HOA Foreclosure in Nevada: The NRS 116 Super-Priority Lien and How Homeowners Fight Back

By John Quigley · NevadaAttorneyFinder.com · Updated August 30, 2026

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

In Nevada, a homeowners association can take your house over unpaid dues without ever filing a lawsuit, and a portion of its lien sits ahead of your mortgage. That combination is what makes NRS Chapter 116 unlike almost any other consumer debt in the state: a few thousand dollars in delinquent assessments can end in a non-judicial trustee-style sale that wipes out both your equity and, in some cases, the bank's first deed of trust. This guide walks through the super-priority lien in NRS 116.3116, the full notice sequence the association must follow under NRS 116.31162 and NRS 116.311635, the 60-day right of redemption in NRS 116.31166, and the notice defects and equitable defenses Nevada courts have used to undo these sales.

Why a small assessment balance can cost a large house

NRS 116.3116(1) gives a Nevada association a lien on each unit for assessments and for other charges made enforceable as assessments under the statute. That much is ordinary. What is unusual is subsection 3, which makes part of that lien prior to a first security interest recorded before the delinquency. That priority slice, universally called the super-priority lien, covers assessments based on the association's periodic budget adopted under NRS 116.3115 that would have become due during the nine months immediately preceding the enforcement action, plus any charges the association incurred on the unit for maintenance and abatement of nuisance under NRS 116.310312.

Two things follow from that, and both surprise homeowners.

First, the priority slice is capped, and it is narrow. Nine months of dues on a typical Clark County planned community might be $1,500 to $3,000. Charges for boarding up or landscaping an abandoned unit under NRS 116.310312 can add to it. But fines, penalties, late charges, interest, collection costs and attorney's fees do not ride along in the super-priority portion. Those amounts may still be part of the association's overall lien; they simply do not jump ahead of the mortgage. Collection agents routinely quote homeowners one enormous number that blends all of it together, and separating the two categories is often the single most valuable thing a lawyer does early in one of these files.

Second, and far more consequential: in SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC v. U.S. Bank, 130 Nev. 742, 334 P.3d 408 (2014), the Nevada Supreme Court held that when an association forecloses the super-priority portion non-judicially, the sale extinguishes the first deed of trust. A $2,000 lien, properly foreclosed, could convey a home free of a $300,000 mortgage. That decision touched off roughly a decade of quiet-title litigation in Nevada state and federal courts, and it is the reason the Legislature rewrote the notice provisions in 2015 and again in 2017 and 2019.

What the Legislature added after SFR

The current statute is built around making sure the lender cannot claim it never knew. NRS 116.31162(1)(b)(2) requires the recorded notice of default and election to sell to state the total deficiency and break out, separately:

• the amount of the association's lien that is prior to the first security interest under NRS 116.3116(3);
• how much of that prior amount is periodic-budget assessments under NRS 116.3115;
• how much is NRS 116.310312 maintenance and nuisance-abatement charges; and
• how much is the cost of enforcing the lien.

The notice must also warn, in 14-point bold type, that the owner could lose the home even if the amount is disputed, and it must tell the first-lien holder in plain terms that if it satisfies the super-priority amount no later than five days before the sale and records proof of that satisfaction no later than two days before the sale, the association may still sell the unit but the sale will not extinguish the first security interest. NRS 116.31162(5) then makes the point unmistakable: an association may not foreclose by sale if it has not mailed both the notice of default and the notice of sale to every holder of a security interest on the unit in the manner NRS 116.31163 and NRS 116.311635 require. Under NRS 116.31162(1)(e), the association or its agent must record an affidavit, based on personal knowledge or a review of a trustee sale guarantee or qualifying business records, naming each security-interest holder that was mailed those notices and the address used.

That affidavit is a gift to homeowners and lenders challenging a sale. It is a sworn, recorded, itemized statement of exactly who was noticed. When it is missing, incomplete, or contradicted by the association's own file, the sale is vulnerable.

