffed: the office sits in the Department of Commerce under Minn. Stat. sec. 45.0137, enacted in 2025. Its own page at mn.gov, read October 27, 2026, says it explains rights under chapter 515B, points people to resources, and does not give legal advice, enforce rules, or investigate complaints. On the date we read it, that page said requests for informal mediation were not being accepted. Your notice still has to name the office.

A grievance route for everything that is not a fine

New subsection (i) of 515B.3-102 says the board must let an owner present a grievance, orally or in writing, to the board or a board committee on any matter other than a fine under (a)(11) or an alteration application under 515B.3-107(e). The board must make a good faith effort to resolve it and, failing that, refer the owner to the ombudsperson. The association may not charge the owner any fee for making the presentation.

You can no longer refuse a payment, and you cannot choose where it lands

Two new subsections change collections arithmetic.

Subsection (g): an association may not refuse to accept payment from an owner of any amount for any assessment, fine or fee, unless the association has already commenced a foreclosure under chapter 580 or 581. Accepting a payment waives no claim or defense.

Subsection (h): a payment must be applied to common expense assessments and special assessments first, before fines, fees or other assessments. Two exceptions. The owner and the association may agree on a different order. Or the association may apply a payment to a fine unpaid for more than 120 days, where the fine is for one of the three serious categories above. The subsection then closes with a duty to deliberate, not a duty to agree: the association “must consider offering a reasonable payment plan for a delinquency.”

If your ledger currently applies partial payments to the oldest charge whatever its type, that rule stops working on January 1. Our dues spreadsheet posts assessments and fines in separate columns, which is the structure this rule needs.

The collection policy, and the three notices

Sections 7 and 8 put identical language into both assessment sections, so it reaches every Minnesota association whatever its creation date. The association must adopt a collection policy and give a copy to all unit owners. At a minimum the policy must require:

1. Three separate notifications to the owner before the account goes to a law firm or collection agency, including at least one sent by certified mail to the owner’s registered address.
2. That a law firm engaged to foreclose the association’s assessment lien send the notice required by Minn. Stat. sec. 580.021 by both United States mail and certified mail.

The same two sections add a budget duty: the association must make a copy of the proposed budget available, in any reasonable manner, before the meeting at which the budget is to be discussed and approved.

Foreclosure now has a floor, and the lien covers less

Section 9 adds a sentence to 515B.3-116(h): an association may not commence foreclosure unless common expenses and special assessments and fines that meet the conditions for exception to the limit specified in section 515B.3-102(a)(11) are delinquent for more than three months. The change applies to foreclosures commenced on or after January 1, 2027.

The lien sentence in subsection (a) was rewritten as well. It used to make liens of fees, charges, late charges, “fines and interest charges pursuant to section 515B.3-102(a)(10), (11) and (12).” That phrase is struck. The sentence now reads: fees, charges, fines as specified in subsection (h), and late charges are liens.

How your board meets, elects and buys

Director terms: three years, staggered

Section 4 adds to 515B.3-103 that elections must occur regularly as provided in 515B.3-108, that each term must not exceed three years, and that terms must be staggered unless the terms run one year or less. There is no limit on how many terms a director may serve. A director filling a vacancy serves the remainder of the vacated term.

Check your bylaws for a term longer than three years and for an all-at-once election. Both need amending, and a bylaw amendment takes longer than 66 days in most associations, so start the count now.

Agendas, documents and the owner’s right to speak

Open board meetings are not new in Minnesota. What section 4 adds is what happens around them:

• The board must make the meeting agenda available to owners, along with contracts or other documents the board intends to approve or disapprove at that meeting, in any reasonable manner, email or the association website included. Documents for items discussed in a closed meeting are excluded.
• Before the board acts on an agenda item, an owner, or a person the owner designates in writing, must be permitted to speak on that item at a time the board designates. The owner should make a good faith attempt to tell the board in advance.
• The board may set a reasonable time limit and, after a warning from the chair, may expel a person who disrupts the meeting.
• The board may not fine an owner for exercising the right to speak or to submit a written statement.
• The word “all” was added before “meetings of the board of directors must be open,” and the old qualifier “to the extent practicable” on the notice duty was struck.

