Mississippi HOA laws and resources.

Mississippi never enacted a homeowners’ association act. A condominium has the Mississippi Condominium Law, Title 89 ch. 9 — but only where a plan has been recorded under § 89-9-9. Every other community is governed by its recorded declaration, by the Nonprofit Corporation Act if it is incorporated, and by four narrow HOA-specific regimes filed where nobody would look for them — managing agents and association funds in the nonprofit chapter, assessment districts in the municipal taxation chapter, pool safety in the public safety code and water service in the utilities code. HOPB hosts the full text of every one.

Mississippi HOA law guideEvery Mississippi statute that reaches a community association, ordered by how much it is likely to matter to an owner — beginning with the six sections most Mississippi owners have never heard of.

Nine things are worth knowing about how Mississippi HOA law works:

• There is no Mississippi homeowners’ association act. A code-wide search for planned community returns zoning definitions, county building codes, youth court and economic-development highways — nothing about common-interest housing. If your community is separately owned lots, what binds you is your recorded declaration, the Nonprofit Corporation Act if the association is incorporated, and general property law.
• The condominium law reaches you only if a plan was recorded. § 89-9-5(1) defines the condominium form of ownership, but § 89-9-9 applies the chapter only if a plan — survey map, floor plans, and a certificate signed by the owner and every holder of a security interest — is on file with the chancery clerk. Fitting the definition is not enough.
• A condominium assessment lien dies after a year. Under § 89-9-21 the lien expires one year from the date the notice of assessment was recorded, unless it has been satisfied or enforcement has begun. It can be extended by one further year, but only by recording a written extension. The date on the notice matters. If you are not in a condominium, note what is missing: Mississippi’s lien chapter contains no general HOA assessment lien at all, so any lien your association claims has to come from your declaration.
• Whoever holds your association’s money is regulated, even though your association mostly is not. Anyone paid to control association assets must keep the funds in a trust account and may not commingle them, and no transfer over $10,000 of combined reserve and operating deposits may be authorised without prior board approval (§§ 79-11-751, 757).
• The fidelity bond is required until the board votes it away. § 79-11-759(1) says the association shall maintain a fidelity bond or comparable coverage. § 79-11-759(2) lets a majority of the board decide not to — with no owner vote and no minimum left behind. Whether yours carries it is a question for the minutes.
• Your right to see the books is not a default your bylaws can remove. Much of the Nonprofit Corporation Act opens “unless the articles or bylaws provide otherwise”. The records sections do not. On five business days’ written notice a member may inspect and copy the governing documents, three years of member-meeting minutes and communications, and the current officer list (§ 79-11-285(1)) — accounting records and the membership list too, on a good-faith, properly-described demand.
• You cannot be expelled or suspended without a fair procedure. § 79-11-189(1) requires one that is “fair and reasonable and is carried out in good faith”. The safe harbour is fifteen days’ written notice with reasons and a chance to be heard at least five days before it takes effect. Any challenge must be brought within one year.
• A transfer fee on sale is void — unless it is your own association’s. § 89-1-69 voids a covenant requiring payment to a declarant or a designated third party on a future transfer. Subsection (3) then exempts a fee payable to the property owners’ association itself, where the subdivision has more than one platted lot and the right is recorded in the public land records.
• Two things Mississippi does not give you, so federal law does the work. There is no solar-access statute — nothing here voids a covenant banning panels. And there is no state fair housing act: the phrase appears twice in the whole Code, both times as a subject taught to real-estate licensees, so a discrimination complaint goes to federal law and HUD rather than to a state agency. The same is true of collections: the consumer protection chapter bans deceptive practices but sets no rules on how a debt may be collected, so the federal FDCPA is what a homeowner relies on.

• Mississippi Homeowners’ Association Directory↗ — find an association’s contact information, active board members, articles of incorporation and corporate status by searching the subdivision or community name.
• Mississippi recorded document search↗ — your county chancery clerk holds the recorded documents: covenants and restrictions, amendments, bylaws, plats, deeds, deeds of trust, liens and judgments. § 89-5-1 makes the date of filing decisive, so the record is where a covenant dispute is settled. Search under the subdivision or community name.
• Nonprofit corporation requirements↗ — what the Secretary of State requires of a nonprofit corporation, including the annual report whose neglect can lead to administrative dissolution under § 79-11-347.