North Dakota HOA Laws: What Homeowners Need to Know in 2026

North Dakota has no homeowners-association act. Condominiums fall under Century Code chapter 47-04.1; subdivision associations run on their recorded covenants. Since August 1, 2025, one statute reaches both: under § 47-10-02.3 the seller must hand the buyer 15 kinds of association information, and the buyer may void the contract until five days after receiving it or until conveyance, whichever comes first.

Condo chapter or recorded covenants: what governs a North Dakota association

Title 47, the Century Code’s property title, has no homeowners’-association chapter; the condominium chapter is the only one that sets rules for a community’s governing body. The 2025 disclosure law supplies the one statutory definition: a homeowners’ association is “an organization making and enforcing rules and guidelines for a residential subdivision or planned community” (N.D.C.C. § 47-10-02.3(1)(c)).

What a seller must disclose under § 47-10-02.3

Senate Bill 2229 (2025 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 422) was approved March 18, 2025 and took effect August 1, 2025. For any property “subject to the rules and regulations of a homeowners’ association or condominium project,” the seller must give the prospective buyer, in writing, by a mutually agreed date or within ten days of signing the purchase agreement:

1. the periodic assessment, maintenance fees and other charges, and any unpaid common expenses or special assessments the seller currently owes;
2. the amount of approved special assessments;
3. the bylaws and their amendments, supplemental declarations, rules or regulations, the official minutes of the last two meetings, and the declaration other than plats and plans;
4. reserve and capital funds available and committed to current or pending projects;
5. whether the association uses a reserve study;
6. the current operating and reserve budgets, the year-to-date financial statement, and any reserves designated for specific projects;
7. insurance documents showing the association’s coverage;
8. unsatisfied judgments against the association, and the status of pending suits in which it is a defendant, routine assessment collections excluded;
9. alleged, uncured violations concerning the home or unit;
10. fees for transferring ownership or other transactions;
11. the association’s remedies for nonpayment;
12. the assessment collection policy;
13. restrictions on leasing a unit;
14. a list of amenities;
15. contact information for the association or its community association manager.

The papers must cover at least the 90 days before the purchase agreement’s effective date. Once the seller asks, the association gets ten days to deliver. Its fee has to be reasonable and known to the parties before they finally accept the purchase agreement. If a document does not exist, the association must say so, except that items 1, 2, 4 and 6 (subdivisions a, b, d and f) cannot be answered that way.

Subsections 6 and 7 protect the buyer. No liability attaches for any unpaid assessment or fee beyond what the association’s documents show. The contract “is voidable by the buyer until the documents have been provided and for five days after receipt of the documents or until conveyance, whichever occurs first.” A material change the seller discovers before the earlier of closing and possession has to be disclosed in a written amendment.

Running a condominium under chapter 47-04.1

The owners must adopt bylaws covering upkeep of the common elements, assessment of expenses, insurance proceeds and similar matters; they are recorded with the declaration, and an amendment is valid only if recorded as an amendment to it. Two kinds of provision are banned: bylaws may not base common-charge assessments, or losses, profits, insurance proceeds or any other bylaw topic, on whether the occupant is an owner, a tenant or someone else (§ 47-04.1-07(2)). Every bylaw, rule and regulation must be in writing and available to every owner.

A reasonable assessment is the owner’s debt when made, and it becomes a lien on the unit when the administrative body records it with the county recorder in a notice stating the amount and the record owner; after payment it must record a release (§ 47-04.1-11). Interest, costs and penalties ride along only if the declaration and bylaws provide for them. An owner who breaks the bylaws, rules or covenants can be sued for damages or an injunction by the administrative body or, in a proper case, by an aggrieved owner (§ 47-04.1-08).

EV chargers: the 60-day rule in § 47-04.1-16

House Bill 1310 (2023 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 405), effective August 1, 2023, voids any covenant, deed restriction or bylaw that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts a charging station in a condominium owner’s unit or designated parking space; reasonable limits on number, size, location and installation remain allowed. Approval or denial must be in writing, and an application not denied in writing within 60 days of receipt is deemed approved, unless the delay comes from a reasonable request for more information.

For a charger in a limited common area, the board must approve if the owner agrees in writing to follow its architectural standards, use a licensed contractor, deliver within 14 days a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured, pay installation and electricity costs, and follow other reasonable regulations. The owner and later owners carry the costs of damage, of maintenance, repair and replacement until removal, of restoring the common area afterward, of electricity, and any other costs, and must disclose the charger to buyers. Bona fide safety requirements remain a ground for denial. A board that willfully violates the section owes actual damages and a civil penalty of up to $1,000.

Campaign signs and covenant amendments

Since 2007 (Senate Bill 2364), neither a covenant running with the land nor a condominium’s declaration, bylaws or rules may stop an owner or resident from displaying a political yard sign on the owner’s property “within sixty days before any primary, general, or special election”; placement and manner rules must be reasonable (§§ 47-04-32, 47-04.1-14).

A covenant running with the land executed after August 1, 1997 must say how it can be modified. If it does not, 85 percent of the owners of the land it covers may agree in writing to add modification provisions, and the modified covenant is then recorded. The rule does not reach an unfinished subdivision unless it has been in development for more than 15 years (§ 47-04-25.1).

Records in an incorporated association

A nonprofit corporation governed by chapter 10-33 must keep its articles, bylaws, accounting records, voting agreements, and the minutes of member, board and committee meetings for the last six years. A member may inspect them “for any proper purpose at any reasonable time,” may request the last annual financial statement and balance sheet, and pays a reasonable copying fee. A member wrongfully denied access may sue for an injunction, damages, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees (§ 10-33-80).

What North Dakota buyers and owners ask

Can I walk away after reading the HOA documents?

Yes, for a limited time: the contract stays voidable until five days after you receive the § 47-10-02.3 documents, or until conveyance if that comes first.

Does the disclosure law cover a subdivision HOA, or only condos?

Both. It reaches any property subject to the rules of a homeowners’ association or a condominium project.

My condo board has not answered my charger request. Now what?

If 60 days pass after the board received it with no written denial, and the board did not reasonably ask for more information, the application is deemed approved under § 47-04.1-16(3).

Related: North Dakota closing costs in 2026, homeowner insurance in North Dakota, North Dakota housing, selling in an HOA, and the HOA glossary.