One carve-out the act creates for small boards: no notice and no minutes are required for a meeting between board members, or between board members and officers, if the only subject is basic maintenance or daily operations and management under the governing documents, and the meeting produces no vote or formal action. A board that uses a group text to decide something has taken action, and this carve-out does not cover it.

Conflicts of interest, in the statute for the first time

Three standards now apply to elected boards, on top of whatever the incorporation statute already requires:

1. A board member must not deliberate or vote on approving or disapproving a contract where the member, or a member of the member’s family, has a material financial interest or is likely to realize a material financial gain. “Member of the family” takes its meaning from Minn. Stat. sec. 317A.255, subd. 4.
2. A board member must not solicit or accept money or other compensation as an inducement to vote for a property maintenance, construction, repair or reconstruction contract. The same bar applies to a property manager authorized to sign contracts for the association.
3. Before a contract for those services with an estimated cost above $50,000, the board or property manager must solicit at least three written competitive bids. Any bid from a person affiliated with a board member, a board member’s family, the property manager, or the manager’s family or employees must be disclosed before the bids are considered or voted on, and a written record of the disclosures must be kept and recorded in the meeting minutes.

The bid rule, its six exceptions, and a six-year record

The board must review all bids and select a vendor on reasonable business criteria. The act names five: project cost, contractor qualifications, available warranties, how far the bidder met the solicitation requirements, and estimated time to complete.

The bidding duty does not apply where:

1. Multiple bids cannot be obtained despite reasonable efforts.
2. Emergency repairs are required to protect owner health or safety.
3. Significant damage must be addressed without delay to prevent further damage.
4. The work is covered by a warranty.
5. The vendor is the only one capable of providing the goods or services.
6. Materials cost $50,000 or less and the labor is volunteer and unpaid.

The association must keep a record of the bid selection process, the criteria used, and the contracts awarded for the last six years, available to owners at cost or under the records section, 515B.3-118. For a self-managed board, that is a folder convention and a retention rule, not software. Our record retention checklist is where that six-year line goes.

Getting out of a property management contract

Three new rules in 515B.3-103(k), which matter to a board considering self-management:

• A contract the declarant signed with a property manager terminates no later than 12 months after the declarant control period ends.
• A contract the association signed after declarant control ended that does not automatically renew may be terminated by the association, with or without cause, on three months’ written notice.
• An automatically renewing contract may be declined for another term if the association gives written notice no less than three months before the renewal date.

Put the renewal date of your management agreement on the annual operations calendar with a reminder 120 days ahead. Three months’ notice is a deadline a volunteer board misses by forgetting, not by deciding.

Owners, units and alterations

A 90-day clock on alteration requests

New subsection (e) of 515B.3-107: an association with declaration authority to approve or disapprove an owner’s request to alter the owner’s unit must establish, by rule or regulation, a fair, reasonable and expeditious procedure for deciding, and must give the procedure to any owner who asks for an alteration.

Unless the declaration, bylaws or rules set a different period, the board or its committee must decide within 90 days of a complete application, counting from when the owner supplies the information the board requested. The decision must be in writing, must follow the standards of conduct for directors in the statute the association was organized under, and must be reasonable.

Parking: what the association no longer controls

New subsection (f) of 515B.3-107 is long, and three parts of it change board practice:

• An association has no authority to regulate parking within an improved public right of way that a unit of government maintains and repairs, except to require compliance with applicable statutes, laws and ordinances in the declaration or a rule.
• Absent legislative authorization, a government may not delegate its police powers to a private entity. Where an association is an authorized delegatee, the delegation lasts no more than five years and must then be renewed by application and agreement.
• An owner or resident must be permitted to park a personal or work vehicle on the part of the owner’s property, or the limited common element allocated to the unit, that was designed or later modified for parking. Three limits apply: the vehicle may not encroach on another owner’s property, may not block access to a pedestrian walkway fully or partially, and may not interfere with the association’s ability to maintain roads, driveways, parking spaces, common elements or limited common elements.

