How should our HOA board write a fine schedule for rule violations?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 3, 2026

How an HOA board writes a fine schedule: violation categories, first and repeat amounts, TX, FL and CO caps and cure periods, adoption steps and a sample schedule.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

A fine schedule is a one-page table. Each row is a category of violation. The columns give the cure period, the first fine, the fine for a repeat, and how often a continuing violation can be charged. Write it before you need it, keep every amount inside your state's limits and your declaration's grant of fining power, adopt it by vote at an open meeting, and send it to every owner before the first fine. Then apply it exactly as written. A schedule that the board ignores or improvises around is worse than none, because it hands every fined owner a ready-made argument. The rules below come from Texas, Florida and Colorado, with California where it helps. Your governing documents may be stricter than the statute, and the statutes change, so read this as general education, not legal advice, and have your attorney review the final draft. For what happens after a fine is proposed, see our guide on running a violation hearing.

Check your authority and your state's limits

Start with the declaration. If it does not give the association power to fine, no schedule fixes that, and you are looking at an amendment instead. Then read your state's statute, because it sets the frame the schedule has to fit. Texas Property Code section 209.0061, in effect since January 1, 2024, requires every association whose documents allow fines to adopt an enforcement policy that lists general categories of violations, a schedule of fines for each category, and the hearing information from section 209.007. The policy may reserve the board's power to vary a fine case by case. Section 209.006 requires certified mail notice before a fine, a reasonable cure period for curable violations that do not threaten health or safety, and no fine at all if the owner cures in time. Florida section 720.305(2) caps a fine at $100 per violation and daily fines for a continuing violation at $1,000 in total, unless the governing documents allow more, and a fine under $1,000 cannot become a lien. Section 720.305(2)(b) adds the process: at least 14 days' written notice of the right to a hearing, a hearing within 90 days of that notice before a committee of at least three owners who are not officers, directors or employees or their relatives, and written findings within 7 days that say how to cure and when the fine is due. Colorado section 38-33.3-209.5 is the tightest. It bans daily fines, requires 30 days to cure by certified mail for ordinary violations, caps the total fines for one such violation at $500, and allows a 72-hour cure notice and fines every other day only for violations that threaten public health or safety. Under section 38-33.3-209.5(2)(b), the fine decision has to come from an impartial decision maker with no personal or financial stake in the outcome. California Civil Code section 5850 caps a fine at the lower of the schedule amount or $100 per violation, unless the board makes a written health or safety finding at an open meeting, and bars late charges and interest on fines.

Sort violations into a few categories

Owners should be able to find their situation on the schedule in ten seconds. Five or six categories cover most communities: exterior appearance and maintenance (trash cans, overgrown yards, peeling paint), parking and vehicles, architectural changes made without approval, nuisance, noise and pets, misuse of common areas and amenities, and violations that threaten health or safety. Texas section 209.006 gives a useful second sort. It lists parking, maintenance, building something that does not match the approved plans, and an ongoing barking dog as curable. It lists fireworks, a one-time noise violation, property damage including removing landscaping, and holding a prohibited garage sale as uncurable. Mark each category curable or uncurable on the schedule. For curable ones, the fine comes only after the cure date passes. For uncurable ones, there is nothing to fix, so the notice goes straight to the owner's hearing rights. Keep health and safety as its own row. Texas skips the cure period for those, Colorado allows the 72-hour notice, and California allows a fine above $100 after a written finding. Defining that row narrowly, such as an unfenced pool, a vicious dog loose on common area, or blocking a fire lane, keeps the board from stretching it to escape the ordinary limits. Florida boards should also strike two things from the appearance row. Section 720.305(7) bars any fine for trash cans set at the curb or end of the driveway within 24 hours before or after pickup, and for holiday lights or decorations left up past the deadline in your documents unless they stay up more than a week after written notice. Those limits apply whatever the declaration says.

