Iowa Horizontal Property Act
Iowa Code chapter 499B — the condominium statute, which Iowa calls a “horizontal property regime”. How a property is submitted to the Act by recorded declaration, the nine required contents of that declaration, bylaws that can only be amended on record, open board meetings on seven days’ notice with actions taken in violation “not valid or enforceable”, the assessment lien and its priority, and the provision that keeps the governing documents from expiring. Full text of all 21 sections, with a plain-language guide.
Iowa’s condominium statute is called the “Horizontal Property Act” (§ 499B.1), and the name is the first thing to get past. “Horizontal property regime” is what Iowa calls a condominium; an “apartment” is what it calls a unit, and the chapter is careful to say the word carries no residential limit — an apartment is one or more rooms “notwithstanding whether the apartment be intended for use or used as a residence, office, for the operation of any industry or business or for any other use not prohibited by law” (§ 499B.2(1)). Office condominiums and commercial condominiums are inside this chapter, not outside it.
The chapter applies only to property that has been put into it. A property becomes a horizontal property regime when the sole owner, all of the owners, or all of the lessees execute, acknowledge and record a declaration to that effect with the county recorder (§ 499B.3(1)). There is no automatic coverage and no threshold test. If no declaration was recorded, chapter 499B is not your statute.
What has to be in the declaration — and what is annexed to it
Section 499B.4 lists nine required contents: a description of the land; a description of the building including stories, basements, number of apartments and principal materials; each apartment’s number, location, approximate area, number of rooms and an immediate common area it has access to; a description of the general common elements; a description of the limited common elements stating to which apartments their use is reserved; the fractional or percentage interest each apartment bears to the whole, which must sum to one or to a hundred; the percentage of votes that decides whether to rebuild, repair, restore or sell after damage; any further details the drafter wants; and the method by which the declaration may be amended.
The floor plans go on record with it. A full and exact copy of the plans is attached to the declaration and recorded with it, showing graphically all particulars of the building including the dimensions, area and location of the common elements affording access to each apartment. Note where the certification requirement actually sits: it is the other common elements, limited and general, that “shall be shown graphically insofar as possible and shall be certified to by an engineer, architect, or land surveyor, who is licensed to practice that profession in this state” (§ 499B.6).
The bylaws are annexed to the declaration, and that is what makes them hard to change. Administration of every property “shall be governed by bylaws, a true copy of which shall be annexed to the declaration and made a part thereof”, and “[n]o modification of or amendment to the bylaws shall be valid unless set forth in an amendment to the declaration and such amendment is duly recorded” (§ 499B.14). A bylaw change that was voted through but never recorded as a declaration amendment is not valid under this chapter.
Who runs the property
The owners collectively are the “council of co-owners” — the definition is simply “all the co-owners of the building” — and the chapter then says the council’s business and affairs “may be conducted by organizing a corporation not for pecuniary profit of which the co-owners are members” (§ 499B.2(4)). May. Incorporating is an option Iowa offers, not a duty it imposes, and the chapter works either way.
Voting weight follows ownership interest, not heads. “Majority of co-owners” and “percent of co-owners” mean “the owners of more than one-half or owners of that percent of interest in the building irrespective of the total number of co-owners” (§ 499B.2(7)). Where the declaration or the bylaws use one of those phrases, a count of people is the wrong arithmetic.
Section 499B.15 sets seven things the bylaws must provide for at least: the form of administration — administrator, board of administration or otherwise — with its powers, manner of removal and compensation; the open-meeting rules described below; the method of calling the co-owners together, the quorum if other than a majority of apartment owners, who presides and who keeps the minute book; maintenance, repair and replacement of the common areas and how payment vouchers are approved; the manner of collecting each owner’s share of the common expenses; designation and removal of maintenance personnel; and the percentage of votes required to amend the bylaws.
The open-meeting rule — and the sanction that makes it real
This is the provision worth knowing by number. Where the form of administration is a board of administration, § 499B.15(2) requires the bylaws to provide that:
“board meetings must be open to all apartment owners except for meetings between the board and its attorney with respect to proposed or pending litigation where the contents of the discussion would otherwise be governed by the attorney-client privilege.”
