Nebraska HOA laws and resources.

Nebraska has no homeowners’ association act. A condominium has the Nebraska Condominium Act if it was created after January 1, 1984 and the Condominium Property Act if before — though § 76-826 makes each reach into the other. Every other community runs on its recorded declaration plus § 52-2001, the assessment lien. Add the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act if the association is incorporated, the Nebraska Fair Housing Act for discrimination, the Municipal Custodianship Act if it has been dissolved, and solar and wind access. HOPB hosts the full text of every one.

Nebraska HOA law guideEvery Nebraska statute that reaches a community association, ordered by how much it is likely to matter to an owner — beginning with the one section that does the work an HOA act would do.

Ten things are worth knowing about how Nebraska HOA law works:

• There is no Nebraska homeowners’ association act. No chapter sets out governance, budgets, elections, records or fines for a non-condominium community. Across the thirty-two chapters behind this tab — thirty-two of Nebraska’s eighty-nine — the phrase “homeowners association” in either spelling appears in just eight sections, with a ninth using the singular. What binds you is your recorded declaration — and, if the association is incorporated, the Nebraska Nonprofit Corporation Act, which is where governance actually comes from.
• One section does most of the work an HOA act would do. § 52-2001 gives your association a lien for assessments — and, unless the declaration says otherwise, for fees, charges, late charges and interest too. It is foreclosable like a mortgage. If your community is not a condominium, this is the statute to read first.
• Recording the notice is half the trigger — and it decides priority. The lien runs from the time the assessment becomes due and a notice stating the dollar amount is recorded. It outranks everything on the property except encumbrances recorded before the declaration, real-estate taxes and other governmental assessments or charges, and a first mortgage or deed of trust recorded before the association recorded that notice. In the ordinary case the mortgage got there first. The lien is also not subject to the homestead exemption.
• Your association cannot draft its way around that. § 52-2001(8) forbids a declaration, bylaw or rule from making the lien relate back to the declaration’s filing date or take priority over a mortgage recorded after the declaration was filed and before the association’s notice. And where the declaration conflicts with the bylaws the declaration wins — except where the declaration is inconsistent with the statute.
• Ask in writing, and they have ten business days. On written request the association shall furnish a recordable statement of the unpaid assessments against your property within ten business days, and that statement then binds the association, the board and every member (§ 52-2001(7)). Do this before you close, refinance or dispute a balance.
• An unenforced lien dies after three years — and fees run both ways. A lien for unpaid assessments is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce it are instituted within three years after the full amount becomes due. And a judgment in any action under the section must include costs and reasonable attorney’s fees for the prevailing party, whichever party that turns out to be.
• The six-month escrow cap has an exception in its own last line. An association may require a buyer of restricted real estate since September 6, 2013 to fund an escrow up to six months of assessments, held in an interest-bearing Nebraska account beyond the reach of the association’s creditors and returned with interest when you sell having paid up. But § 52-2001(10)(e) lets a declaration require more. The cap is the default, not a ceiling.
• Both condominium acts can reach the same building. The Nebraska Condominium Act governs regimes created after January 1, 1984 and the Condominium Property Act those created before — but § 76-826(a) applies a named list of the newer act’s sections to older condominiums too, including its lien for assessments, as to events after that date — while the older act keeps a lien, a sale-proceeds priority and a purchaser’s joint liability of its own at §§ 76-817 to 76-819.
• Fair housing has two deadlines, and they decide most claims. The Nebraska Fair Housing Act covers race, color, religion, national origin, disability, familial status, sex, and military or veteran status, the last added by amendments in 2021 and 2025. A complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission must be filed within one year of the practice; a lawsuit, within two years.
• If your association gets dissolved, a city can step in. Where an association is administratively dissolved under § 21-19,138 and not reinstated, any municipality may sue to be appointed custodian of its affairs under the Municipal Custodianship Act. Read § 18-3104(1)(d) first: the members have six months after the municipality’s demand to reinstate before a court may appoint, and § 18-3104(4) turns the custodian’s compensation and costs into a lien on each and all of the lots. The definitions are narrow: the association must be incorporated and its covenanted property inside city limits.

• Nebraska 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. Worth checking for a second reason in Nebraska: an association that has been administratively dissolved and not reinstated is the trigger for the Municipal Custodianship Act.
• Nebraska recorded document search — your county register of deeds holds the documents that actually govern your community: the declaration and covenants, amendments, bylaws, plats, deeds, deeds of trust, liens and judgments. With no HOA act in Nebraska the recorded declaration is the decisive record — and under § 52-2001 the recording date of the association’s lien notice, measured against your mortgage, is what decides priority. Search under the subdivision or community name. Find your county office through the Nebraska city and county directory↗.
• United States v. Latvian Tower Condominium↗ — a federal consent order in a Nebraska condominium familial-status case, entered in the District of Nebraska in 2010. The association was ordered to pay $112,500 to victims of discrimination and a $15,000 civil penalty.