New Procedural Hurdle For Condo & HOA Collections – Amendment to Real Property Law Section 339-aa Requires 90 Day Notice of Commencement of Foreclosure Actions
By Rachel Sigmund McGinley
On October 17, 2025, Governor Hochul signed a new law requiring condominiums and homeowner associations (HOAs) to give a 90-day “Notice of Intent to Foreclose” to owners in arrears before the board can begin foreclosure proceedings. This is the first time a requirement of this nature has been put into law, which amends Section 339-aa of the Real Property Law (RPL) for condominiums and adds a new Section 20A to the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) for HOAs.
Under this new law, before proceeding with a foreclosure action, a condominium or HOA board must send written notice at least 90 days in advance to the owner at the property address and any other address of record.
Additionally:
The notice font must be in at least 14-point type
The notice’s contents must:
(1) state that the condo board/HOA intends to file an action to foreclose the lien;
(2) identify the property address; and
(3) state the specific amount due.
A significant drawback of this new requirement is it fails to distinguish when the 90 days is triggered. It is currently unclear whether the 90 days is measured from the date that the condominium’s lien arises under RPL Section 339-z or the date that the lien is effective (that is, recorded) pursuant to RPL Section 339-aa.
That said, as noted above, the amended statute’s requirement that each 90 day notice must expressly inform the owner that the board “intends to file an action to foreclose the lien” leads this firm to believe that the notice must be sent after the lien has been recorded under RPL Section 339-aa. This is also recommended to avoid potential dismissal of the foreclosure action for sending the notice too early insofar as it is not definitively clear under the current drafting of the amended statute when the 90 days is triggered.
Unfortunately for condos and HOAs, this means that the earliest a board may commence a lien foreclosure action is 90 days after the date a lien is recorded. This extra three month wait period can be problematic for buildings that need funds from owners in arrears and now must wait even longer before commencing the actual lien foreclosure action.
Accordingly, under this new law, boards must be extra vigilant in filing liens as soon as possible according to the timeframes in their by-laws. Many by-laws require boards to wait at least 30 days (and sometimes even 60 days) after the payment is past due before filing a lien. This means that, with the amended law in place, some boards may not be able to commence foreclosure proceedings until five or six months after the missed payment. Once the lien has been recorded, the 90 day notice should be sent immediately.
Additionally, we recommend that boards check their by-laws to ensure they provide that the defaulting unit owner must pay “a reasonable rental for the unit” during the pendency of the foreclosure action as provided in RPL Section 339-aa.