Set the amounts and the repeat steps

The amount should cost more than ignoring the rule and less than a hearing panel would find unreasonable. Two steps are enough for most rows: a first fine and a repeat fine. Define a repeat on the schedule itself, for example the same violation on the same lot within 12 months of the first notice. In Texas, section 209.006(d) lets the association skip a new certified notice for a violation the owner was already noticed on in the preceding six months. A 12-month window still works there, but a repeat more than six months after the first notice needs a fresh certified notice before the repeat fine. For conditions that continue, such as an unapproved shed that stays up, write the interval. Colorado section 38-33.3-209.5(2)(c)(II) requires the policy to state it, and daily fines are banned there, so a Colorado schedule might charge $100 per 30-day cure period that passes without a fix, which reaches the $500 cap in five months. Build the Colorado inspection steps into the schedule too. Section 38-33.3-209.5(1.7)(b)(IV) to (VI) treats a violation as cured on the day the owner sends notice with a photo or other visual proof, requires an inspection within 7 days after a cure period ends if no notice arrives, and requires a written notice once the owner cures, saying no more fines will be charged and stating any balance still owed. Florida allows a daily fine with a single notice and opportunity for a hearing, but the total stops at $1,000 unless your documents say otherwise. Texas sets no dollar cap, so reasonableness does the work. Use the case-by-case reservation that Texas section 209.0061(c) permits sparingly, and write the reason in the minutes whenever you depart from the listed amount. Remember what fines can and cannot do. Texas section 209.009 bars foreclosure when the debt is only fines and related attorney fees, and section 209.0063 applies payments to fines after assessments and fees. Colorado bars foreclosure based on fines. A fine is a compliance tool. Never budget it as income.

A sample schedule you can adapt

Here is how three rows might read for a Texas community. The amounts are examples, not norms. Category A, exterior appearance and maintenance, curable: cure period 30 days from the notice. First fine $50. Repeat within 12 months $100. Continuing after the fine, $50 for each additional 30 days, up to $500. Category C, architectural change without approval, curable: cure period 45 days to remove the change or submit an application that is later approved. First fine $150. Continuing, $100 for each additional 30 days. Category F, health or safety, no cure period: first fine $200. Repeat within 12 months $400. For Florida, keep every row at $100 or less per violation and the continuing total at $1,000 unless your declaration authorizes more, and add a line that no fine is due sooner than 30 days after the hearing committee's written findings are delivered, which section 720.305(2)(f) requires. For Colorado, delete every daily or weekly interval, keep the total per non-safety violation at $500 or less, state that the second 30-day cure period runs before any legal action, and move the health and safety row to the 72-hour notice. Close the schedule with one sentence on hearings: 'An owner may request a hearing before any fine is imposed, as described in Section 4 of this policy.' Section 209.0061(b)(3) requires that hearing information in Texas, and it belongs in every state's version.

Adopt it and get it to every owner

Circulate the draft to the board two weeks before the meeting, and to owners with the agenda if your bylaws or your rule-adoption policy call for comment. Colorado section 38-33.3-209.5(1)(b)(VII) requires a written procedure for adopting and amending policies, so follow your own. Vote at an open meeting on a written text. Sample motion: 'Moved to adopt the Enforcement Policy and Fine Schedule attached to these minutes as Exhibit B, effective March 1, 2026, replacing all earlier fine schedules, with courtesy letters only and no fines through March 31, 2026.' Then deliver it. Texas section 209.0061(d) requires either posting the policy on a members' website or sending it every year by hand delivery, first-class mail or email, and also posting it on any public website the association runs. California requires the schedule in the annual policy statement. Keep a dated copy of every version in the permanent records, because California section 5850 ties each fine to the schedule in effect on the date of the violation, and a panel anywhere will ask which version applied. Our guide on adopting a new HOA rule and notifying owners covers the notice and comment steps in more detail.

Mistakes that get fines thrown out

A schedule that says fines 'up to $500 at the board's discretion' with no amounts, which is not a schedule for each category as Texas requires. Daily fines in Colorado, or a Florida fine over $100 when the declaration is silent. Fining an owner who cured before the deadline, which Texas section 209.006(e) and Florida section 720.305(2)(e) both forbid. Fining a Florida owner for trash cans put out the night before pickup. Holding a Florida hearing more than 90 days after the notice, or letting a director sit on the hearing committee. Adding late fees or interest to fines in California. A fine amount that appears in a violation letter but nowhere on the adopted schedule. Enforcing the trash can row against one street and not the next, which invites a selective enforcement defense. Forgetting the annual mailing in Texas when the policy is not on a members' website. And counting next year's fine income in the budget, which quietly gives the board a reason to fine. Review the schedule once a year at the same meeting where you adopt the budget, and change it only by vote.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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