The fact-check — what the statute actually says
The internet is confidently wrong about Colorado HOA law. We know because we were: this site launched repeating a “$150 statutory cap” on status-letter fees that appears across directories, management-company blogs, and AI answers — and is nowhere in the statute. Since then, every legal claim we publish follows one rule: the operative subsection gets read verbatim, and the citation means you can find the words there. This page is the running ledger. Each verdict below was checked against the full text of C.R.S. §38-33.3-316 and §38-33.3-401 (2025 statutes, including the HB25-1043 amendments), August 2026.
1. “Status-letter fees are capped at $150” — FALSE
§38-33.3-316(8) sets the 14-calendar-day deadline and makes the furnished statement binding. On fees it says nothing — no cap, no floor, no dollar sign. The fee comes from the association’s own governing documents. Full story: what a status letter costs, and the anatomy of the myth itself — where it lives, how AI answers spread it. (This is the one we got wrong ourselves — the correction note is on the cost page.)
2. “An HOA can foreclose over fines” — FALSE
§316(1)(a) draws the line precisely: fees, charges, late charges, attorney fees, fines, and interest “may be subject to a statutory lien but are not subject to a foreclosure action under this article 33.3.” Fines can cloud a title; they cannot take a house.
3. “Fall behind and the HOA can foreclose immediately” — FALSE
Three gates stand in the way. The secured balance must equal or exceed six months of regular assessments (§316(11)(a)(I)). The executive board must authorize the specific filing by a recorded vote it may not delegate to a lawyer or manager — an action filed without it must be dismissed, with no charges passed to the owner (§316(11)(a)(II)). And for an owner-occupied principal residence, the association must generally first obtain a personal judgment in a civil action (§316(10.5)–(10.6)).
4. “The 14-day letter deadline has no teeth” — FALSE
An association that fails to furnish the statement loses its lien for the assessments due as of the request date (§316(8)). For a volunteer board, a request sitting three weeks in an inbox can cost the association every dollar the selling owner owed. The status-letter explainer walks the mechanics; the letter builder computes the due date.
5. “A lapsed registration voids the HOA’s liens” — MOSTLY FALSE, precisely nuanced
§38-33.3-401(3): an expired registration suspends the right to impose or enforce assessment liens until the association registers again. Already-recorded liens survive; pending enforcement proceedings suspend, with time limits tolled; and re-registering revives the suspended rights without penalty. It’s a switch, not a bomb — but while it’s off, the association cannot enforce. We track every self-managed expiry on the lapse watch.
6. “HOA liens last forever” — FALSE
Six years. Enforcement proceedings must be instituted within six years of the assessments coming due, or the lien is extinguished (§316(5)).
7. “An HOA can foreclose without warning” — NOT ANYMORE
Effective October 1, 2025 (HB25-1043), foreclosure comes with mandatory runway: 30-day written and electronic notice of the owner’s right to credit counseling (§316(10.3)) and to pre-litigation mediation (§316(10.7)), a notice of intent to foreclose delivered by certified mail plus two other channels — in the owner’s preferred language where one is on file (§316(10.8)) — and notice to the owner’s other lienholders (§316(10.7)(d), (11.2)).
8. “Small HOAs don’t have to register” — FALSE
The exemption is from the fee, not the requirement. Associations with annual revenues of $5,000 or less — or no assessment power and no revenue — skip the fee and still register annually (§401(2)(b)). And the suspension in claim 5 applies to them the same as to everyone.
The method, for anyone checking our work: find the section on the Colorado Revised Statutes, read the cited subsection, and the words should be there. The data claims are checkable too — the cleaned roster behind this site is a free download. If you find a claim on this site the statute doesn’t support, use the form below — corrections get published, not buried. New entries land as we verify more sections; a claim not listed here isn’t vouched for either way.
Questions people actually ask
Does Colorado cap HOA status-letter fees at $150?
No. C.R.S. §38-33.3-316(8) creates the status-letter duty, the 14-day deadline, and the binding effect — and contains no fee language at all. No Colorado statute caps status-letter fees. The claim circulates widely online (we repeated it ourselves before re-reading the section in full, and published a correction).
Can a Colorado HOA foreclose over fines or late fees?
No. Under §38-33.3-316(1)(a), fines, fees, late charges, interest, and attorney fees may become part of a statutory lien but are "not subject to a foreclosure action" under CCIOA. Foreclosure runs on assessments — and only under the further limits in the statute.
Can an HOA foreclose as soon as an owner falls behind?
No. The balance must equal at least six months of regular assessments, and the board must formally authorize the specific filing by a recorded vote it cannot delegate (§38-33.3-316(11)). For an owner's principal residence, the association must generally first win a personal judgment in a civil action (§316(10.5)–(10.6)).
What happens if the HOA misses the 14-day status-letter deadline?
It forfeits its lien for the assessments that were due as of the request date (§38-33.3-316(8)). The deadline is 14 calendar days from receipt of a written request, and the furnished statement binds the association.
Does a lapsed registration dissolve the HOA or void its liens?
Neither. Under §38-33.3-401(3), an expired registration suspends the association's right to impose or enforce assessment liens — and suspends pending enforcement proceedings, with time limits tolled — until it registers again. Liens recorded while validly registered survive, and re-registering revives the suspended rights without penalty.
Is there a deadline for an HOA to enforce its lien?
Yes: six years. A lien for unpaid assessments is extinguished unless enforcement proceedings are instituted within six years after the full amount of assessments becomes due (§38-33.3-316(5)).
Can a Colorado HOA foreclose without warning the owner?
Not since October 2025. HB25-1043 added 30-day pre-foreclosure notices covering the owner's right to credit counseling and to mediation, plus notice to lienholders, with specific delivery requirements (§38-33.3-316(10.3), (10.7), (10.8), (11.2)) — applying to enforcement actions instituted on or after October 1, 2025.
Are small HOAs exempt from registering with the state?
No — only from the fee. An association with annual revenues of $5,000 or less (or with no assessment authority and no revenue) is exempt from the registration fee but not the registration requirement (§38-33.3-401(2)(b)). Every association registers annually.