Do unpaid condo assessments survive foreclosure in Arkansas?

Yes. Arkansas grants associations no super-lien — under Ark. Code § 18-13-116(c) a recorded first mortgage and property taxes prime the assessment claim — but the debt survives foreclosure. Section 18-13-116(d) makes a unit's purchaser jointly and severally liable with the seller for unpaid assessments, and in First State Bank v. Metro District Condominiums (2014 Ark. 48) the Arkansas Supreme Court held the provision has no foreclosure exception. Always obtain a written statement of unpaid assessments before closing, especially on a foreclosure or REO unit, because there is no statutory estoppel.

Does Arkansas require condo associations to do a reserve study or fund reserves?

No. Neither the Horizontal Property Act (even as amended by Act 516 of 2025) nor any general Arkansas statute requires a reserve study, a reserve account, a funding target, or reserve disclosure. Any reserve obligation comes only from the recorded master deed or bylaws. A thin or nonexistent reserve fund is the Arkansas norm, so read it as a near-certainty of future special assessments. Worse, if a building is underinsured after a casualty, § 18-13-119 can force a mandatory pro-rata reconstruction assessment with no reserve cushion.

Does Arkansas give condo buyers a disclosure packet or a cancellation period?

No. Arkansas has no statutory resale or disclosure packet and no buyer rescission right — the Horizontal Property Act does not require an association to deliver financials, budgets, insurance, minutes, or a statement of unpaid assessments. Arkansas is also a caveat emptor state, so a seller has no general statutory duty to disclose condition and is liable only for fraud, active concealment, or federal lead-paint disclosure. You must request every document yourself and build all contingencies into the purchase contract.

Must an Arkansas condo association carry insurance?

Not by statute. Under Ark. Code § 18-13-117, the co-owners may, upon a majority resolution, insure the building — the Horizontal Property Act makes master coverage permissive, not mandatory, and there is no statutory property, liability, fidelity, or D&O requirement. In practice master coverage is driven by lender and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac rules and the declaration. Confirm a real master policy exists and read its deductible, and note that if a building is underinsured, § 18-13-119 can force owners to fund reconstruction pro rata.

What did Act 516 of 2025 change about Arkansas condo law?

Act 516 was the first major modernization of the 1961 Horizontal Property Act. It redefined unit boundaries, added declarant and development-rights concepts, rewrote the master-deed requirements, permitted interest on past-due assessments (§ 18-13-116(b)(4)), and added declarant funding obligations during the developer-control period. But it applies prospectively — it governs regimes organized on or after September 1, 2025, and older regimes only if they opt in by amending the master deed. Confirm which version of the law governs your building, because it affects boundaries, voting, and declarant rights.

Does Arkansas have a state agency that regulates HOAs?

No. Arkansas has no dedicated condo or HOA regulator, no ombudsman, and no registration system, and it does not license community-association managers. The Secretary of State's business database is the only de facto registry, the county recorder holds the master deed and CC&Rs, and the Insurance Department regulates insurers but not association governance. Owner-versus-association disputes go to circuit court, mediation, or arbitration — there is no quick administrative remedy, which makes pre-purchase document diligence unusually valuable.

Arkansas document review

Arkansas condo & HOA document review

Arkansas is among the most lightly regulated condo and HOA states in the country, which makes document review the buyer's only real protection. Condominiums run under a thin, 1961-era Horizontal Property Act (Ark.

