Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: West Virginia caps special-assessment interest at 18% per year directly in the statute, the only one of these five states with a specific numeric rate written into the assessments law itself.
Key statute: W. Va. Code § 36B-3-115 (assessments for common expenses); § 36B-3-116 (lien for assessments); § 36B-3-103 (executive board powers/budget ratification) – West Virginia Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act
How West Virginia lets an association approve it
West Virginia’s Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act doesn’t require a separate owner-ratification vote for a special assessment the way Vermont’s and Washington’s laws do. Instead, § 36B-3-115 lets the board impose special or targeted assessments directly for specific categories of cost, including limited common elements, expenses that benefit fewer than all units, risk-based insurance costs, usage-based utility costs, judgments, and costs caused by an individual owner’s misconduct, each assessed against the units concerned rather than across all units in their ordinary shares: a common expense “benefiting fewer than all of the units must be assessed exclusively against the units benefited,” “the costs of insurance must be assessed in proportion to risk and the costs of utilities must be assessed in proportion to usage,” and an expense caused by an owner’s misconduct assessed “exclusively against his unit.” The statute doesn’t state a supermajority owner-vote requirement for this kind of board-imposed assessment. Separately, § 36B-3-103 does require the association’s annual operating budget to go through a ratification process: “Within thirty days after adoption of any proposed budget…the executive board shall provide a summary…and shall set a date for a meeting…not less than fourteen nor more than thirty days after mailing,” and the budget is ratified unless “a majority of all unit owners…reject the budget.” Whether that budget-ratification step also applies to a special assessment isn’t spelled out in the assessments section itself.
The notice you’re owed
West Virginia’s statute confirms a notice process for the annual budget, not explicitly for a special assessment: § 36B-3-103 requires a board summary within 30 days of budget adoption and a ratification meeting set “not less than fourteen nor more than thirty days after mailing.” No separate notice period written specifically for a special assessment appears in § 36B-3-115.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
West Virginia’s statute doesn’t address a payment-plan right for special assessments; that’s left to the declaration or bylaws. Interest is where West Virginia is unusual among these states: § 36B-3-115 states plainly, “Any past due common expense assessment or installment thereof bears interest at the rate established by the association not exceeding eighteen percent per year.” That’s a specific 18% numeric cap written directly into the assessments statute itself, rather than a cross-reference to a separate usury law.
West Virginia gives the association a lien on a unit for unpaid assessments or fines from the time they become due, with priority over most other encumbrances, and that lien is extinguished if enforcement isn’t started within three years of the full assessment becoming due.
Does West Virginia require a reserve study?
No. West Virginia’s Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, at least in the sections covering assessments and liens, has no reserve-study or structural-inspection mandate comparable to Florida’s or Washington’s.
Honest gaps
It isn’t confirmed from the text reviewed whether West Virginia’s budget-ratification process, with its 14-to-30-day meeting window and majority-owner-rejection standard, extends to special assessments, or whether a special assessment under § 36B-3-115 is purely a board decision with no owner vote at all. That distinction matters and would need a closer read of the full statute to settle. It also isn’t confirmed whether a reserve-study requirement exists elsewhere in Chapter 36B outside the sections reviewed here.
Source note. Read from https://code.wvlegislature.gov/36B-3-115/ ; https://code.wvlegislature.gov/36B-3-116/ ; https://code.wvlegislature.gov/36B-3-103/ 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.