“Notice of each board meeting must be mailed or delivered to each apartment owner at least seven days before the meeting.” Minutes “must be maintained in written form or in another form that can be converted into written form within a reasonable time”. And “[t]he official records of the board of administration must be open to inspection and available for photocopying at reasonable times and places.”
Then the sentence that gives all of it force: “Any action taken by a board of administration at a meeting that is in violation of any of the provisions of this subsection is not valid or enforceable.” A decision taken at a closed meeting, or on four days’ notice, is not merely improper — under the chapter’s own words it does not stand.
Two limits are worth being straight about. The attorney-client exception is the only exception the subsection gives, and the rule attaches by its terms to a board of administration — a property administered by a single administrator under subsection 1 is not described by subsection 2.
Money: taxes, assessments and the lien
Taxes are assessed apartment by apartment, never on the regime as a whole. All real property taxes and special assessments are levied on each apartment and its appurtenant share of the land and common elements “as these apartments and appurtenances are separately owned, and not on the entire horizontal property regime”, and the fair market value determined for an apartment includes that appurtenant share (§ 499B.11(1)). Any exemption a property or its owner would otherwise have “shall not be denied by virtue of the registration of the property under the provisions of this chapter”.
Unpaid assessments become a lien with an unusually high priority. All sums assessed by the council of co-owners but unpaid for an apartment’s share of the common expenses “shall constitute a lien on such apartment prior to all other liens except only tax liens on the apartment in favor of any assessing unit and special district and all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record” (§ 499B.17). The lien is foreclosed “in like manner as a mortgage of real property”. In a foreclosure the owner can be made to pay a reasonable rental for the apartment if the bylaws so provide, and the plaintiff is entitled to the appointment of a receiver to collect it. The council may bid in the apartment at the foreclosure sale unless the declaration forbids it, and may then hold, lease, mortgage and convey it. A suit for a money judgment on unpaid common expenses can be brought without foreclosing or waiving the lien.
What a buyer at a first-mortgage foreclosure owes is limited, and the shortfall is spread. A mortgagee under a first mortgage of record, or any other purchaser who takes title through that foreclosure, is “not ... liable for the share of the common expenses or assessments ... which became due prior to the acquisition of title” — and that unpaid share “shall be deemed to be common expenses collectible from all of the apartment owners including such acquirer” (§ 499B.18). Everyone else in the building absorbs it.
A voluntary sale works the opposite way, with one protection for the buyer. On a voluntary conveyance the grantee is jointly and severally liable with the grantor for all unpaid assessments for the grantor’s share of common expenses up to the time of the conveyance, without prejudice to the buyer’s right to recover them back from the seller. But the buyer “shall be entitled to a statement from the council of co-owners or its representatives, setting forth the amount of the unpaid assessments”, and once that statement is given the buyer is not liable, and the apartment is not subject to a lien, for anything in excess of the amount stated (§ 499B.19). Asking for that statement before closing is the whole protection.
Liens against the building, and partition
Once the declaration is recorded, no lien can attach to the property as a whole. While the property remains in the regime, “no lien shall thereafter arise or be effective against the property”; liens arise only against an individual apartment and its appurtenant interests, exactly as they would against any other separately owned parcel (§ 499B.12(1)). Where a lien does reach two or more apartments, an owner can free their own apartment by paying the fractional amount attributable to it, computed from the percentages in the declaration — and the lienholder keeps every right against the apartments that have not paid.
You cannot break up a condominium by suing for partition. Chapter 651, the partition chapter, is “not ... available to any owner of any interest in real property included within a regime established under this chapter as against any other owner ... so as to terminate the regime” (§ 499B.13(1)). That bar is about terminating the regime; joint owners of a single apartment can still partition as between themselves without touching it.