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Why Arkansas is different

Code §§ 18-13-101 to -120) that was meaningfully modernized only in 2025 by Act 516. Traditional subdivision HOAs and property owners associations have no comprehensive enabling statute at all — they are governed almost entirely by their recorded declaration, the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (Ark. Code §§ 4-33-101 et seq.), and common law. There is no dedicated state condo or HOA regulator, no ombudsman, no registration system, no reserve mandate, no milestone-inspection law, and no statutory resale-disclosure packet. Arkansas is also a caveat emptor (buyer-beware) state for real estate generally, so a seller has no statutory duty to disclose condition. The recorded documents are effectively the law for a given community, so the first diligence question is always what those documents actually say. The signature Arkansas trap sits in the lien rules. Arkansas grants associations no super-lien: under Ark. Code § 18-13-116(c), unpaid assessments are paid from a sale price only after past-due property taxes and any duly recorded mortgage, so a first mortgage primes the association's claim. Yet the assessment debt does not disappear at foreclosure. Section 18-13-116(d) makes the purchaser of a unit jointly and severally liable with the seller for unpaid assessments through conveyance, and in First State Bank v. Metro District Condominiums Property Owners' Association, 2014 Ark. 48, the Arkansas Supreme Court held that subsection (d) contains no exception for foreclosure sales — the bank that bought a condo at its own foreclosure sale took title subject to, and personally liable for, the prior owner's unpaid assessments. The 2025 amendments left subsections (c) and (d) intact, so the holding remains good law. For a buyer, especially of a foreclosure or REO unit, a written statement of unpaid assessments before closing is essential. Insurance is the other dominant Arkansas story. The Horizontal Property Act's insurance provision is permissive, not mandatory: under § 18-13-117 the co-owners may, upon a majority resolution, insure the building, so master coverage is driven by lender and secondary-market requirements and the declaration rather than by statute. Meanwhile Arkansas sits in the Dixie Alley severe-convective-storm corridor — tornado, hail, and wind — and is seeing one of the steepest homeowners-insurance run-ups in the country, with premiums reported up roughly 15 to 20 percent in 2024 and frequently cited well above the national average. March 14–15, 2025 produced two EF-4 tornadoes and a federal Major Disaster Declaration. When a building is uninsured or underinsured after a casualty, § 18-13-119 forces affected co-owners to fund reconstruction pro rata — a de facto special-assessment-by-statute that is the practical substitute for the reserves Arkansas never requires. On the financial and disclosure side, Arkansas law leaves buyers exposed. There is no reserve study or reserve-funding mandate anywhere in the Horizontal Property Act or general law, so a thin or nonexistent reserve fund is the norm here, not a violation — read it as a near-certainty of future special assessments and price it in. There is no statutory resale packet and no buyer rescission right, so every document must be requested proactively, and the one statutory financial-records right (the receipts-and-expenditures book under § 18-13-110) is far narrower than CCIOA-style records access. Act 516 of 2025 added modern concepts — declarant and development rights, unit boundaries, interest on past-due dues, and declarant funding obligations — but only for regimes organized on or after September 1, 2025, or those that opt in by amending the master deed, so confirming which version of the law governs a building is itself a diligence item.

Based on CondoSignal's review of Arkansas condo-document risk patterns. This page reflects our analysis of Arkansas's disclosure requirements and the issues we most often flag in Arkansas document packages — not generic HOA advice.

Assessments survive foreclosure and bind the buyer

Arkansas grants associations no super-lien — under Ark. Code § 18-13-116(c) a duly recorded first mortgage and property-tax liens prime the assessment claim. But the debt does not vanish at foreclosure: § 18-13-116(d) makes a unit's purchaser jointly and severally liable with the seller for unpaid assessments through conveyance, and in First State Bank v. Metro District Condominiums (2014 Ark. 48) the Arkansas Supreme Court held subsection (d) has no foreclosure exception — the foreclosure-sale purchaser inherited the prior owner's unpaid dues. There is no statutory estoppel cutting off the debt, so always obtain a written statement of unpaid assessments before closing, especially on a foreclosure or REO unit.

No reserve mandate; statutory rebuild assessments

Neither the Horizontal Property Act (even as amended by Act 516) nor any general Arkansas statute requires a reserve study, a reserve account, a funding target, or reserve disclosure. The Act obligates co-owners only to contribute pro rata toward maintenance and repair per the master-deed percentages (§ 18-13-116(a)); any reserve duty exists only if the declaration or bylaws impose one. A thin or empty reserve fund is therefore the Arkansas default, not an anomaly — treat it as a strong predictor of future special assessments. Worse, when a building is uninsured or underinsured after a casualty, § 18-13-119 forces affected co-owners to fund reconstruction pro rata, a mandatory special-assessment-by-statute with no reserve cushion.

