Nevada Super-Priority Assessment Lien: 9 Months, Non-Judicial, and What Title Officers, Lenders, and Boards Need to Know

Nevada is one of a small number of states where an HOA assessment lien can take priority over a first mortgage. The doctrine is famous in real estate and title circles, has produced more than a decade of litigation, and is the reason every Nevada resale package must disclose unpaid association assessments with unusual precision.

The mechanism is NRS 116.3116, Nevada's version of the Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act lien provision. Under the statute, an association's lien for unpaid assessments has a "super-priority" portion equal to up to 9 months of regular assessments plus certain maintenance and nuisance charges. That super-priority portion sits ahead of a first deed of trust. A properly conducted non-judicial foreclosure of the super-priority lien — under NRS 116.31162 through 116.31168 — extinguishes the senior mortgage and conveys title to the foreclosure-sale purchaser free of the lender's interest.

For a title officer, the rule is straightforward: a Nevada HOA assessment lien is not a junior lien you can paper over with a payoff. For a lender, it is a structural risk that requires monitoring association payment status throughout the life of the loan. For a board, it is a fiduciary obligation: the lien is a powerful collection tool, and exercising it improperly creates litigation exposure.

What NRS 116.3116 Actually Creates

NRS 116.3116(1) provides the basic lien: the association has a lien on each unit for any assessment, late charge, fine, fee, interest, or cost of collection that is unpaid. The lien arises automatically when the assessment becomes due — no recording is required to perfect it.

The priority split runs through two subsections. NRS 116.3116(2)(b) subordinates the lien to a first security interest recorded before the assessment became delinquent — and subsection (3) then carves the super-priority portion back out ahead of it:

1. Sub-priority portion. Most of the lien is junior to a first deed of trust. A foreclosure of this portion does not extinguish the senior mortgage.
2. Super-priority portion (NRS 116.3116(3)). Up to 9 months of regular assessments that would have become due immediately preceding the recording of the notice of default and election to sell under NRS 116.31162(1)(b), plus charges for maintenance or abatement of a public nuisance, plus the association's enforcement costs under paragraph (c) — the cost component itself capped by subsection 5 at scheduled amounts ($165 demand letter, $325 notice of default, $90 intent-to-record notice, $400 deed preparation, $400 recording-cost ceiling), with attorney fees excluded. Where the first security interest is held by or backs Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, the assessment window drops to a 6-month floor.

The 9-month window is the heart of the doctrine. It is not 9 months of arrears chosen by the association, and since the 2015 amendments (Acts 2015, p. 1333) it is not measured from the filing of a foreclosure action — it is the 9 months immediately preceding the recording of the notice of default and election to sell. The clock is statutory, and the math is enforced at the deed level: a purchaser at a properly conducted super-priority sale receives title free of the senior lien, even if the unit owner owed years of past-due assessments.

The Non-Judicial Foreclosure Path

Most states require an HOA to use judicial foreclosure — a court-supervised process — to enforce an assessment lien. Nevada is one of the exceptions. NRS 116.31162 through 116.31168 establish a non-judicial foreclosure procedure that mirrors the deed-of-trust foreclosure process used by mortgage lenders.

The procedure has several distinct steps:

• Notice of delinquent assessment to the unit owner under NRS 116.31162.
• Notice of default and election to sell recorded in the county where the unit is located, with statutory waiting periods for the owner to cure.
• Notice of sale with publication and mailing requirements.
• Trustee's sale conducted in compliance with the statute.
• Trustee's deed issued to the purchaser.

NRS 116.31166 governs the deed itself and the post-sale rights. The purchaser takes title subject to a 60-day right of redemption held by the unit owner. After the redemption period closes, the purchaser holds clean title — and if the super-priority portion was foreclosed, the first deed of trust is extinguished.

The fact that this can be done non-judicially — without a court signing off — is what made the Nevada doctrine commercially significant. It produced an entire secondary market for super-priority foreclosure purchases through the mid-2010s and a corresponding wave of litigation from senior lenders trying to undo those sales.

The Three Cases That Built the Doctrine

SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank (Nevada Supreme Court, 2014)

In 2014 the Nevada Supreme Court answered the question that title officers had been asking since UCIOA was adopted: is the super-priority portion of an HOA lien really senior to a first deed of trust?

The court said yes. The opinion held that a properly conducted non-judicial foreclosure of the super-priority portion extinguishes a first deed of trust. The senior lender's only protection is to monitor the association's collection status and tender the super-priority amount not later than 5 days before the date of sale (NRS 116.31166(1)).

This is the foundational case. Every Nevada title and lender analysis from 2014 onward begins here.

Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo (9th Circuit, 2016)

Two years later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took a different approach. In Bourne Valley, the federal appellate court held that NRS 116.3116's pre-2015 opt-in notice scheme was facially unconstitutional under the federal Due Process Clause for failing to require affirmative notice to junior lienholders before the super-priority foreclosure could extinguish their interest.

For about three years, federal courts applying Nevada law to pre-2015 foreclosures had to find for the lender under Bourne Valley. The decision created a split: state courts followed SFR Investments; federal courts followed Bourne Valley. The same fact pattern produced different outcomes depending on which courthouse the case landed in.

Saticoy Bay v. Wells Fargo (Nevada Supreme Court, 2017)

The Nevada Supreme Court rejected Bourne Valley in 2017. The court held that NRS 116.3116's statutory notice scheme satisfies due process under Nevada law and reaffirmed SFR Investments. The state-law analysis controls in subsequent federal cases applying Nevada law.

Two years later the Ninth Circuit accepted that conclusion. In Bank of America v. Arlington West Twilight Homeowners' Ass'n, 920 F.3d 620 (9th Cir. 2019), the federal court of appeals expressly abrogated Bourne Valley on the ground that federal courts must defer to the Nevada Supreme Court's state-law interpretation of NRS 116.3116. As of 2019, Bourne Valley is no longer good law.

For practical purposes, the doctrine settled in 2019 where it started in 2014: the super-priority lien is real, the non-judicial foreclosure extinguishes the senior mortgage, and the senior lender's only protection is tender.

What This Means in Practice

For title officers. A Nevada title search must include an association-payment-status review for every common-interest unit. A clean title commitment on a unit with delinquent assessments is a foreseeable claim. The association's payment-status ledger is the source of truth — not a year-old estoppel letter.

For lenders. Monitor the association's collection status throughout the life of the loan. The 9-month window is short; it can compound from current to foreclosure-eligible in less than a year. If a foreclosure notice is received, tender the super-priority amount not later than 5 days before the date of sale (NRS 116.31166(1)). Tendering later is too late.

For boards. The super-priority lien is a powerful collection tool, but it is also a tool that produces litigation when used improperly. Procedural defects in the notice, sale, or accounting can void the foreclosure and create damages exposure for the association. Use the procedure with counsel, document every step, and keep the assessment ledger reconcilable on demand.

For sellers and buyers. The Nevada resale package under NRS 116.4109 must disclose the unit's outstanding assessment status. NRS 116.4109(1) lists the substantive items the package has to contain — including a statement of unpaid assessments, special assessments, fees, fines, and pending litigation. (NRS 116.41095 is a different document: the required form of the "Before You Purchase" information statement.) The disclosure isn't theoretical: an inaccurate statement of past-due assessments can become the basis of a misrepresentation claim against the association after closing.

Disclosure in a Nevada Resale Package

The resale package is where the super-priority doctrine touches a real transaction. NRS 116.4109 sets the procedural rules: 10 calendar days to deliver, a fee cap under NRS 116.4109(4)(b) — a $185 statutory base that CPI-adjusts annually, currently $213.84 per the Real Estate Division's published maximum (Rev. 1/2026) — and a 5-calendar-day buyer rescission window after receipt. NRS 116.4109(1) lists what has to be inside. As of July 1, 2026, AB 396 (2025) adds proof of the association's required insurance policies under NRS 116.3113 to the mandatory contents of the package.

For a unit subject to a delinquent-assessment lien, the package must show:

• Current unpaid regular and special assessments
• Outstanding fees, fines, and interest
• A statement of any past-due amount that has accrued during the look-back window relevant to the super-priority calculation
• Pending litigation, including any active foreclosure action
• Unsatisfied judgments against the association

The accuracy of these disclosures depends entirely on the association's underlying records. An assessment ledger that cannot reconcile to the bank account on demand cannot produce a defensible resale package. A reserve fund balance recorded once a quarter from a spreadsheet cannot support the lien-status disclosure when the unit is selling on 30-day escrow timing.

This is the operational layer behind the doctrine. The statute creates the priority. The case law settles the doctrine. The accounting system has to produce the disclosure.

The Three-Case Summary, One Sentence

SFR Investments (2014) established that the super-priority lien extinguishes the first deed of trust on a properly conducted non-judicial foreclosure; Bourne Valley (2016) tried to invalidate the doctrine on federal due-process grounds; and Saticoy Bay (2017) — followed by Arlington West Twilight (2019) — restored SFR Investments as the controlling rule.

Every Nevada title commitment, lender risk model, and resale package operates against this doctrine. Boards and managers should know what it is, when it applies, and how their records have to support the disclosure.