Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Massachusetts lets trustees set special assessments through the annual budget without an owner vote, except for utility sub-metering charges, and requires 60-day delinquency notice before suing to enforce its lien.
Key statute: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 183A, § 6
How Massachusetts lets an association approve it
Regular common expense assessments, including special assessments for capital repairs, are levied by the organization of unit owners based on an adopted budget, not by an owner vote: assessments “must be made at least annually, based on a budget adopted at least annually in accordance with the master deed, trust, or by-laws.” Chapter 183A does not set an owner-ratification vote threshold for a special assessment as such; general special assessments for capital repairs are governed by the master deed, trust, or bylaws, which the statute treats as controlling except where they conflict with the statute itself. The one specific instance where the law itself requires an owner vote is narrower: a board that wants to assess utility costs measured by a unit’s own meter needs “the approval of the majority of unit owners in attendance at a meeting, for which notice was duly given.”
The notice you’re owed
Massachusetts law is silent on a specific notice period before a special-assessment vote; that is left to the master deed, trust, or bylaws. It does require notice once an assessment becomes delinquent: after at least sixty days of delinquency, the organization of unit owners must send “a notice stating the amount of the delinquency to the unit owner by certified and first class mail,” with a parallel notice to the first mortgagee if known, and it must send a further notice of intent “thirty days prior to the filing of an action… to enforce its lien for delinquent common expenses.” For the one statutory owner vote on utility sub-metering, notice of that meeting must be “duly given,” though the law does not specify a number of days.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Massachusetts law does not grant or require an installment payment plan for a special assessment; that is a matter for your declaration or bylaws. The organization can impose “fees, attorneys’ fees, charges, late charges, fines, costs of collection and enforcement, court costs, and interest,” and the unit owner is “personally liable for all sums assessed for his share of the common expenses including late charges, fines, penalties, and interest,” but the statute does not set a specific interest rate or late-fee cap or formula; that rate is left to the organization or governing documents.
The organization of unit owners has a lien on a unit for any common expense assessment from the time it becomes due, and that lien attaches automatically, with enforcement following the 60-day and 30-day notice sequence described above.
Does Massachusetts require a reserve study?
No. Chapter 183A, Section 6 covers assessment mechanics, liens, and delinquency notice, but contains no structural-integrity-reserve-study, milestone-inspection, or reserve-adequacy-disclosure requirement comparable to Florida’s SIRS law.
Honest gaps
Section 6 is long, and the portion of its delinquency subsection describing exact post-30-day enforcement mechanics beyond the notice-of-intent requirement was not fully captured this session. The assessment, lien, and notice rules reported here were fully verified against the official Massachusetts General Court text.
Source note. Read from https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter183A/Section6 (official Massachusetts General Court website, fetched and read directly this session) on September 4, 2026.
Related: HOA rules in a 55+ community · how a special-assessment foreclosure actually works · lump sum vs. a payment plan.
General information drawn from each state’s own statutes as read at its official legislature or code-publisher site (or a verbatim codified mirror where noted), not legal advice. Special-assessment law is state law, and every association’s own declaration and bylaws add rules on top of the statutory floor described here. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.