The NRS 116 foreclosure timeline, step by step

Stage 1 — The 60-day pre-collection packet

Before an association may send a letter threatening a notice of delinquent assessment, send the notice itself, or take any other action to collect a past-due obligation, NRS 116.31162(4) requires that the obligation be at least 60 days past due and that the association mail (or, if authorized, electronically deliver) three things: a schedule of the fees that may be charged if the balance is not paid, a proposed repayment plan, and a notice of the right to contest the debt at a hearing before the executive board along with the procedure for requesting one.

The association then has to wait 30 days. If within that window the owner pays in full, enters the repayment plan, or requests a board hearing, collection stops. It only resumes if the owner loses the hearing or misses a plan payment by more than 10 days. Many Nevada homeowners never realize this stage happened, because the packet arrives looking like ordinary association mail. If you are behind on dues, this is the cheapest off-ramp the statute gives you.

Stage 2 — Notice of delinquent assessment

Under NRS 116.31162(1)(a), the association mails a notice of delinquent assessment by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, to the owner at the owner's known address and at the address of the unit. It must state the amount due under NRS 116.3116(1), describe the unit, and name the record owner.

Stage 3 — Notice of default and election to sell

Not less than 30 days later, the association records the notice of default and election to sell with the county recorder, containing the itemization and warning described above, signed by the person the declaration designates or by the association's president. A copy goes to the owner by certified or registered mail, and copies go to every holder of a recorded security interest.

Stage 4 — The 90-day cure period

NRS 116.31162(1)(c) prohibits a sale unless the owner or a successor has failed to pay the lien, including enforcement costs, for 90 days following recording. NRS 116.31162(3) makes clear the clock starts the day after the later of (a) recording the notice of default, or (b) mailing or electronically delivering it to the owner. If the association recorded first and mailed late, the deadline is measured from the mailing — a small drafting detail that has changed the outcome of real cases.

Stage 5 — Notice of sale

Only after the 90 days expire may the association notice the sale. NRS 116.311635 requires the notice of sale to be posted in a public place in the county for 20 consecutive days, published once each week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in that county, and mailed by certified or registered mail on or before the date of first publication or posting to the owner and to each holder of a security interest. NRS 116.31162(1)(d) preserves the owner's ability to pay assessments and other sums due under NRS 116.3116(1) up to five days before the sale date.

Stage 6 — Sale, certificate, and the 60-day redemption window

At the sale, title vests in the purchaser subject to a right of redemption. Under NRS 116.31166(3), the former owner whose interest was extinguished, the holder of a recorded security interest on the unit, or a successor of either may redeem within 60 days after the sale by paying the purchase price plus interest at one percent per month, together with assessments the purchaser paid, amounts paid on prior liens, taxes, and reasonable maintenance and repair costs. If nobody redeems, the person conducting the sale executes a deed without warranty conveying the owner's title to the purchaser.

Sixty days is a real window, and it is one of the few places where a homeowner with access to family money, a hard-money lender, or a refinance can genuinely undo the loss. It is also short, and it starts running the day of the sale, not the day you find out about it.

Fines alone cannot cost you the house

Nevada draws a hard line here. NRS 116.31162(6) bars an association from foreclosing a lien by sale based on a fine or penalty for violating the governing documents unless (a) the violation poses an imminent threat of causing a substantial adverse effect on the health, safety or welfare of owners or residents, or (b) the penalty was imposed for failure to adhere to a schedule required under NRS 116.310305 — the provision dealing with correcting a health-and-safety violation on a schedule the association sets.

The practical problem is that ledgers blend categories. An association that started with a $500 fine for a parked RV, added late fees, added collection costs, and then let two quarters of dues go unpaid will often present one lump balance and proceed as if the whole thing were assessments. Forcing the association to categorize the debt is both a NRS 116.31162(6) defense and a NRS 116.3116(3) priority argument, and it is why the recorded itemization matters so much.

When the bank is also foreclosing

Homeowners in trouble on dues are frequently in trouble on the mortgage too. NRS 116.31162(7) addresses the overlap: an association may not foreclose its lien by sale if it has received notice under NRS 107.086 that the unit is subject to foreclosure mediation, unless the trustee has recorded the certificate that ends the mediation process, or the owner has failed to pay association amounts that came due during the mediation. In other words, entering the state's mediation program on the mortgage side can pause the association side, but it does not excuse current dues.