The act defines “personal vehicle” as an automobile with a gross vehicle weight under 26,001 pounds used for personal pleasure, travel or commuting, and lists vans, pickup trucks, small trucks, ambulances, law enforcement vehicles, emergency response vehicles and utility company vehicles as included. Motor homes, self-propelled recreational vehicles and commercial vehicles used primarily for commercial business are excluded unless the section says otherwise.

If your rules ban pickup trucks from driveways, or regulate street parking on a city-maintained street, those rules need review before January 1.

Before you send an owner’s question to the association attorney

New section 515B.3-125 is short and easy to miss. If the association decides to refer an owner’s inquiry to its legal counsel, it must tell the owner in advance that it intends to do so and that it may incur legal fees which may result in an assessment to the owner. The board provides that notice at no cost to the owner.

No advance notice is required in three cases: the matter involves pending or threatened litigation; the owner has retained counsel and the association is answering that attorney; or immediate legal action is needed to preserve the association’s rights or prevent immediate harm to persons or property.

Retaliation, defined

Section 13 adds to 515B.4-116 that an association may not retaliate against an owner for asserting any right the owner has under chapter 515B or other law. The act defines retaliation as restricting any right or privilege the owner has, or imposing any fine, penalty or other charge not authorized by the declaration, bylaws or rules.

One carve-out: it is not retaliation to commence a foreclosure action for a fine that remains unpaid after the time allowed for payment, once the board has adopted a resolution upholding that fine under 515B.3-102(a)(11). The same section makes a disclosure of data in violation of the Safe at Home program under Minn. Stat. sec. 5B.05, paragraph (d), a violation of chapter 515B.

Three documents that change outside the board room

The annual report now carries an insurance warning

Section 5 adds to the annual report under 515B.3-106 the amount of the association’s deductible and this notice, which the act sets out in capitals: “IF THE ASSOCIATION LEVIES A LOSS ASSESSMENT, THE UNIT OWNER IS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING IT, EVEN IF THE UNIT OWNER DOES NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT INSURANCE COVERAGE.” The report also still carries a statement of total past due assessments on all units, current as of no more than 60 days before the meeting.

The resale packet gets three new items

Section 12 adds to what a selling owner must furnish a buyer under 515B.4-107, and two of the three come from the association, so the board has to be able to produce them on request:

1. The list of common fines and allowable remedies required by 515B.3-102.
2. The collection policy adopted under 515B.3-115(k) or 515B.3-1151(k).
3. A copy of any reserve study, if any, obtained by the association within the past three years to evaluate the adequacy of replacement reserve contributions and compliance with 515B.3-1141.

Note the wording on the reserve study: “if any.” The act does not require a Minnesota association to commission one. The funding duty in 515B.3-1141 is unchanged, and our reserve study guide covers what that section does require.

Terminating a community: 67 percent or 80 percent

Section 2 splits the old single threshold in two:

• A community made up entirely of detached single-family dwellings, with no common elements and no association maintenance obligation for any building containing a dwelling, may terminate on the written agreement of owners holding at least 67 percent of the votes. Agreement is deemed given by any owner who does not state a preference and whose written refusal the association does not receive within 60 days after notice of the proposed termination sent by certified mail, postage prepaid, return receipt requested. Termination does not release the association from contracts other than the declaration.
• Every other community needs 80 percent of the votes and 80 percent of the first mortgagees, each mortgagee having one vote per unit financed, or a larger percentage if the declaration says so. A smaller percentage is allowed only where all units are restricted to nonresidential use.