Damage, destruction, and the thirty-day clock
Section 499B.16 runs a clock. If within thirty days of damage or destruction to all or part of the property the council of co-owners has not determined to repair, reconstruct or rebuild, then the property is deemed to be owned in common by the apartment owners in their existing percentages; existing liens transfer, in their existing priorities, to each owner’s undivided interest; and the property becomes subject to an action for partition at the suit of any apartment owner. On that sale, the net sale proceeds and the net insurance proceeds are treated as one fund and divided by percentage interest, after each owner’s liens are paid out of that owner’s share. The percentage of votes that makes the rebuild-or-sell decision is one of the nine things the declaration had to fix at the outset (§ 499B.4(7)).
Leaving the regime, and coming back
Removal takes everyone, owners and lienholders alike. All of the apartment owners may remove the property from the chapter by a recorded instrument, provided the holders of all liens affecting any of the apartments consent or agree — by recorded instruments — that their liens transfer to the owner’s percentage of the undivided interest (§ 499B.8(1)). After removal the property is owned in common in the same percentages the owners held in the common elements. Removal “shall in no way bar the subsequent resubmission of the property” to the chapter (§ 499B.9).
While the regime is in place, each apartment together with its appurtenant interests “shall constitute for all purposes a separate parcel of real property and shall be as completely and freely alienable as any separate parcel of real property is or may be under the laws of this state, except as limited by the provisions of this chapter” (§ 499B.10) — the closing words matter, because the chapter’s own limits, the assessment lien among them, ride along with the parcel. And a deed that describes the land and the apartment carries the appurtenant share of the common elements with it “whether such general common elements or limited common elements are described ... by general reference only, or not at all” (§ 499B.7(2)).
Converting an existing building: sixty days, and a building-code check
Turning an existing structure into a condominium is the one thing this chapter makes slow on purpose. Where the declaration converts an existing structure, the declarant must file it with the city, or with the county if the property is not in a city, at least sixty days before it is recorded, so that the city or county can establish that the converted structure meets the applicable building code (§ 499B.3(2)). If that city or county has no building code, the declaration goes instead to the state building code commissioner, on the same sixty days, against the state building code adopted under § 103A.7.
Section 499B.20 supplies the substantive rule behind that filing: since April 25, 2000, an existing structure “shall not be converted to a horizontal property regime unless the converted structure meets local city or county ... building code requirements in effect on the date of conversion”, or the state building code where the local government has none. City code applies inside a city; county code applies in the unincorporated area.
And one more filing catches new regimes near a city. A declaration for a regime proposed to be located within an area of review established by a city under § 354.9 must, on top of going to the county, be submitted to the city for review and approval (§ 499B.3(3)).
The provision that keeps the documents from expiring
Iowa has a statute that quietly kills recorded use restrictions. Section 614.24 bars any action on a use restriction in a deed, conveyance, contract or will more than twenty-one years after recording unless the claimant files a verified claim with the county recorder inside that period — and it defines “use restrictions” broadly enough to cover the ordinary furniture of a community: limits on commercial use, rental use, parking and storage of recreational vehicles, pets, outdoor domestic uses, accessory structures, building dimensions and colors, construction materials and landscaping.
Chapter 499B documents are outside it. Section 499B.21, added in 2014, provides that unless they are themselves amended or terminated, the declaration, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws, any rules adopted under them, and any property interests those documents create “shall remain in full force and effect as long as the horizontal property regime remains in existence” — and that they “shall not be extinguished, limited, or impaired by application of section 558.68 or 614.24”. Section 558.68 is Iowa’s rule against perpetuities; § 614.24 is the twenty-one-year rule. Both carry the matching carve-out in their own text (§ 558.68(6), § 614.24(4)). A condominium’s governing documents do not go stale in Iowa.
What this chapter does not do
Read end to end, chapter 499B is a property statute, not a governance code. It has no reserve requirement, no budget procedure, no limit on how far assessments may rise, no election rules, no fining power and no insurance mandate — the words “fine”, “penalty” and “budget” do not appear anywhere in its twenty-one sections. What governs those subjects in an Iowa condominium is the declaration and the bylaws, which is why § 499B.15’s list of what the bylaws must cover, and § 499B.14’s rule that they can only be amended by a recorded amendment to the declaration, matter more here than they would in a state with a full common-interest-ownership Act.
