Lien priority is one of the least glamorous parts of condo and HOA law, and one of the most consequential for a buyer's risk. It determines who gets paid first when an owner defaults — and, by extension, whether an association can actually collect the dues it is owed. Ohio's answer is unusual among populous states: it is not a super-lien state. A first mortgage recorded before the association files its lien certificate outranks the association's lien, and the legislature has declined for more than a decade to change that. This article explains how Ohio's lien priority works and why it makes association-wide delinquency a problem every buyer should investigate.

What a super-lien is, and why states adopt one

In a super-lien state, a portion of the association's lien for unpaid assessments — commonly six months' worth — primes the first mortgage. If the unit goes through foreclosure, the association is paid that priority portion ahead of the mortgage lender. The point is collection leverage: it forces lenders to keep dues current to protect their position, and it ensures the association recovers at least some back dues when a unit is lost.

Ohio has chosen not to go that route. The trade-off is real: no super-lien means lower exposure for mortgage lenders, but higher financial-distress risk for associations, because uncollected dues have to be absorbed somewhere.

Ohio's actual rule: ORC §5311.18 and §5312.12

Both Ohio statutes grant the association a lien for unpaid assessments and related charges. Under ORC §5311.18 for condominiums and §5312.12 for planned communities, the lien covers unpaid assessments plus interest, administrative late fees, enforcement assessments, collection costs, attorney's fees, and paralegal fees that remain unpaid 10 days after becoming due. The lien takes effect when a certificate of lien is filed with the county recorder, describing the unit or lot, the record owner, and the amount.

The priority rule is where Ohio diverges from super-lien states. The association's lien is prior to liens arising later, with two exceptions: real-estate-tax and political-subdivision liens, and a first mortgage recorded before the association files its lien certificate. In plain terms, a first mortgage that was recorded first has priority. There is no six-month carve-out that primes the mortgage. Ohio simply has no super-priority.

The legislation that keeps failing

This is not for lack of trying. For more than a decade, Ohio's community-association bar has pushed a six-month super-priority — sometimes branded the Ohio Community Association Preservation Act — introduced repeatedly as HB 226 across multiple General Assemblies, and as HB 371 and HB 572. Each version would amend §5311.18 and §5312.12 so that a portion of the association lien, typically six months of assessments, would prime the first mortgage in foreclosure. As of mid-2026, none has been enacted; every version has died in committee.

For a buyer, the takeaway is that this is a stable feature of Ohio law, not a transient gap likely to close before you own the unit. (Anyone publishing on this should still confirm the current General Assembly's bill status, since the proposal recurs.)

Why this is a whole-association risk

Here is the part that catches buyers off guard. The lack of a super-lien is not just a problem for the delinquent owner down the hall — it is a problem for the entire association, including you.

When an owner defaults and the unit goes to foreclosure, a first mortgagee with priority can wipe out the association's claim for back dues. The association is left holding an uncollectible balance. That shortfall does not disappear; it is effectively spread across the paying owners, through higher dues or, eventually, a special assessment. In an association with several delinquent units, the uncollected amounts add up — and they compound Ohio's existing reserve-underfunding pressures.

That is why a high delinquency rate or a heavy count of recorded association liens is a whole-association financial-distress signal, not just a unit-level issue. It tells you the association is absorbing losses it cannot recover, which raises the probability of a dues increase or a special assessment landing on you after you close.

How Ohio foreclosure mechanics work

If the association does pursue collection, it forecloses its lien judicially — the same way a mortgage is foreclosed — in an action in common pleas court. Ohio has no administrative shortcut; with no state condo or HOA regulator and no ombudsman, disputes run through the courts. A few mechanics are worth knowing:

• The association must initiate foreclosure within five years of recording the lien, or the lien becomes invalid. A recorded lien nearing that deadline without action is worth noting.
• During the foreclosure, the owner must pay reasonable rental for the unit, and the association is entitled to appointment of a receiver to collect rent, applied first to the common expenses chargeable to the unit.
• It is not a defense that the association failed to provide some service; an owner who believes the charges are improper must bring a separate action to discharge the lien.

These tools help the association collect from the unit itself, but none of them changes the core priority problem: a prior first mortgage still outranks the association in the foreclosure waterfall.

What a buyer should check

Because no Ohio statute forces disclosure of association-wide delinquency on a resale, you have to ask. Build a documentation requirement into the contract and request:

• The association's overall delinquency rate, and any year-end delinquency report.
• The count and amount of recorded association liens against units or lots.
• A written statement of unpaid assessments on the specific unit you are buying.
• The reserve balance and special-assessment history, read alongside the delinquency picture — the two risks compound.
• Recent board minutes discussing collections, write-offs, or assessment shortfalls (subject to Ohio's five-year records cap under §5311.091 and §5312.07).

A statement of unpaid assessments on your unit protects you from inheriting that unit's arrears. But it tells you nothing about the rest of the building. In Ohio, the association-wide delinquency picture is the more important number, because the lack of a super-lien means those uncollected dues become everyone's problem.

What CondoSignal surfaces

CondoSignal pulls the available delinquency reporting, recorded-lien information, the statement of unpaid assessments on the unit, and the reserve and special-assessment history into a single Ohio-specific risk summary. We flag elevated delinquency rates and heavy recorded-lien counts as whole-association financial-distress indicators, and we read them against the building's reserve position. In a state with no super-lien, where uncollected dues are spread to paying owners, the goal is to make sure a buyer sees the association's collection health before closing — not after the next special assessment.