No statutory disclosure packet; caveat emptor

Arkansas has nothing like a CCIOA status letter or Florida-style condo rider. The Horizontal Property Act does not require an association to deliver financials, budgets, insurance summaries, minutes, or a statement of unpaid assessments to a buyer, and there is no statutory rescission right. Arkansas is also a caveat emptor state: a seller has no general statutory duty to complete a property-condition disclosure form and is liable only for affirmative fraud, active concealment of a known material defect, or federal lead-paint disclosure on pre-1978 housing. Essentially the entire diligence burden falls on the buyer, who must affirmatively request every document and build all contingencies into the purchase contract.

Permissive insurance in a worsening storm market

The Horizontal Property Act's insurance provision is permissive: under § 18-13-117 the co-owners may, upon a majority resolution, insure the building — there is no statutory requirement that an association carry property, liability, fidelity, or D&O coverage, so master coverage is driven by lender and GSE rules and the declaration, not state law. Meanwhile Arkansas sits in the Dixie Alley severe-storm corridor; premiums were reported up roughly 15 to 20 percent in 2024 and well above the national average, and March 14–15, 2025 brought two EF-4 tornadoes and a federal disaster declaration. Confirm a real master policy exists and read its wind/hail deductible — and note that effective July 1, 2026 the GSEs cap the allowable per-unit master deductible at $50,000, above which unit owners must carry supplemental coverage.

Weak governance defaults and Act 516's dual track

The Horizontal Property Act delegates governance to the bylaws, with the Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (Ark. Code §§ 4-33-101 et seq.) supplying the corporate defaults, so owner rights are weaker and more document-dependent than in CCIOA states. There is no statutory open-meeting law, and the only statutory financial-records right is the receipts-and-expenditures book under § 18-13-110. Act 516 of 2025 imported declarant control, development rights, unit boundaries, interest on past-due dues, and declarant funding obligations — but only for regimes organized on or after September 1, 2025, or those that opt in by amending the master deed. Confirm which version of the law governs the building, and watch for outdated pre-2025 bylaws and lingering developer control in fast-growing Northwest Arkansas projects.

What we flag in Arkansas documents

Unpaid assessments on a foreclosure/REO unit — they survive foreclosure and bind the buyer (§ 18-13-116(d); Metro District)
No reserve study and thin reserves against aging roofs/decks/envelopes (no Arkansas mandate)
Permissive master policy thin or absent, or a per-unit deductible over the 2026 GSE $50,000 cap
Underinsured building exposed to a mandatory § 18-13-119 pro-rata reconstruction assessment
Unclear whether the regime is under the pre-2025 Act or Act 516 (boundaries, voting, declarant rights)
Lingering developer control with thin transition terms in fast-growing Northwest Arkansas projects

The CondoSignal framework8 categories · every report

Reserve funding Special assessments Insurance Governance Financials Litigation Restrictions Buyer fit

Scored together into one risk report — every finding cites the document, page, and quoted text.

Arkansas cities

Where in Arkansas?

Little Rock

Pulaski County / Central Arkansas

Little Rock is the state's largest condo market — downtown and riverfront mid- and high-rise condos, converted lofts, and suburban HOA subdivisions across West Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, and Benton-Bryant — all governed by the thin Horizontal Property Act (Ark.

Bentonville

Benton County / Northwest Arkansas

Bentonville anchors Northwest Arkansas — the state's fastest-growing region, driven by Walmart, Tyson, J.B.

Hot Springs

Garland County / Lake Communities

Hot Springs and the surrounding lake communities — Hot Springs Village, Lakes Hamilton and Catherine, and the broader Ouachita lakes region — mix resort and second-home condos with large covenant communities.

Arkansas topic guides

Arkansas-specific guidance

Condo document review

A condo document review is the structured analysis of every disclosure document your seller or association has provided — declaration, bylaws, rules, reserve study, budgets, financials, meeting minutes, insurance summary, estoppel or resale certificate, and any pending special assessment notices. Done well, it tells you exactly what you are buying. Done in a hurry — or as a chat session against a single PDF — it misses the cross-references where real risk lives.

Arkansas guide →

HOA document review

An HOA document review reads the full association document set — declaration or deed restrictions, CC&Rs, bylaws, resale or disclosure certificate, current budget, audited financials, meeting minutes, and any enforcement history — and surfaces the items that actually affect your ownership cost, your usage rights, and your exposure to surprise assessments. HOA reviews have a different shape than condominium reviews, and treating them as the same process produces incomplete findings.

