Massachusetts related & miscellaneous statutes

Chapter 183A § 6 says the lien is enforced “in the manner provided in sections five and five A of chapter two hundred and fifty-four”, and ch. 254 § 5 names “a lien established under … section 6 of chapter 183A” in its own text. The lien is enforced by a civil action in the superior court for the county where the land lies, or in the district court for that judicial district.

There is a thirty-day trap in it. An attested copy of the complaint, containing a brief description of the property and a statement of the amount due, must be filed and recorded in the registry of deeds within thirty days of the commencement of the action — or the lien is dissolved. That cuts both ways: it is the association's deadline, and it is the first thing an owner defending a lien action should check.

The association's lien is prior to everything except liens and encumbrances recorded before the master deed, a first mortgage recorded before the assessment became delinquent, and municipal taxes and charges. Against that first mortgage it still takes priority for up to six months of budgeted common expenses that would have come due before the enforcement action, plus the costs and reasonable attorney's fees of the action.

The priority amount excludes special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties and interest. And nothing is ever filed to create it: recording the master deed is itself “record notice and perfection of this lien”.

Chapter 244 governs the foreclosure and redemption of mortgages generally. Within ch. 183A itself, § 6(c) gives a first mortgagee a way to stop the association enforcing its priority lien: agree in writing that the priority lien exists and pay, within sixty days of that writing, the six months of budgeted common expenses and the association's costs and reasonable attorney's fees — and then every future common expense within thirty days of its due date. Miss either deadline and the association may resume enforcement.

Section 22 adds that where a condominium development is foreclosed, the lender taking over succeeds to the developer's obligations to unit owners and tenants — though the developer stays liable for misrepresentations already made and for warranties on work done before the transfer.

Contract actions — which is what most disputes with an association are — must generally be commenced within six years after the cause of action accrues (ch. 260 § 2). But § 2 yields to § 1, which gives twenty years on a contract under seal — and condominium instruments often are. Actions of tort, and contract actions for personal injuries, run three years (ch. 260 § 2A).

There is a shorter and easily missed one. Chapter 184 § 23A bars any action to recover damages or to compel removal, alteration or relocation of a structure for breach of a private restriction about setbacks, size, type, storeys, dwelling units, a porch, garage, sign, bay window or similar addition, a driveway, fence or wall, or the materials used or the expenditures made — unless brought within six years of the completion of the construction.

The district court and the Boston municipal court run a “simple, informal and inexpensive” small claims procedure for claims in contract or tort where the plaintiff does not claim more than $7,000. For a disputed assessment, a fine, or the cost of damage the association should have prevented, this is usually the proportionate forum.

Massachusetts has a Housing Court department with six divisions — western, central, northeastern, southeastern, metro south and eastern (§ 1) — together covering the whole Commonwealth. Under § 3 they hold jurisdiction concurrent with the district and superior courts over a defined list of matters.

Two routes on this site lead there specifically: ch. 151B § 9 allows a discrimination action to be brought in the housing court where the unlawful practice involves residential housing, and ch. 93A § 9 allows a consumer action there. Section 16 of ch. 185C provides for housing specialists — court staff who work on resolving cases.

Massachusetts gives an owner who occupies a home as a principal residence an automatic homestead exemption of $125,000 where no valid declaration has been recorded (§§ 1, 4), and a declared homestead exemption of $1,000,000 for those who execute and record a declaration (§§ 1, 3, 5).

Read § 3(b) before relying on it against an association. The estate of homestead is exempt from attachment, seizure, execution on judgment, levy and sale except, among other things, “(2) for a lien on the home recorded prior to the creation of the estate of homestead”. The condominium lien is perfected by the recording of the master deed, which in most communities long predates any homestead declaration. That timing is what a homestead argument here has to get past.

Massachusetts records land instruments through registries of deeds. There is no county recorder's office of the kind other states use; registered land is handled by the Land Court's recorder and the assistant recorders sitting in the registry districts (ch. 185 §§ 6, 10). Chapter 36 § 1 divides Berkshire, Bristol, Essex, Middlesex and Worcester into registry districts with offices in named towns, so “the county registry” is not always a single place.

Chapter 183A § 8 requires the master deed to be recorded in the registry of deeds or the land registration office, and § 16 confirms that where title is registered under ch. 185 the master deed is filed under that chapter instead. If your association is a trust, its declaration of trust is recorded here too — not filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Chapter 187 § 1 forecloses the usual assumption: windows overlooking a neighbour's land acquire no easement of light or air by mere continuance, and do not stop the neighbour building. Section 1A provides that an easement of direct sunlight may be acquired over the land of another by express grant or covenant, or by a solar access permit under ch. 40A § 9B, and lists what such an instrument may contain — the dimensions of the easement in measurable terms, and the restrictions placed on vegetation, structures and other objects that would obstruct the sunlight.

Section 5 gives abutting owners on a private way who already hold deeded rights of ingress and egress a right by implication to install public utility services, provided they do not unreasonably obstruct the way — the provision that matters where a community's roads were never accepted by the town.