Reviewed against RPL Sec. 339-z (statutory condominium lien

New York Condominium Common-Charge Lien Priority Calculator — RPL Sec. 339-z Six-Month Limited Priority

Compute the limited-priority and sub-priority breakdown of a New York condominium common-charge lien under the New York Condominium Act (RPL Article 9-B, Sec. 339-d through 339-kk): RPL Sec. 339-z statutory lien with a SIX-MONTH limited priority over the first mortgage (regular common charges only — attorney fees, special assessments, late fees, and interest are NOT within priority, distinguishing New York from UCIOA-adopting jurisdictions like Connecticut); RPL Sec. 339-aa recording and judicial enforcement under RPAPL Article 13 (New York is an exclusively judicial-foreclosure state). Returns limited-priority dollars, sub-priority dollars, total lien gross and net, estimated equity, and recovery bands for each priority layer.

Calculator

Adjust the inputs below; the result updates instantly.

Assessment

Monthly regular common charges

Months of common-charge delinquency

Amount paid to date

Encumbrances

First mortgage balance

Sub-priority items

Special assessments

Late fees, fines, and interest

Attorney fees and costs

Valuation

Unit fair-market value

Verdict

SPLIT PRIORITY. 6 month(s) limited priority ($4800.00, regular common charges only) under RPL Sec. 339-z; 3 month(s) sub-priority common charges plus special assessments, late fees, and attorney fees ($6500.00). Sub-priority recovery: HIGH based on estimated equity $150000.00.

Sub-priority amount: $6,500.00
Total lien (gross): $11,300.00
Total lien (net of payments): $11,300.00
Estimated equity above first mortgage: $150,000.00
Limited-priority recovery band: HIGH — typically recovered
Sub-priority recovery band: HIGH — typically recovered
Summary: New York condominium common-charge lien-priority analysis under the New York Condominium Act (RPL Article 9-B, Sec. 339-d through 339-kk) — RPL Sec. 339-z statutory lien and six-month limited priority over the first mortgage; RPL Sec. 339-aa recording and judicial enforcement. New York has not adopted UCIOA; the six-month priority is FIXED and may not be extended by declaration or by-laws. Monthly common charges $800.00; months delinquent 9. Limited-priority months: 6 (max 6 under RPL Sec. 339-z). Sub-priority months: 3. Limited-priority position: $4800.00 (regular common charges only — attorney fees, special assessments, late fees, and interest are NOT within priority under RPL Sec. 339-z). Sub-priority position: $6500.00 (excess months $2400.00 + special assessments $0.00 + late fees and fines $600.00 + attorney fees $3500.00). Total lien gross: $11300.00. Less payments to date $0.00. Net lien: $11300.00. Unit value $750000.00; first mortgage $600000.00; estimated equity $150000.00. Recovery bands: limited-priority HIGH; sub-priority HIGH. Procedural note: enforcement of the condominium lien proceeds judicially under RPAPL Article 13 (New York is an exclusively judicial-foreclosure state; no power-of-sale foreclosure permitted). See the companion New York condominium foreclosure-timeline calculator for the procedural ladder. The lien remains enforceable for 6 years from the date the common charge became due unless foreclosure has been commenced (RPL Sec. 339-aa). Verdict: SPLIT PRIORITY. 6 month(s) limited priority ($4800.00, regular common charges only) under RPL Sec. 339-z; 3 month(s) sub-priority common charges plus special assessments, late fees, and attorney fees ($6500.00). Sub-priority recovery: HIGH based on estimated equity $150000.00.

Tools to go with this

Need an RPL Sec. 339-aa statement-of-lien template or a six-month priority tender-demand letter to the first mortgagee?

Fennec Press's New York condominium collection bundle includes the RPL Sec. 339-aa verified statement-of-lien template aligned to typical New York City and upstate recording-officer requirements, the six-month priority tender-demand letter to the first mortgagee that perfects the limited-priority position under RPL Sec. 339-z, the RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure complaint shell for the board-of-managers plaintiff, and a payoff-letter checklist that distinguishes regular common charges from special assessments for priority-calculation accuracy.