Arkansas guide →

Reserve studies

A reserve study tells you what the association expects to spend on long-term capital repairs and replacements, and whether it is funding those obligations adequately. Reading the study without also reading the actual reserve balance, the current budget's contribution line, and recent meeting minutes is the single most common mistake in condo due diligence — and the one most likely to produce an expensive surprise after closing.

Arkansas guide →

Special assessments

Special assessments are the single largest source of financial surprise in condo and HOA ownership. They can arrive formally, as a voted board action with a disclosed amount. They can arrive indirectly, as a dues increase that follows a reserve shortfall or insurance spike. Or they can arrive silently, implied by the gap between what an association has saved and what it needs — visible in documents years before any official announcement. A thorough document review identifies all three types.

Arkansas guide →

Insurance risk

The association's master insurance policy determines what your personal HO-6 policy needs to cover — and what it does not. Deductibles, named-storm provisions, water and flood exclusions, policy form (bare-walls versus all-in), carrier quality, and loss assessment exposure all change the real cost of ownership in ways that never appear in the listing price. Reading the insurance summary alone is not enough; reading the master policy declarations page against the declaration's loss assessment provisions is where the real exposure lives.

Arkansas guide →

Governance risk

An association's governance health is a leading indicator of every other risk. Boards make decisions about reserve funding, repair scope, insurance coverage, and vendor relationships. Functional boards make those decisions transparently and on time. Dysfunctional boards defer them, obscure them, or make them for the wrong reasons — and the deferred decisions show up later as assessments, deteriorated infrastructure, and insurance problems. A governance review reads meeting minutes, election and recall records, financial controls, and dispute history across multiple years to surface the patterns that precede financial problems.

Arkansas guide →

Already own in Arkansas?

Owner guides for the notice you just got

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Reserve study / underfunding Board dispute / records Thinking of selling

Arkansas in context

How Arkansas's condo rules compare

How Arkansas compares — CondoSignal's reviewed benchmark of condo/HOA rules across 51 states. Each cell traces to that state's primary statutory sources.