Chapter 499B governs the property. Several of the rules an Iowa condominium association actually runs on come from somewhere else in the Code.
Records come from chapter 499C, not from here. Chapter 499B gives an owner access to “the official records of the board of administration” through § 499B.15(2), with no deadline attached. Chapter 499C, enacted in 2023, adds a hard one: it defines “common interest community” to include “a horizontal property regime under chapter 499B” (§ 499C.1(3)(a)) and then requires the association, its designee or its management company to make five categories of record available within ten business days of a unit owner’s request — organizational documents, bylaws, rules, and the minutes of the most recent owners’ meeting and the most recent executive board meeting, each with any financial reports (§ 499C.2(1)). It may be delivered on paper, by email or by posting to a website the owner can reach, and the fee “shall not exceed the estimated cost of production or reproduction”.
If the council of co-owners incorporated, corporate law comes from chapter 504. Section 499B.2(4) permits — and does not require — organizing “a corporation not for pecuniary profit of which the co-owners are members” to conduct the council’s business. Where that was done, the Revised Iowa Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies directors, meetings, notice and records on the corporate side. Where it was not, the council of co-owners is simply “all the co-owners of the building” and the bylaws are the whole of its procedure.
Discrimination is not in this chapter. Chapter 499B says nothing about protected classes, accommodations or assistance animals. That law is the Iowa Civil Rights Act, chapter 216, and the federal Fair Housing Act.
Solar is not in this chapter either. Iowa’s provisions on access to solar energy are chapter 564A, and they work differently from most states’ solar-rights laws — that page sets out how.
Building-code questions run through chapter 103A. Both the sixty-day conversion filing (§ 499B.3(2)) and the conversion standard (§ 499B.20) send the reader to the state building code “as adopted pursuant to section 103A.7”, which is the section empowering the state building code commissioner to adopt the rules that “comprise and be known as the state building code”.
And if your community is not a condominium, this is the wrong chapter. Iowa has no general homeowners-association or planned-community Act. A community whose owners hold their own lots under a recorded declaration is not a horizontal property regime, and chapter 499B does not reach it — the Iowa HOA laws hub sets out what does.
Contents · 21 sections ▾
- 499B.1Short title.
- 499B.2Definitions.
- 499B.3Recording of declaration to submit property to regime.
- 499B.4Contents of declaration.
- 499B.5Contents of deeds of apartments.
- 499B.6Copy of the floor plans to be filed.
- 499B.7Interest in common elements — reference to them in instrument.
- 499B.8Removal from provisions of this chapter.
- 499B.9Removal no bar to subsequent resubmission.
- 499B.10Individual apartments and interest in common elements are alienable.
- 499B.11Real property tax and special assessments — levy on each apartment.
- 499B.12Liens against apartments — removal from lien — effect of part payment.
- 499B.13Limitation upon availability of partition — exception as to limitation of partition by joint ownership.
- 499B.14Bylaws.
- 499B.15Contents of bylaws.
- 499B.16Disposition of property — destruction or damage.
- 499B.17Lien against owner of unit.
- 499B.18Common expenses before foreclosure.
- 499B.19Common expenses after voluntary conveyance.
- 499B.20Conversions to meet building codes.
- 499B.21Effect of documents and instruments.
No sections match that filter.
§ 499B.1Short title.
This chapter shall be known as the “Horizontal Property Act”.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.1]
§ 499B.2Definitions.
Unless it is plainly evident from the context that a different meaning is intended, as used in this chapter:
1. “Apartment” means one or more rooms occupying all or a part of a floor or floors in a building of one or more floors or stories and notwithstanding whether the apartment be intended for use or used as a residence, office, for the operation of any industry or business or for any other use not prohibited by law.
2. “Building” means and includes one or more buildings, whether attached to one or more buildings or unattached; provided, however, that if there is more than one building, all such buildings shall be described and included in the declaration, or an amendment thereto, and comprise an integral part of a single horizontal property regime.