What a city can no longer require

New section 515B.5-101 reaches local governments, a term the act defines to include counties, towns, municipalities, joint planning boards and public corporations including the Metropolitan Council. Such a government may not condition approval of a residential building permit, conditional use permit, subdivision, planned unit development or other residential development permit on four things:

1. Creating a homeowners association.
2. Including any service, feature or common property that makes an association necessary, unless the developer asks for it.
3. Including particular terms in a declaration, articles, bylaws or other governing document.
4. Adopting, amending or revoking an association rule.

A local government may still require maintenance or insurance of common elements, and an applicant may still grant an easement for access to public infrastructure.

This one reaches communities created on or after January 1, 2027, so it changes nothing for an existing board. It is here because it answers the question a board asks when it reads the headline.

Do this next: the 66-day list

Six of these need a board vote. Two need a bylaw amendment, which is the long pole. Work down the list in order.

1. Adopt a written collection policy and send it to every owner. Three notices before referral, one of them certified mail, and the 580.021 instruction to any law firm you engage. Required by 515B.3-115(k) and 515B.3-1151(k).
2. Adopt and distribute a fine schedule. Common violations, the fine for each, and the remedies available to the association. Build it around the four routes above $100 so the exceptions are visible on the page.
3. Write the payment application rule into your ledger procedure. Assessments first, then fines and fees. Decide now whether the board will offer payment plans, since the statute requires you to consider it.
4. Adopt the grievance procedure for matters that are not fines or alteration requests, with the referral to the ombudsperson when it is not resolved.
5. Adopt the alteration request procedure as a rule, with the 90-day decision clock and the written, reasoned decision.
6. Adopt a bid procedure: the $50,000 trigger, three written bids, the affiliation disclosure recorded in the minutes, the selection criteria, and the six-year record.
7. Fix the notice templates. Your violation and assessment notices need the hearing-scheduling steps and the ombudsperson line, and the lien warning narrowed.
8. Diary the 21-day comment period. Any rule you adopt, amend or revoke from January 1 needs 21 days’ notice to owners first. If you are adopting the six documents above as rules, the 21 days runs before the adopting vote, so count backward from your January meeting now.
9. Check the bylaws for director terms over three years and for an unstaggered board. Amendment is slow; start it this month.
10. Check your management agreement’s renewal date and whether it auto-renews. Three months’ written notice is the exit.
11. Review any parking rule that reaches a public street or bans a pickup truck from an owner’s own driveway.
12. Put the deductible and the loss assessment warning in the annual report, and have the fine list, the collection policy and any reserve study from the past three years ready to hand a seller.

You do not have to start from blank. The template library holds the dues ledger. The delinquent dues workflow holds the collection steps. The annual operations calendar is where the 21-day comment period, the renewal notice and the annual report date go once you have set them.

And one question for a lawyer. Not “are we compliant,” which costs a lot and answers little. Ask: “After Laws 2026, chapter 82, which of our unpaid fine balances are still secured by the association’s lien?” That is a 20-minute question with a large financial answer, and the statutory text alone does not settle it.

What we read

• Minnesota Laws 2026, chapter 82 (S.F. No. 1750), Office of the Revisor of Statutes, read in full at the marked session law text on October 27, 2026. 15 sections, presented to the governor May 11, 2026, signed May 12, 2026.
• Minn. Stat. sec. 45.0137, common interest community ombudsperson, and the Department of Commerce ombudsperson office page, read October 27, 2026.
• Minn. Stat. sec. 645.02, for the default effective date applied to section 5.
• House Research act summary, chapter 82, secondary. Used to cross-check our section list, not quoted.

Related pages on this site: the 49-state comparison table carries Minnesota’s current rules on records, meetings, elections, reserves and oversight; 2026 law changes by state is the running log of what changed elsewhere this year.

Text CC BY 4.0; cite as CommonKeel, Minnesota HOA Law Changes on January 1, 2027, https://commonkeel.com/states/minnesota-hoa-law-changes-2027/, verified 2026-10-27.