State	Reserve funding	Structural inspection	Super-lien	Resale cancellation
ArkansasThis page	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission
Alabama	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	Voidable until the resale certificate is delivered and for 5 days after (condos, § 35-8A-409); 7 days on developer sales
Alaska	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	Voidable until the resale certificate is delivered and for 5 days after (AS 34.08.590)
Arizona	Voluntary	Not required	No	No statutory rescission — cancellation rights come from the purchase contract
California	Study only	Required	No	Buyer cancellation remedy if § 4525 documents aren't delivered within 10 days (§ 4530)
Colorado	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	No statutory rescission
Connecticut	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	5 business days after the resale certificate (7 if mailed); cancel for any reason (§ 47-270)
Delaware	Funding mandated	Required	Yes	5 days after the resale certificate, if not delivered before signing (§ 81-409)
District of Columbia	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	3 business days after the condo documents/certificate (15 days for new-construction/declarant sales)
Florida	Funding mandated	Required	No	7-day rescission on the resale disclosure (HB 913, 2025)
Georgia	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	7-day rescission on developer/initial condo sales only (§ 44-3-111); none for resale between owners
Hawaii	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	Limited — a 5-day right tied to a developer public report; resale relies on the purchase contract
Idaho	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission
Illinois	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	No statutory rescission period
Indiana	Voluntary	Not required	No	No general cooling-off period. Two-business-day rescission only when a late/amended sales-disclosure form reveals a defect (IC 32-21-5-11).
Iowa	Voluntary	Not required	No	None tied to association documents — only the Ch. 558A property-condition disclosure (3 days personal / 5 mailed)
Kansas	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission
Kentucky	Voluntary	Not required	No	Condos: voidable until the resale certificate is provided and for 5 days thereafter, or until conveyance (KRS 381.9203). HOAs: none.
Louisiana	Voluntary	Not required	No	15-day cancellation right tied to the condo developer's Public Offering Statement (R.S. 9:1124) — INITIAL DEVELOPER SALES ONLY. No statutory resale cancellation right between owners; no post-sale right of redemption.
Maine	Voluntary	Not required	No	Voidable until the resale certificate is delivered and for 5 days after (§ 1604-108)
Maryland	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	Condos: 7 days after the resale package (§ 11-135). HOAs: 5 days if info wasn't delivered 5+ days pre-signing, plus a 3-day right if mandatory fees rise over 10% (§ 11B-106)
Massachusetts	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	None
Michigan	Funding mandated	Not required	No	None — Michigan has no statutory resale rescission (new construction gets a 9-day right)
Minnesota	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	10 days after the § 515B.4-107 resale disclosure certificate (unless delivered 10+ days before signing)
Mississippi	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory resale certificate, estoppel regime, or buyer rescission period
Missouri	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	Voidable until the resale certificate is delivered and for 5 days after (§ 448.4-109)
Montana	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission or cooling-off period
Nebraska	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — resale buyers get documents but no statutory rescission right (§ 76-884)
Nevada	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	5-day rescission after delivery of the resale package (NRS 116.4109)
New Hampshire	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	No resale rescission. The only statutory cancellation right is 5 days on developer sales after delivery of the public offering statement (RSA 356-B:52).
New Jersey	Funding mandated	Required	Yes	Developer/initial sales carry a PREDFDA rescission window; resale between owners has none (a 3-day attorney-review clause applies)
New Mexico	Voluntary	Not required	No	7 days after the condo resale certificate (§ 47-7D-9) or the HOA disclosure certificate (§ 47-16-11)
New York	Funding mandated	Required	Yes	None — buyer protection comes from purchase-contract contingencies
North Carolina	Voluntary	Not required	No	7 days on new condo purchases (after the public offering statement); none for resale between owners
North Dakota	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission or cooling-off right
Ohio	Funding mandated	Not required	No	3 business days after the state Residential Property Disclosure Form, or 30 days after signing (§ 5302.30)
Oklahoma	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory resale certificate, status letter, or rescission window
Oregon	Funding mandated	Not required	Yes	5 business days after the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement (ORS 105.464); developer sales may carry a longer right
Pennsylvania	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	5 days after receiving the resale certificate (§ 3407)
Rhode Island	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	Voidable until the resale certificate is delivered and for 5 days after (§ 34-36.1-4.09)
South Carolina	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — South Carolina has no broad condo resale rescission or mandatory disclosure packet
South Dakota	Voluntary	Not required	No	Resale: none. Developer/original sales only: a contract is not binding until the buyer receives the Real Estate Commission public report, voidable until ~10 days after receipt (S.D.C.L. 43-15A-10).
Tennessee	Study only	Not required	Yes	Narrow — generally none, except a 10-business-day right when a declarant-controlled association is late delivering § 66-27-503 information
Texas	Voluntary	Not required	No	6 days after receiving the resale certificate, if it wasn't delivered before signing (§ 82.156)
Utah	Funding mandated	Not required	No	No HOA-specific statutory rescission — buyer protection runs through the purchase-contract due-diligence period
Vermont	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	5 days after the resale certificate (15 days for new construction) (§ 4-109)
Virginia	Study only	Not required	No	3 days from receiving the resale certificate (often extended to 7 by the standard contract); cancel anytime before closing if it's never delivered (§ 55.1-2312)
Washington	Study only	Not required	Yes	5 business days after receiving the resale certificate (condos, RCW 64.34.425)
West Virginia	Voluntary	Not required	Yes	5 days after the resale certificate (15 days for new construction) (§ 36B-4-109)
Wisconsin	Voluntary	Not required	No	5 business days after receiving § 703.33 disclosure materials (or any material modification) — condo buyers only. No automatic statutory rescission for HOA buyers (negotiate contractually).
Wyoming	Voluntary	Not required	No	None — no statutory rescission

How CondoSignal reviews this

We read the reserve study, operating budget, and 24 months of meeting minutes together — the risk that matters usually lives in the contradiction between documents, not in any single one of them. Every finding cites the source document, the page number, and the quoted text behind it.

See our 8-category framework →

Reviewed by Kirk Hasley, Founder. Every claim here is checked against current Arkansas statute and primary sources, using the same documented review framework we run on every file. Last reviewed June 13, 2026.

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