Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Nebraska’s board sets and levies assessments once the association begins assessing, and state law gives owners no vote to reject a special assessment, unlike neighboring UCIOA states.
Key statute: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-873 (assessment for common expenses) and § 76-874 (lien for assessments), Nebraska Condominium Act
How Nebraska lets an association approve it
Nebraska’s board controls assessment-setting once the association is active. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-873(a) states: “Until the association makes a common expense assessment, the declarant shall pay all common expenses. After any assessment has been made by the association, assessments must be made at least annually. After one-third of the members of the executive board are elected by unit owners other than the declarant, assessments shall be based on a budget adopted at least annually by the association.” The statute does not give unit owners a right to reject or ratify the budget or a special assessment. Anything beyond this, such as a required owner vote or meeting, would come from the declaration or bylaws rather than the statute itself.
The notice you’re owed
Nebraska’s statute is silent on notice for a special assessment. Neither § 76-873 nor § 76-874 sets a required notice period or spells out what a notice must contain before a special assessment takes effect.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Nebraska law doesn’t give owners a right to demand an installment plan; that’s left to the declaration or bylaws. The statute does contemplate installment billing as a mechanism, referring to an “assessment or installment thereof” that can bear interest. Interest is capped at 18% per year: § 76-873(b) states, “Any past-due common expense assessment or installment thereof bears interest at the rate established by the association not exceeding eighteen percent per year.”
Unpaid assessments become a recordable lien from the time they become due and can be foreclosed the same way a mortgage would be, but the association’s lien is extinguished if it doesn’t start enforcement proceedings within three years.
Does Nebraska require a reserve study?
No. Nebraska has no post-Surfside structural-integrity or reserve-study law in the Condominium Act sections that govern assessments and liens. There is no requirement for a periodic professional reserve study or structural inspection.
Honest gaps
Only a portion of the Nebraska Condominium Act was reviewed for this piece, not the full chapter, so an owner-vote provision or a reserve-study mandate elsewhere in the act can’t be fully ruled out.
Source note. Read from https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=76-873 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.