Payment schedules
Who decides when your assessment is due, and what state law controls once you're late.
Your declaration or bylaws set the payment schedule itself, monthly, quarterly, or annually. State law does not dictate how often assessments are due. What state law does control is what happens once a payment is late: the order it applies against what you owe, when the debt counts as delinquent, and how much interest or late fees can add.
How often assessments come due
Nothing in the statutes reviewed for this Course tells a board to bill monthly instead of quarterly, or the reverse. That choice lives in the declaration or bylaws. What statute does require, in states built on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act framework, is that once an association starts assessing, it has to keep doing so at least once a year, and each assessment has to trace back to a budget the association actually adopted.
"After any assessment has been made by the association, assessments shall be made at least annually, based on a budget adopted at least annually by the association."
Source: Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 27A, §3-115, State of Vermont
Practically: a board cannot decide, mid-year, that regular dues have simply gone up. There has to be an adopted budget behind the number, and the assessment is the owner's share of that budget, not a figure the board invents on the spot.
What a partial payment pays off first
The order a partial or catch-up payment is applied is set by state statute, and states do not agree with each other. California and Texas both require the payment to clear the delinquent assessment itself before it touches fees, interest, or late charges. Florida runs the order the other way.
| State | Order a payment is applied |
|---|---|
| California | Assessments owed first, then collection costs and attorney fees, then late charges or interest |
| Texas | Delinquent assessment, then current assessment, then assessment-related fees, then other fees, then fines |
| Florida | Interest first, then the late fee, then collection costs and attorney fees, then the delinquent assessment |
"Any payment received by an association must be applied first to any interest accrued by the association, then to any administrative late fee, then to any costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collection, and then to the delinquent assessment."
Source: Florida Statutes §718.116, The Florida Senate
A collection policy or software default copied from another state can put your association out of compliance with your own. Check your own state's statute before you write, or accept, a collection policy.
When a payment counts as late
The delinquency trigger, the interest cap, and the late fee cap all vary by state, and none of them should be assumed to carry over from a neighboring state. California treats an assessment as delinquent 15 days after it is due, caps the late charge at 10 percent of the delinquent amount or ten dollars, whichever is greater, and caps interest at 12 percent a year. Florida works differently if the declaration is silent on the rate.
"If no rate is provided in the declaration, interest accrues at the rate of 18 percent per year."
Source: Florida Statutes §718.116, The Florida Senate
Florida also forbids compounding that interest and gives the owner 45 days after a mailed notice before the association can record a lien. Read your own state's statute for the actual numbers; treat every figure above as a named example, not a default.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
An owner three months behind sends one payment, equal to a single month's assessment. Their state requires delinquent-assessment-first application. Where does that payment go?
Who decides whether an association bills assessments monthly, quarterly, or annually?
A Florida declaration says nothing about the interest rate on late assessments. What rate applies by default?
Sources
- Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 27A (Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act), State of Vermont
- California Civil Code, Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, California Legislative Information
- Florida Statutes (2024), Chapter 718, The Florida Senate
- Texas Property Code, Chapters 82 and 209, Texas Legislature (text as mirrored by Onecle)
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Assessments
Once you know your schedule, learn how to notify owners before an assessment change takes effect: see Assessment notices.
The order a partial payment is applied, when a payment counts as delinquent, and the interest or late fee caps that apply all vary by state and by your declaration. Confirm your own state statute and governing documents before adopting or changing a collection policy.