Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Oregon’s Condominium Act sets no owner-vote threshold for special assessments at all, leaving approval entirely to each association’s declaration and bylaws while the board sets the annual budget.
Key statute: ORS 100.483 (Annual budget); ORS 100.175 (Reserve account); ORS 100.415 (Contents of bylaws); ORS 100.450 (Association lien); ORS 100.475 (Personal liability for assessment), Oregon Condominium Act, ORS Chapter 100
How Oregon lets an association approve it
The Oregon Condominium Act does not set a statutory owner-vote threshold for special assessments. ORS 100.483 provides only that “The board of directors at least annually shall adopt a budget for the association of unit owners,” and that budget “shall include moneys required to be allocated to the reserve account under ORS 100.175.” ORS 100.415(1)(k) requires the bylaws to state “The manner of collecting assessments from the unit owners,” leaving the actual approval and collection mechanism to each condominium’s declaration and bylaws instead of fixing it in statute. For the reserve line specifically, the board may “adjust payment amounts and add reserve items without unit owner approval” under ORS 100.175(3)(b), and it generally cannot eliminate reserve funding unless it determines funding is adequate for the coming year, except that post-turnover “the board of directors and all of the owners” may jointly elect non-funding under ORS 100.175(10). No owner-veto mechanism was found. Oregon’s separate Planned Community Act (ORS Chapter 94, covering non-condo HOAs) includes a 50%-owner-vote requirement for certain assessments during declarant control, but that law applies to a different property type and does not extend to condominiums.
The notice you’re owed
ORS 100.483 requires that “Within 30 days after adopting the annual budget for the association, the board of directors shall provide a summary of the budget to all owners.” That is a budget-summary notice, not a special-assessment-specific one; the statute does not set a separate notice period or required content for special assessments specifically.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Oregon’s statutes do not give owners a right to an installment payment plan for a special assessment; no such right appears in ORS 100.483, 100.415, 100.450, or 100.475, leaving it to each association’s declaration and bylaws. The same is true for interest and late fees: ORS 100.450 ties lien amounts to “interest, late charges, attorney fees, costs or other amounts levied under the declaration or bylaws,” meaning the statute delegates rate-setting to the governing documents rather than capping or fixing a rate itself.
ORS 100.450 gives the association a lien “prior to a homestead exemption and all other liens or encumbrances upon the unit” (subject to exceptions for certain tax liens and some first mortgages), foreclosed in a manner conforming “as nearly as possible” to standard lien-foreclosure procedure, with a maximum six-year enforcement period and an alternative money-judgment remedy that does not waive the lien.
Does Oregon require a reserve study?
Yes, but it is not a post-Surfside/SIRS-style structural-integrity law; it is a longstanding funding-disclosure reserve-account statute. ORS 100.175 requires a reserve study addressing the starting balance, useful-life estimates, replacement costs, inflation rates, and returns on invested reserves, which is used to set the reserve-account contribution in the annual budget. The board can adjust that funding without owner approval, and funding generally cannot be eliminated except as described above. This is a funding-and-planning requirement, not a structural-safety inspection mandate like Florida’s SIRS law.
Honest gaps
This entry draws on the Oregon Condominium Act (ORS Chapter 100) as republished on oregon.public.law, used after the state legislature’s own site returned only truncated excerpts of the chapter. No condo-specific statutory special-assessment vote threshold exists in ORS Chapter 100; that mechanism exists only in the separate Planned Community Act, which covers non-condo HOAs.
Source note. Read from https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_100.483 (cross-referenced: https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_100.175, ors_100.415, ors_100.450, ors_100.475) 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.