3. “Co-owner” means a person, corporation, or other legal entity capable of holding or owning any interest in real property who owns all or an interest in an apartment within the building.
4. “Council of co-owners” means all the co-owners of the building. The business and affairs of the council of co-owners may be conducted by organizing a corporation not for pecuniary profit of which the co-owners are members.
5. “General common elements”, unless otherwise provided in the declaration or lawful amendments thereto, means and includes:
a. The land on which the building is erected.
b. The foundations, basements, floors, exterior walls of each apartment and of the building, ceilings and roofs, halls, lobbies, stairways, and entrances and exits or communication ways, elevators, garbage incinerators and in general all devices or installations existing for common use.
c. Compartments or installations of central services for public utilities, common heating and refrigeration units, reservoirs, water tanks and pumps servicing other than one apartment.
d. Premises for lodging of service personnel engaged in performing services other than services within a single apartment.
6. “Limited common elements” means and includes those common elements which are specified in or determined under the declaration to be reserved for the use of one or more apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments, such as special corridors, stairways and elevators, sanitary services common to the apartments of a particular floor, and the like.
7. “Majority of co-owners” or “percent of co-owners” means the owners of more than one-half or owners of that percent of interest in the building irrespective of the total number of co-owners.
8. “Property” includes the land whether committed to the horizontal property regime in fee or as a leasehold interest, the building, all other improvements located thereon, and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto.
9. All pronouns used herein include the male, female and neuter genders and include the singular or plural numbers, as the case may be.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.2] 2016 Acts, ch 1073, §140
§ 499B.3Recording of declaration to submit property to regime.
1. When the sole owner or all of the owners, or the sole lessee or all of the lessees of a lease desire to submit a parcel of real property upon which a building is located or to be constructed to the horizontal property regime established by this chapter, a declaration to that effect shall be executed and acknowledged by the sole owner or lessee or all of such owners or lessees and shall be recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county in which such property lies. The county recorder shall collect recording fees pursuant to section 331.604.
2. If the declaration is to convert an existing structure, the declarant shall file the declaration of the horizontal property regime with the city in which the regime is located or with the county if not located within a city at least sixty days before being recorded in the office of the county recorder to enable the city or county, as applicable, to establish that the converted structure meets appropriate building code requirements as provided in section 499B.20. However, if the city or county, as applicable, does not have a building code, the declarant shall file the declaration with the state building code commissioner instead of the applicable city or county at least sixty days before the recording of the declaration to enable the commissioner to establish that the converted structure meets the state building code, as adopted pursuant to section 103A.7.
3. A declaration under this section for a horizontal property regime proposed to be located within an area of review established by a city under section 354.9 shall, in addition to being submitted to the county, be submitted to the city for review and approval.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.3] 2000 Acts, ch 1142, §1, 5; 2004 Acts, ch 1086, §81; 2009 Acts, ch 27, §28; 2010 Acts, ch 1051, §2
§ 499B.4Contents of declaration.
The declaration provided for in section 499B.3 shall contain:
1. A description of the land.
2. A description of the building, stating the number of stories and basements, the number of apartments and the principal materials of which it is or is to be constructed.
3. The apartment number of each apartment, and a statement of its location, approximate area, number of rooms, an immediate common area to which it has access, and any other data necessary for its proper identification.
4. A description of the general common elements and facilities.
5. A description of the limited common elements and facilities, if any, stating to which apartments their use is reserved.
6. The fractional or percentage interest which each apartment bears to the entire horizontal property regime. The sum of such shall be one if expressed in fractions and one hundred if expressed in percentage.
7. The provision as to the percentage of votes by the apartment owners which shall be determinative of whether to rebuild, repair, restore, or sell the property in the event of damage or destruction of all or part of the property.
8. Any further details in connection with the property which the person executing the declaration may deem desirable to set forth consistent with this chapter.
9. The method by which the declaration may be amended, consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.4]
§ 499B.5Contents of deeds of apartments.
Deeds of apartments shall include the following particulars:
1. Description of land as provided in section 499B.4, including the document reference number and date of recording of the declaration.
