What is a warrantable vs non-warrantable HOA?
Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated June 2026
What makes a condo or HOA 'warrantable' to mortgage lenders, what pushes a project non-warrantable, and how that status affects buying, selling, and refinancing.
The short answer
'Warrantable' means the community meets the eligibility rules of the big mortgage backers - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and for government loans FHA and VA - so a buyer can finance a home there with an ordinary conventional or government loan. 'Non-warrantable' means the project trips one or more of those rules, so buyers are pushed into portfolio or non-QM loans with higher rates and bigger down payments, or have to pay cash. It's primarily a condominium concept, because lenders underwrite the whole project, but pieces of it reach planned-unit developments and HOAs too. If you've ever heard that a unit 'won't qualify for financing,' warrantability is usually why - see our guide on whether HOA problems can stop you from getting a mortgage or refinance for the homeowner's-eye view.
What lenders actually check
A handful of project-level factors decide warrantability. Owner-occupancy: too high a share of rentals or investor-owned units is a problem (conventional investor loans generally want a meaningful owner-occupied share). Delinquency: Fannie Mae's benchmark is that no more than 15 percent of units can be 60 or more days behind on HOA dues. Reserves: a full project review generally wants the budget to set aside at least 10 percent for reserves. Single-entity concentration: one person or company owning too large a share of the units. Plus adequate master insurance and a fidelity bond, the project being complete and not still under developer control, limited commercial space, and no hotel-like or heavy short-term-rental operation. Failing even one can flip a project to non-warrantable.
The post-Surfside repair and assessment overlay
After the 2021 Surfside condo collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac added scrutiny of building safety. Lenders now ask whether a project has significant deferred maintenance, unsafe conditions, directed critical repairs, or special assessments tied to structural work, and a community with serious unaddressed repairs or a special-assessment cloud can be deemed ineligible until it's resolved. This is why aging condo associations with thin reserves and a big repair bill increasingly find their units hard to finance - the reserve study and the special-assessment history have become financing documents, not just internal ones. Our guides on HOA special assessments and what a reserve study is explain the underlying numbers.
Why owners should care, not just buyers
Non-warrantable status isn't only a buyer's problem - it quietly hurts everyone who already owns. A shrunken pool of eligible buyers drags down resale values and lengthens time on market, and it can block you from refinancing your own loan, because a refinance runs the same project review. In other words, a board that lets delinquencies climb, reserves drift below 10 percent, or critical repairs go unfunded can impair the property value of every owner in the community - even the ones paying on time. A fidelity bond gap or lapsed master insurance can do the same; see our guide on the HOA fidelity bond and embezzlement protection.
How a project gets - or stays - warrantable
The fixes are the same things that make for a healthy association: collect delinquent dues so the project stays under the delinquency cap, fund reserves toward and past the 10 percent line, keep master insurance and the fidelity bond current and adequate, complete and document any critical repairs, and keep rentals and single-entity ownership within limits. None of it happens overnight, which is why warrantability rewards boards that manage steadily rather than scramble when a sale falls through. Lenders confirm all of this through a condo or HOA project questionnaire (Fannie Mae's Form 1076 is the common one) that the association or its manager fills out.
What to do - and how OurHOA helps
If you're buying, ask your lender to order the project questionnaire early and tell you whether the community is warrantable before you're deep into the deal - it can change your loan, your rate, and whether the purchase works at all. If you're on a board, treat warrantability as a year-round responsibility: keep the financials, reserve study, insurance, and repair records accurate and easy to produce, because that questionnaire is only as good as your records. This is general information, not lending or legal advice, and the thresholds change, so verify current requirements with your lender and the agencies. OurHOA helps small self-managed communities keep dues collection, reserves, and documentation organized, so when a questionnaire lands the answers are clean and the whole community's financing stays open.
OurHOA is the friendly, affordable way self-managed communities keep dues, records, and reminders in one place. See how it works.
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.