The short answer
Under Chapter 183A, section 6(c), part of an association's lien for common charges ranks ahead of a first mortgage, but the priority amount excludes special assessments. Money raised slowly through budgeted reserve contributions is usually more secure than a large assessment billed after a failure.
Every condominium pays for its big repairs one way or another. The choice is between saving for them through the common charges, as a reserve, or billing owners when the work is due, as a special assessment. Massachusetts law does not forbid special assessments, but it treats them differently in one way that matters a great deal when an owner cannot pay.
How the association’s lien works
Section 6 of Chapter 183A makes each owner liable for their share of common expenses and gives the organization of unit owners a lien on the unit for sums assessed and unpaid. A lien alone would rank behind a first mortgage recorded earlier. Subsection 6(c) changes that for part of the debt.
The priority portion covers common expenses assessed under the association’s budget for the six months before the association acts to enforce the lien, together with the costs and reasonable attorney’s fees of the enforcement action. That is the portion often called the super lien.
What the priority leaves out
The same subsection says the priority amount does not include amounts attributable to special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties or interest. A special assessment is still owed and still secured by the association’s lien. It simply does not get the same place in line ahead of the mortgage.
In practical terms, if an owner falls behind and the unit ends in foreclosure, the association is in a stronger position to recover six months of budgeted charges than to recover a large special assessment.
Why that favors reserves
Reserve contributions are part of the budgeted common expenses. Collected month by month with the regular charges, they fall inside the kind of debt that can carry priority. A $20,000 share of a roof, billed as a special assessment after the fact, does not.
There are other reasons boards prefer reserves:
- Fairness across owners. An owner who lived in the building for ten years pays toward the roof that wore out during those years. With a special assessment, whoever owns the unit on the day the bill is voted pays it all.
- Speed. Money in a reserve can be spent when the contractor is ready. A special assessment needs a vote, a collection period and often a payment plan.
- Sales. Buyers and their lenders ask about special assessments. Fannie Mae’s project review looks at the reserve share of the budget, and a pending assessment is one of the first things a lender questionnaire asks about.
When a special assessment is still the right tool
Special assessments are not a failure in themselves. They make sense for genuinely unforeseeable events, for improvements owners choose to add, or where an association decides to pay for a single large project over a fixed period with every owner’s agreement. Your master deed and bylaws set how they are approved.
What a board should avoid is a pattern where every predictable replacement becomes an assessment because no reserve was built. Roofs, paving, siding, porches and boilers all have a useful life that can be estimated years in advance.
What the reserve rule adds
Section 10(i) requires every condominium to keep an adequate replacement reserve fund, collected as part of the common expenses and held in a separate account. Section 10(f) asks the manager to report on reserve balances and reconciliations at least quarterly, and 10(g) requires a board signature on reserve checks in addition to the managing agent’s.
Read together with section 6(c), the structure is clear: the law expects predictable replacements to be paid from a reserve built through the budget, and gives that budgeted money stronger protection than an assessment billed later.
How a reserve study connects the two
The statute does not say how much is adequate. A reserve study answers that by listing each common component, its remaining life and its replacement cost, then setting out a contribution that keeps the fund ahead of the schedule. It is also the document a board can show owners when they ask why the charges went up, and the one a lender may rely on when the reserve line sits under 10 percent of the budget.
Boards that work from a current study tend to use special assessments rarely, for the things a study genuinely cannot predict.
A short checklist
- Find the largest item due in the next five years and check whether the reserve can pay for it.
- Look at how the last three big projects were paid for. If the answer is mostly assessments, the contribution is probably too low.
- Ask the association’s attorney how special assessments are approved under your documents and how unpaid ones are collected.
- Get the reserve study updated before the next budget, so the contribution rests on current prices.
The bottom line
Massachusetts gives associations real protection for budgeted common charges and much less for special assessments. That is a strong practical argument for building reserves through the budget, guided by a reserve study. If your association needs one, get a quote and we will name a firm that covers your town.
General information about the statute as published on the Massachusetts Legislature’s website, not legal advice.