2. The apartment number of the apartment in the declaration and any other data necessary for its proper identification.
3. The percentage of undivided interest appertaining to the apartment in the common areas and facilities.
4. Any further details which the grantor and grantee may deem desirable to set forth consistent with the declaration and this chapter.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.5] 2009 Acts, ch 27, §29
§ 499B.6Copy of the floor plans to be filed.
There shall be attached to the declaration, at the time it is filed, a full and an exact copy of the plans of the building, which copy shall be entered of record along with the declaration. The plans shall show graphically all particulars of the building including but not limited to the dimensions, area, and location of common elements affording access to each apartment. Other common elements, both limited and general, shall be shown graphically insofar as possible and shall be certified to by an engineer, architect, or land surveyor, who is licensed to practice that profession in this state.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.6; 82 Acts, ch 1068, §1] 2007 Acts, ch 22, §85; 2017 Acts, ch 131, §2
§ 499B.7Interest in common elements — reference to them in instrument.
1. The fractional or percentage interest in the general common elements and the fractional or percentage interest in the limited common elements where such exist are hereby declared to be appurtenant to each of the separate apartments.
2. Any conveyance, encumbrance, lien, alienation, or devise of an apartment under a horizontal property regime by any instrument which describes the land and apartment as set forth in section 499B.4 shall also convey, encumber, alienate, devise, or be a lien upon the fractional or percentage interest appurtenant to each such apartment under section 499B.4, subsection 6, to the general common elements, and the respective share or percentage interest to limited common elements where applicable, whether such general common elements or limited common elements are described as in section 499B.4, subsections 4 and 5, by general reference only, or not at all.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.7] 2015 Acts, ch 29, §67
§ 499B.8Removal from provisions of this chapter.
1. All of the apartment owners may remove a property from the provisions of this chapter by an instrument to that effect, duly recorded, provided that the holders of all liens affecting any of the apartments consent thereto or agree, in either case by instruments duly recorded, that their liens be transferred to the percentage of the undivided interest of the apartment owner in the property as hereinafter provided.
2. Upon removal of the property from the provisions of this chapter, the property shall be deemed to be owned in common by the apartment owners. The undivided interest in the property owned in common which shall appertain to each apartment owner shall be the percentage of undivided interest previously owned by such owner in the common area and facilities.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.8]
§ 499B.9Removal no bar to subsequent resubmission.
The removal provided for in section 499B.8 shall in no way bar the subsequent resubmission of the property to the provisions of this chapter.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.9]
§ 499B.10Individual apartments and interest in common elements are alienable.
When real property containing a building is committed to a horizontal property regime, each individual apartment located in the building and the interests in the general common elements and limited common elements if any, appurtenant thereto, shall constitute for all purposes a separate parcel of real property and shall be as completely and freely alienable as any separate parcel of real property is or may be under the laws of this state, except as limited by the provisions of this chapter.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.10] 2000 Acts, ch 1142, §2, 5
§ 499B.11Real property tax and special assessments — levy on each apartment.
1. All real property taxes and special assessments shall be assessed and levied on each apartment and its respective appurtenant fractional share or percentage of the land, general common elements and limited common elements where applicable as these apartments and appurtenances are separately owned, and not on the entire horizontal property regime. The fair market value determined for an apartment includes the value of its appurtenant share or percentage of the land, general common elements, and limited common elements.
2. Any exemption from taxes that may exist on real property or the ownership thereof shall not be denied by virtue of the registration of the property under the provisions of this chapter.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.11] 99 Acts, ch 187, §1, 2; 2000 Acts, ch 1142, §3; 2001 Acts, ch 116, §26
§ 499B.12Liens against apartments — removal from lien — effect of part payment.
1. Subsequent to recording the declaration provided for in section 499B.3, and while the property remains enrolled in a horizontal property regime, no lien shall thereafter arise or be effective against the property. During such period liens or encumbrances shall arise or be created only against the individual apartment and the general common elements and limited common elements where applicable, appurtenant to such apartment, in the same manner and under the same conditions in every respect as liens or encumbrances may arise or be created upon or against any other separate parcel of real property subject to individual ownership.
