Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: New Hampshire lets the board propose a special assessment, but owners can block it if two-thirds reject it at a ratification meeting, unless it’s handled through the faster emergency track.
Key statute: N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 356-B:40-c (assessments) and § 356-B:46 (lien for assessments), New Hampshire Condominium Act
How New Hampshire lets an association approve it
New Hampshire uses a “negative option” model: the board proposes, and owners can block it if enough of them reject it. RSA 356-B:40-c states: “The board of directors, at least annually, shall adopt a proposed budget for the unit owners’ association for consideration by the unit owners… Unless at that meeting 2/3 of all unit owners or any larger number specified in the declaration reject the budget, the budget is ratified.” The same statute extends this to special assessments specifically: “The board of directors, at any time, may propose a special assessment…the assessment is effective only if the board of directors follows the procedures for ratification of a budget described in paragraph I and the unit owners do not reject the proposed assessment.” There’s also a faster emergency track: “If the board of directors determines by a 2/3 vote that a special assessment is necessary to respond to an emergency,” the assessment “becomes effective immediately.”
The notice you’re owed
The law requires notice but doesn’t fix a day count. RSA 356-B:40-c says only that “Notice of the special assessment shall be provided promptly to all unit owners.” No specific number of days or required content is spelled out in the statute.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
New Hampshire’s statute doesn’t give owners a right to a payment plan; that’s left to the declaration or bylaws. On interest, the law doesn’t set its own fixed percentage, instead tying it to the state’s general usury ceiling. RSA 356-B:46(V) sets “Interest at the maximum lawful rate for the sums secured by the lien from the time such sum became due and payable.” No separate late-fee formula appears in the statute.
Unpaid assessments create a lien that, once perfected, has priority over most other encumbrances except real estate tax liens and certain prior liens, and the association has six years from recording to sue to enforce it.
Does New Hampshire require a reserve study?
No. New Hampshire’s Condominium Act has no post-Surfside structural-integrity or reserve-study law in the sections that govern assessments and liens.
Honest gaps
Only a handful of sections of RSA Chapter 356-B were reviewed, so an additional payment-plan provision or a more specific notice day-count elsewhere in the chapter can’t be fully ruled out.
Source note. Read from https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXXI/356-B/356-B-40-c.htm 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.