New Hampshire HOA laws and resources.

Two statutes carry almost all of it. The Condominium Act governs every condominium created since 10 September 1977, and the older Unit Ownership of Real Property Act still governs the buildings submitted to it before that date. Around them sit the Voluntary Corporations and Associations chapter that most associations are incorporated under, the Law Against Discrimination, the collection practices chapter that limits what can be added to an overdue bill, the conveyancing chapter where covenants and easements live, the Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, the tenant protections that apply when a rental building is converted, and the service animals chapter. HOPB hosts the full text of every one.

New Hampshire HOA law guideEvery New Hampshire statute that reaches a community association, ordered by how much it is likely to matter to an owner — beginning with the fork between the condominium chapter and everything else.

Eleven things are worth knowing about how New Hampshire HOA law works:

• New Hampshire has no planned-community act — and one section that is the whole of its general HOA law. Outside a condominium your association is governed by its own recorded documents plus the corporate chapter, and by RSA 292:8-m, added in 2023. It does two things: once developer control ends, if one person acquires more than 50 percent of the votes a 2/3 majority is needed to change bylaws, budgets or the management contract; and an association the planning board approved cannot be dissolved before that board holds a hearing.
• Which condominium statute governs you is decided by a date — and the two are not alike. RSA 356-B:2 says the Condominium Act supersedes the older chapter and that no condominium may be created under it on or after 10 September 1977. Property submitted before that date stays under RSA 479-A, which applied only to owners who opted in by recording a declaration — with two exceptions in RSA 356-B:2 that pull parts of the newer Act over time-share offers and over ten or more units added by a later amendment. The registry answers which statute is yours, not the age of the buildings.
• Six months of assessments outrank the first mortgage — but only if the association sent two notices on time. RSA 356-B:46, I(c) puts the regular monthly common assessments unpaid in the 6 months before the memorandum is filed, plus collection costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, ahead of the first mortgage — conditional on notice to the owner and the lender within 70 days of the delinquency, and a further 30 days’ warning before filing. It expressly excludes special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties and interest, and only one such lien may run at a time.
• In a pre-1977 building there is no carve-out at all. RSA 479-A:22 puts the association behind tax liens and behind all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record, full stop. The same chapter makes a buyer jointly and severally liable for the seller’s arrears under RSA 479-A:23 — unless the buyer demands the statement that caps the figure.
• Your board has to meet in the open every quarter, and it cannot vote in executive session. RSA 356-B:37-c requires an open regular meeting at least once each quarter, with 10 days’ notice of time, date, place and agenda, and says the board “may not use incidental or social gatherings of board members or any other method to evade the open meeting requirements of this section”. RSA 356-B:37-d limits executive session to four subjects and permits no final vote or action in it. Both sections switch off entirely for a small condominium — one created without possibility of conversion or expansion and limited to 25 or fewer residential units.
• Fifteen days for the financial records, and the board must say if an employee is related to a director. RSA 356-B:37-e gives every owner access within 15 days to contracts, mortgages, loans and their terms, and to outstanding debts and account balances; opens up employee names and salaries; and requires disclosure at the next meeting where an employee is related to a board member or is a former officer. Minutes follow their own clock — 60 days from the meeting or 15 days from approval, whichever comes first.
• The budget ratifies itself unless 2/3 of all owners reject it — quorum or no quorum. Under RSA 356-B:40-c the board sends a summary within 30 days of adopting a proposed budget and sets a ratification meeting; the budget stands unless 2/3 of all unit owners reject it, “whether or not a quorum is present”. A special assessment normally runs the same gauntlet — except that a 2/3 vote of the board makes an emergency assessment effective immediately, on a definition of emergency the same section supplies.
• You can remove a director on a simple majority of the votes cast, whatever the bylaws say. RSA 356-B:40-b overrides the declaration and bylaws: at a meeting with a quorum, owners may remove any director or owner-elected officer, with or without cause, if the votes for removal exceed the votes against. Removal must have been listed in the meeting notice, and the person facing it gets a reasonable opportunity to speak first.
• The flag right is not condominium-only. RSA 3-E:3 provides that no rule, ordinance or agreement of any kind by a person, municipality or other entity shall prohibit flying the United States flag from a private residence — while allowing reasonable restrictions on the flag’s size and the manner of display. A covenant is an agreement. The condominium version, RSA 356-B:47-a, goes further still and contemplates the flag extending past your deck line into the common area.
• New Hampshire gives you no solar, EV-charging, clothesline or political-sign right against your association. Searched across the 27 chapters and 1,071 sections hosted here, solar appears in three sections and they create a voluntary easement between neighbours, not a right to install panels. Electric vehicle, charging station, clothesline, political sign and satellite return nothing at all. What your declaration says about those things is very close to the whole of the law.
• Robert’s Rules are the statutory default, and your bylaws are the opt-out. RSA 356-B:37, III provides that except as otherwise provided in the bylaws, association meetings shall be conducted under the most recent edition of Roberts’ Rules of Order Newly Revised. Owners are usually told it works the other way round.

• N.H. Secretary of State business search↗ — look up your association by its legal name for its contact information, officers and filed documents, including the articles of agreement. Those articles decide whether your association is a corporation under RSA 292, which in turn decides whether RSA 292:8-m reaches it.
• Declaration, bylaws, rules and lien notices — recorded documents live at the county registry of deeds where the community sits. A declaration must be recorded to bind the land, and the memorandum perfecting a condominium assessment lien is recorded there too and, under RSA 356-B:46, II, indexed and identified as a lien for condominium assessments.
• Buying a condominium unit? RSA 477:4-f requires the seller to give you written notice that you may obtain the RSA 356-B:58 package from the association — declaration, by-laws, rules, the monthly and annual fees, and any special assessments in the last 3 years. Outside a condominium, RSA 356-A:9-b gives you reserves, accounts, pending suits and insurance within 10 days of a written request.
• Accessing HOA documents — how to ask, what to ask for, and what to do when a board will not answer.
• Fair housing reading — examples of housing discrimination↗, and the joint HUD and Department of Justice statements on reasonable accommodations (2004), reasonable modifications (2008) and assistance animals (2020).