2. In the event a lien against two or more apartments becomes effective, the owners of the separate apartments may remove their apartment and the general common elements and limited common elements where applicable appurtenant to such apartment from the lien by payment of the fractional or proportional amounts attributable to each of the apartments affected. Such individual payments shall be computed by reference to the fractions or percentages appearing on the declaration provided for in section 499B.4, subsection 6. Subsequent to any such payment, discharge or other satisfaction the individual apartment and the general common elements and limited common elements applicable appurtenant thereto shall thereafter be free and clear of the lien so paid, satisfied or discharged. Such partial payment, satisfaction or discharge shall not prevent the lienor from proceeding to enforce the lienor’s rights against any apartment and the general common elements, limited common elements where applicable appurtenant thereto not so paid, satisfied or discharged.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.12]
§ 499B.13Limitation upon availability of partition — exception as to limitation of partition by joint ownership.
1. The provisions of chapter 651, relating to partition of real property shall not be available to any owner of any interest in real property included within a regime established under this chapter as against any other owner or owners of any interest or interests in the same regime, so as to terminate the regime.
2. Nothing contained in the chapter shall be construed as a limitation on partition by joint owners of one or more apartments in a regime as to individual ownership of such apartment or apartments without terminating the regime, or as to ownership of such apartment or apartments and lands outside the limits of the regime.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.13]
§ 499B.14Bylaws.
The administration of every property shall be governed by bylaws, a true copy of which shall be annexed to the declaration and made a part thereof. No modification of or amendment to the bylaws shall be valid unless set forth in an amendment to the declaration and such amendment is duly recorded.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.14]
§ 499B.15Contents of bylaws.
The bylaws must provide for at least the following:
1. The form of administration, indicating whether this shall be in charge of an administrator or of a board of administration, or otherwise, and specifying the powers, manner of removal, and, where proper, the compensation thereof.
2. If the form of administration is a board of administration, board meetings must be open to all apartment owners except for meetings between the board and its attorney with respect to proposed or pending litigation where the contents of the discussion would otherwise be governed by the attorney-client privilege. Notice of each board meeting must be mailed or delivered to each apartment owner at least seven days before the meeting. Minutes of meetings of the board of administration must be maintained in written form or in another form that can be converted into written form within a reasonable time. The official records of the board of administration must be open to inspection and available for photocopying at reasonable times and places. Any action taken by a board of administration at a meeting that is in violation of any of the provisions of this subsection is not valid or enforceable.
3. Method of calling or summoning the co-owners to assemble; what percentage, if other than a majority of apartment owners, shall constitute a quorum; who is to preside over the meeting; and who will keep the minute book wherein the resolutions shall be recorded.
4. Maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common areas and facilities and payments therefor including the method of approving payment vouchers.
5. Manner of collecting from the apartment owners their share of the common expenses.
6. Designation and removal of personnel necessary for the maintenance, repair and replacement of the common areas and facilities.
7. The percentage of votes required to amend the bylaws.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.15] 2010 Acts, ch 1080, §1; 2015 Acts, ch 29, §68
§ 499B.16Disposition of property — destruction or damage.
If within thirty days of the date of the damage or destruction to all or part of the property, it is not determined by the council of co-owners to repair, reconstruct or rebuild, then and in that event:
1. The property shall be deemed to be owned in common by the apartment owners;
2. The undivided interest in the property owned in common which shall appertain to each apartment owner shall be the percentage of undivided interest previously owned by such owner in the common areas and facilities;
3. Any liens affecting any of the apartments shall be deemed to be transferred in accordance with the existing priorities to the percentage of the undivided interest of the apartment owner in the property as provided herein; and
4. The property shall be subject to an action for partition at the suit of any apartment owner, in which event the net proceeds of sale, together with the net proceeds of the insurance on the property, if any, shall be considered as one fund and shall be divided among all the apartment owners in a percentage equal to the percentage of undivided interest owned by each owner in the property, after first paying out of the respective shares of the apartment owners, to the extent sufficient for the purpose, all liens on the undivided interest in the property owned by each apartment owner.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.16]
§ 499B.17Lien against owner of unit.