Defenses that have actually worked

Notice failures

The most common and most effective challenges are procedural. Was the notice of delinquent assessment sent certified with return receipt to both the owner's known address and the unit address? Was the notice of default recorded at least 30 days after that mailing? Did 90 full days run from the later of recording or mailing? Was the notice of sale posted for 20 consecutive days and published three consecutive weeks? Was the NRS 116.31162(1)(e) affidavit recorded, and does it name the actual lienholders? A defect at any of these points is a defect in the association's statutory authority to sell.

Equitable relief and grossly inadequate price

In Shadow Wood Homeowners Association v. New York Community Bancorp, 132 Nev. 49, 366 P.3d 1105 (2016), the Nevada Supreme Court confirmed that courts retain equitable power to set aside an association foreclosure sale, but held that inadequacy of price alone is not enough — there must also be evidence of fraud, unfairness or oppression affecting the sale. Price plus a notice irregularity, a refused tender, or misleading conduct by the collection agent is the combination that moves courts.

Tender by the lender

In Bank of America, N.A. v. SFR Investments Pool 1, LLC, 134 Nev. 604, 427 P.3d 113 (2018), the court held that a lender's valid tender of the super-priority amount cures the default as to that portion and preserves the first deed of trust, even if the association refuses the payment. For a homeowner, this matters because it determines what you are actually dealing with after a sale: a buyer who owns the property free of the mortgage, or a buyer who owns it subject to a still-living deed of trust.

The federal foreclosure bar

If Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owned the loan while under FHFA conservatorship, 12 U.S.C. § 4617(j)(3) prevents the association sale from extinguishing that interest without FHFA consent. Nevada and Ninth Circuit decisions have applied this repeatedly. Determining loan ownership at the time of sale is therefore an early research step in any post-sale dispute.

Bankruptcy

A Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 filing triggers the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362, which halts a scheduled association sale. Chapter 13 in particular can cure assessment arrears over a plan while the homeowner stays in the property. Post-petition assessments generally remain the owner's responsibility for as long as the owner holds an interest in the unit.

Where to complain, and what has to be mediated first

Nevada regulates common-interest communities through the Real Estate Division's Office of the Ombudsman for Owners in Common-Interest Communities and the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels. NRS 116.760 and the surrounding provisions allow owners to file written complaints about statutory violations, and the Division can investigate and pursue discipline against associations and community managers.

Separately, NRS 38.310 requires that many civil actions involving the interpretation or enforcement of governing documents be submitted to mediation or arbitration through the Division before a court will hear them. There are meaningful exceptions — NRS 38.300(3) excludes actions in equity for injunctive relief where there is an immediate threat of irreparable harm, and actions relating to the title to residential property. That exclusion is precisely why an emergency motion to stop a sale, or a post-sale quiet-title action, generally proceeds in district court rather than through the Division's ADR program. Getting this classification wrong costs weeks, and in a 90-day statute, weeks decide cases.

What a Nevada real estate attorney actually does with one of these files

• Reconstructs the ledger. Separating budget assessments from fines, late fees, interest, and collection costs establishes both the true super-priority figure and whether NRS 116.31162(6) was violated.
• Audits the recorded chain. Notice of delinquent assessment, notice of default, notice of sale, the NRS 116.31162(1)(e) affidavit, and the mailing proofs, checked against the statutory intervals.
• Uses the statutory off-ramps. Board hearing requests and repayment plans under NRS 116.31162(4) are underused, and they are free.
• Moves fast when a sale is set. Injunctive relief before title vests is dramatically simpler than unwinding a completed sale, and it avoids the Shadow Wood burden entirely.
• Runs the redemption math. Within the NRS 116.31166(3) window, calculating the exact redemption figure and locking down financing is a mechanical task with a hard deadline.

Assessment disputes and foreclosure defense sit at the intersection of real property, consumer, and sometimes bankruptcy practice. If you want the broader picture of how Nevada regulates association conduct, fines and records access, our companion guide on Nevada HOA disputes and homeowner rights covers the day-to-day rules, and our guide to Nevada construction defect claims covers the other major category of litigation that associations themselves bring.

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