Fighting an HOA Fine in Arkansas: What Governs the Power

A fine from an Arkansas association can feel non-negotiable, but the fine power isn't unlimited. Because Arkansas's Horizontal Property Act is concise and opt-in, the rules that actually constrain fines mostly live in the documents and in general corporate law. For your specific situation, a licensed Arkansas attorney is the right resource. This is general information, not legal advice.

Where does an Arkansas HOA's power to fine come from?

Mainly from the documents. Arkansas sets no statutory dollar cap or fining procedure for HOAs, and the Horizontal Property Act, where it applies, does not mention fines. Authority to fine comes primarily from the recorded declaration or master deed, bylaws, and properly adopted rules, with director standards from the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 for incorporated HOAs it covers.

Arkansas does not impose a statutory dollar cap on HOA fines, and no Arkansas statute sets a fining procedure (notice, hearing, appeal) for HOAs. The Horizontal Property Act (HPA), where it applies, does not mention fines. Its money section, § 18-13-116, covers each owner's share of common expenses plus one capped surcharge: extra assessments on units offered for rent, which "shall not exceed the amount reasonably calculated to cover expenses for additional security, wear and tear on buildings, additional trash pickup, and other additional costs" of the unit being available for rent or lease (§ 18-13-116(a)(2)(B)).

So the authority to fine — and any limit on it — comes primarily from:

• The recorded declaration / master deed and bylaws — the ceiling on what the association can regulate and how
• Any properly adopted rules — assuming they were adopted under the procedure the bylaws require
• The Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq.) — standards of conduct for the directors of an incorporated HOA that falls under it

What the HPA does require

Act 516 of 2025 rewrote the master deed requirements, but "This act is applicable to a horizontal property regime organized on and after September 1, 2025"; an older regime comes under it only by amending its master deed and filing reorganization documents to elect in (Act 516, § 9). For a regime the 2025 rules reach, the master deed has to name the association, or describe the rights reserved to the council of co-owners, that will "Enforce the terms and conditions expressed in the master deed" (§ 18-13-104(b)(3)(A)). For every HPA regime, old or new, the bylaws must be "inserted in, or appended to, and recorded with the master deed" (§ 18-13-108(a)), and they must set out the form of administration, "specifying the powers" of whoever runs it (§ 18-13-108(b)(1)). Changing that system takes owners holding two-thirds of the building's value, and "No such modification may be operative until it is embodied in a recorded instrument" (§ 18-13-109(b)).

In an HPA regime, that makes the recorded master deed, the recorded bylaws, and any recorded amendments the place to look for where a fine power comes from.

Does Arkansas nonprofit corporation law limit HOA fines?

Not directly. The Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 applies to corporations incorporated on or after January 1, 1994, and to older ones that elected in. Where it applies, directors must act in good faith and with ordinary care (§ 4-33-830(a)), but that standard does not set fine amounts, and its suspension-and-expulsion procedure (§ 4-33-621) does not mention fines.

The 1993 Act applies "to all domestic corporations incorporated on or after January 1, 1994." An older nonprofit comes under it only if it amended its articles to elect in; those that did not "shall continue to be governed by preexisting law" (§ 4-33-1701).

Where the Act applies, a director must act "in good faith," "with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances," and "in a manner the director reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the corporation" (§ 4-33-830(a)). A director who meets that standard "is not liable to the corporation, any member, or any other person" for board action (§ 4-33-830(d)). The standard measures how the board acts; it does not set fine amounts.

The Act does set a procedure for one kind of penalty: suspending or expelling a member. In a mutual benefit or public benefit corporation, no member may be expelled or suspended "except pursuant to a procedure that is fair and reasonable and is carried out in good faith" (§ 4-33-621(a)). A bylaw procedure meets that test if it gives "not less than fifteen (15) days prior written notice" with the reasons, and a chance to be heard "not less than five (5) days before the effective date" (§ 4-33-621(b)(1)). A challenge "must be commenced within one (1) year after the effective date" (§ 4-33-621(d)). That section covers suspension and expulsion of membership; it does not mention fines.

Where the leverage usually is

The questions that tend to decide a fine dispute are about the documents and the board's conduct:

• Is the fine authorized at all? A fine has to trace back to a specific provision in the declaration / master deed, bylaws, or a validly adopted rule. The adopted fine schedule, and the minutes showing how it was adopted, are the documents that answer this.
• Did the board follow its own process? If the governing documents require notice of the alleged violation and an opportunity to be heard before a fine, whether the board followed that procedure is a separate question from whether the rule itself is valid.
• Is the board meeting the § 4-33-830 standard? Where the 1993 Act applies, the good-faith and ordinary-care standard above is the statutory yardstick for board conduct.
• Does the HPA even apply? If the developer never recorded a master deed under § 18-13-103, the HPA is irrelevant — your analysis happens entirely in the documents and the Nonprofit Corporation Act. See Did Your HOA Opt In to the Horizontal Property Act?.

Selective enforcement

A fine can be vulnerable not because the rule is invalid, but because of how it's enforced. When the association cites one owner while ignoring identical conduct elsewhere, that uneven enforcement can raise a selective enforcement argument. No Arkansas statute defines that defense for HOAs, so how it fares depends on the documents and the facts — exactly the kind of question a licensed Arkansas attorney can evaluate.

The evidence for that kind of argument is comparative: photos, dates, and addresses of similar conditions that were never fined.

Records help build the picture

Where the bylaws or, for older nonprofits, the 1963 Act (§ 4-28-218(e)) give members a right to see records, that right can reach the documents behind a fine — the adopted rule, the fine schedule, and the minutes showing how (or whether) the rule was passed. The 1993 Nonprofit Corporation Act itself has no general records-inspection section. In an HPA regime, the book of receipts and expenditures and its vouchers are open to co-owners "at convenient hours on working days that shall be set and announced for general knowledge" (§ 18-13-110(b)). See Getting Your HOA's Records in Arkansas.

Federal overlays

Federal law can also defeat a fine that conflicts with it — for example the Fair Housing Act (disability accommodations, familial status), OTARD (satellite antennas), or the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act.

Where this can go

If a fine cannot be resolved with the board, the avenues include the association's records, the courts, and a licensed Arkansas attorney to evaluate whether a particular fine is authorized and properly imposed.

Legal fees are part of that picture. The HPA has no fee-shifting section. Arkansas's general fee statute says that in a civil action for "breach of contract," "unless otherwise provided by law or the contract which is the subject matter of the action, the prevailing party may be allowed a reasonable attorney's fee to be assessed by the court and collected as costs" (§ 16-22-308). Whether a given covenant dispute fits that statute, and whether the declaration has its own fee clause, are questions for an attorney.

Sources

• Arkansas Code Annotated — official public access (§§ 18-13-101 to 18-13-120; §§ 4-33-621, 4-33-830, 4-33-1701; § 16-22-308)
• Act 516 of 2025 — amendments to Ark. Code §§ 18-13-102 to 18-13-104, 18-13-112 and 18-13-116 (applicability, § 9)
• Act 1147 of 1993 — Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq.)
• Fair Housing Act — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development