All sums assessed by the council of co-owners but unpaid for the share of the common expenses chargeable to any apartment shall constitute a lien on such apartment prior to all other liens except only tax liens on the apartment in favor of any assessing unit and special district and all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record. Such lien may be foreclosed by suit by the council of co-owners or the representatives thereof, acting on behalf of the apartment owners, in like manner as a mortgage of real property. In the event of any such foreclosure, the apartment owner shall be required to pay a reasonable rental for the apartment if so provided in the bylaws, and the plaintiff in such foreclosure shall be entitled to the appointment of a receiver to collect the same. The council of co-owners or the representatives thereof, acting on behalf of the apartment owners, shall have power, unless prohibited by the declaration, to bid in the apartment at foreclosure sale, and to acquire and hold, lease, mortgage and convey the same. Suit to recover a money judgment for unpaid common expenses shall be maintainable without foreclosing or waiving the lien securing the same.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.17] 2011 Acts, ch 25, §60
§ 499B.18Common expenses before foreclosure.
Where the mortgagee of a first mortgage of record or other purchaser of an apartment obtains title to the apartment as a result of foreclosure of the first mortgage, such acquirer of title, the acquirer’s successors and assigns, shall not be liable for the share of the common expenses or assessments by the council of co-owners chargeable to such apartment which became due prior to the acquisition of title to such apartment by such acquirer. Such unpaid share of common expenses or assessments shall be deemed to be common expenses collectible from all of the apartment owners including such acquirer, the acquirer’s successors and assigns.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.18]
§ 499B.19Common expenses after voluntary conveyance.
In a voluntary conveyance the grantee of an apartment shall be jointly and severally liable with the grantor for all unpaid assessments against the latter for the grantor’s share of the common expenses up to the time of the grant or conveyance, without prejudice to the grantee’s right to recover from the grantor the amounts paid by the grantee therefor. However, any such grantee shall be entitled to a statement from the council of co-owners or its representatives, setting forth the amount of the unpaid assessments against the grantor and such grantee shall not be liable for, nor shall the apartment conveyed be subject to a lien for, any unpaid assessments against the grantor in excess of the amount therein set forth.
[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §499B.19]
§ 499B.20Conversions to meet building codes.
After April 25, 2000, an existing structure shall not be converted to a horizontal property regime unless the converted structure meets local city or county, as applicable, building code requirements in effect on the date of conversion or the state building code requirements, as adopted pursuant to section 103A.7, if the local city or county does not have a building code. For purposes of this section, if the structure is located in a city, the city building code applies and if the structure is located in the unincorporated area of the county, the county building code applies.
2000 Acts, ch 1142, §4, 5; 2004 Acts, ch 1086, §82
§ 499B.21Effect of documents and instruments.
1. Unless amended or terminated by the following documents or instruments, all terms, conditions, covenants, and provisions contained in the following documents or instruments shall remain in full force and effect as long as the horizontal property regime remains in existence:
a. The declaration of the horizontal property regime and any amendments thereto.
b. The articles of incorporation of the horizontal property regime and any amendments thereto.
c. The bylaws of the horizontal property regime and any amendments thereto.
d. Any rules and regulations adopted pursuant to the declaration of the horizontal property regime and the bylaws of the horizontal property regime.
e. Any property interests created by any documents or instruments specified in paragraph “a”, “b”, “c”, or “d”.
2. A document or instrument specified in subsection 1, and any property interests created by such document or instrument, shall not be extinguished, limited, or impaired by application of section 558.68 or 614.24.
2014 Acts, ch 1095, §3, 6
Source. Reproduced from the official text of the Code of Iowa 2026, chapter 499B (Horizontal Property (Condominiums)), as published by the Iowa Legislative Services Agency. General information, not legal advice; the Code is amended every session, so confirm the current text against the official source.