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Published by

The Fennec Lab Editorial Team

Statute-cited · Unit-tested

Reviewed against: RPL Sec. 339-z (statutory condominium lien; six-month limited priority over first mortgage restricted to regular common charges); RPL Sec. 339-aa (recording of statement of lien with the county recording officer; six-year statute-of-limitations window for enforcement); RPL Sec. 339-bb (apportionment of common charges by common interest); RPAPL Article 13 (judicial-foreclosure procedure applicable to condominium liens; New York is an exclusively judicial state); Bankers Trust Co. of Cal., N.A. v. Bd. of Managers of Park 900 Condominium, 81 N.Y.2d 1033 (1993) (Court of Appeals confirmation of the six-month limited-priority interpretation); and subsequent New York Appellate Division authority refining the trigger-date and scope-of-regular-charges questions

Last reviewed: 2026-05-16

How this calculator works

This is a priority-and-recovery breakdown of a New York condominium common-charge lien under the New York Condominium Act. Given the monthly regular common charges, months delinquent, payments to date, first-mortgage balance, special assessments, late fees, attorney fees, and an optional unit value, it returns:

The dollar amount of the LIMITED-PRIORITY position under RPL Sec. 339-z — six months of regular common charges that rank ahead of the first mortgage.
The dollar amount of the SUB-PRIORITY position — months beyond six, plus all special assessments, late fees, fines, and attorney fees, which rank behind the first mortgage.
Total lien gross, total lien net of payments, estimated equity above the first mortgage, and recovery bands for each priority layer.

The calculator implements the RPL Sec. 339-z carve-out: only REGULAR PERIODIC COMMON CHARGES under the budget qualify for limited priority. Attorney fees, special assessments, late fees, fines, and interest are categorically excluded from the priority window and accrue in the sub-priority portion.

Use the calculator at three points: when setting policy on how quickly to commence enforcement (the six-month window caps the priority exposure regardless of how long delinquency runs); when responding to a first-mortgagee payoff or tender request (itemize regular charges separately from special assessments and attorney fees for accurate priority calculation); and when filing the board's own RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure (the trigger date is the filing date and the six-month window is measured backward).

The relevant RPL / GBL statute

The New York Condominium Act lives at New York Real Property Law (RPL) Article 9-B, Sec. 339-d through Sec. 339-kk. The lien framework:

RPL Sec. 339-z — STATUTORY LIEN AND SIX-MONTH LIMITED PRIORITY. The board of managers has a lien on each unit for unpaid common charges. The lien is subordinate to liens for real-property taxes, other governmental assessments, and all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record — EXCEPT the condominium lien is prior to the first mortgage to the extent of six months of unpaid regular common charges that accrued before the priority trigger date. The six-month figure is fixed; the declaration and by-laws may NOT extend it.

RPL Sec. 339-aa — RECORDING AND ENFORCEMENT. The board files a verified statement of lien with the recording officer (typically the county clerk; in New York City, the city register for the borough). Recording is required to preserve priority against subsequent good-faith purchasers, lessees, and mortgagees. The lien continues for six years from the date the common charge became due unless an action to foreclose has been commenced. Enforcement is by judicial foreclosure under RPAPL Article 13.

RPL Sec. 339-bb — APPORTIONMENT. Common charges are apportioned among units in proportion to the common interest specified in the declaration. Disputes over apportionment are handled separately from the lien-priority analysis.

RPAPL Article 13 — JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE PROCEDURE. New York is an exclusively judicial-foreclosure state. There is no power-of-sale (nonjudicial) foreclosure permitted for any real-property lien, including condominium-association liens. The board files a foreclosure complaint in New York Supreme Court for the county where the property is located.

GBL Article 23-A (Martin Act) — OFFERING-PLAN SUPERVISION. The New York Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau supervises the offering and resale of condominium units through the offering-plan registration process. This affects disclosure and resale procedures rather than lien priority directly, but is relevant context for the broader regulatory framework. See the companion offering-plan resale-disclosure calculator.

Bankers Trust Co. of Cal., N.A. v. Bd. of Managers of Park 900 Condominium, 81 N.Y.2d 1033 (1993) — Court of Appeals confirmation of the six-month limited-priority interpretation and the trigger-date mechanics.

NY-specific gotchas (judicial foreclosure only, AG offering-plan supervision, no Surfside-style reserve mandate)

JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE ONLY. New York permits no nonjudicial foreclosure under any circumstance. RPAPL Article 13 governs every condominium-lien enforcement action and requires a Supreme Court complaint, full service of process, defendant appearance window, motion practice, judgment, and a referee-conducted sale (in New York City) or sheriff's sale (elsewhere). Expect 24-36 months from complaint to sale in a typical uncontested NYC case; longer when contested. UCIOA-state practitioners accustomed to faster nonjudicial enforcement should plan for the longer New York timeline.

ATTORNEY FEES ARE NOT WITHIN THE LIMITED PRIORITY. Unlike Connecticut (CGS Sec. 47-258(b)) and most UCIOA-adopting states, New York's RPL Sec. 339-z does NOT include attorney fees within the priority window. Attorney fees recover only in the sub-priority portion, dependent on equity above the first mortgage. This makes fee recovery materially harder in New York and is the principal reason boards must front collection costs from operating funds rather than expecting full recovery from the foreclosure proceeds.

SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS ARE NOT WITHIN THE LIMITED PRIORITY. RPL Sec. 339-z restricts priority to REGULAR periodic common charges under the budget. Special assessments — including the multi-tens-of-thousands NYC Local Law 11 facade-repair assessments common in older buildings — fall entirely into the sub-priority portion. Recovery depends on equity.

AG OFFERING-PLAN SUPERVISION. The New York Attorney General's Real Estate Finance Bureau supervises the offering and resale of condominium units under General Business Law (GBL) Article 23-A (the Martin Act). The AG must accept the original offering plan and any subsequent amendments. While this does not affect lien priority, it shapes the broader regulatory environment — condominium documents are heavily standardized and the AG's supervision constrains some board actions that in other states would be discretionary.

NO SURFSIDE-STYLE RESERVE-FUNDING MANDATE. Unlike Florida (FL Stat. Sec. 718.112 reserve-funding requirements as amended after Surfside) and California (Cal. Civ. Code Sec. 5550 reserve-study requirements), New York imposes NO STATUTORY MINIMUM on condominium reserve funding. Reserve studies are voluntary unless the by-laws require them. This means reserve adequacy varies widely across New York condominiums and is not enforceable by an external regulator. See the companion reserve-funding calculator.

SIX-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. RPL Sec. 339-aa imposes a six-year window for enforcement of the lien from the date the common charge became due. Old common charges drop off as the six-year window expires. Boards must act on meaningful delinquencies well within the window.

RECORDING-OFFICER VARIATION. In New York City, the city register for the relevant borough handles condominium lien recording; in the rest of New York, the county clerk does. Recording fees and acceptable formats vary by office. The board's counsel should confirm local practice before filing.

What this calculator does NOT model

The calculator implements the PRIORITY-AND-RECOVERY math under RPL Sec. 339-z. It does NOT:

Compute interest accruals on the delinquent balance (interest accrues per the by-laws and is sub-priority only; the calculator treats the late-fees-and-fines input as the aggregate).
Validate the form of the statement of lien filed under RPL Sec. 339-aa (verification, contents, attachment of the assessment schedule).
Model the RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure timeline (see the companion New York condominium foreclosure-timeline calculator).
Distinguish first-mortgage payoff scenarios (where the lender requests a tender amount) from foreclosure scenarios (where the lender or board files an action) — both use the same six-month backward-looking window but the trigger-date mechanics differ.
Account for the bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. Sec. 362 (a unit-owner bankruptcy filing freezes the six-year limitations period and stays the foreclosure; consult bankruptcy counsel).
Model the post-Stuyvesant-Town debate over what constitutes "regular" versus "special" assessments in mixed-use or complex multi-building condominium regimes.

For any consequential lien-enforcement action, retain New York counsel with condominium-foreclosure experience to validate the priority calculation, draft the statement of lien, and prosecute the RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure.

Sources

Last reviewed: 2026-05-16 against:

RPL Article 9-B (New York Condominium Act, Sec. 339-d through Sec. 339-kk).
RPL Sec. 339-z — statutory condominium lien; six-month limited priority over first mortgage restricted to regular common charges.
RPL Sec. 339-aa — recording of statement of lien; six-year enforcement window; judicial enforcement under RPAPL Article 13.
RPL Sec. 339-bb — apportionment of common charges by common interest.
RPAPL Article 13 — judicial-foreclosure procedure applicable to condominium liens.
GBL Article 23-A (Martin Act) — Attorney General Real Estate Finance Bureau offering-plan supervision (background regulatory context).
Bankers Trust Co. of Cal., N.A. v. Bd. of Managers of Park 900 Condominium, 81 N.Y.2d 1033 (1993) — Court of Appeals confirmation of the six-month limited-priority interpretation.
Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC) and Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) practitioner materials on condominium common-charge collection.

RPL Sec. 339-z grants the condominium lien priority over the first mortgage for SIX MONTHS of unpaid regular common charges. The six-month figure is fixed by the New York Condominium Act and may not be extended by declaration or by-laws. This is materially shorter than the nine-month super-priority under UCIOA-adopting jurisdictions such as Connecticut (CGS Sec. 47-258(b)). The six-month window is measured looking backward from the priority trigger date — typically the date the first-mortgagee files its foreclosure action, the date the lender requests a payoff letter from the board, or the date the board files its own RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure.

No. RPL Sec. 339-z restricts the limited priority to REGULAR common charges only. Attorney fees, special assessments, late fees, fines, and accrued interest are NOT within the priority window — they recover in the sub-priority portion, dependent on equity above the first mortgage. This is a material difference from Connecticut (CGS Sec. 47-258(b) includes reasonable attorney fees and costs within the nine-month super-priority) and is one of the principal reasons New York boards retain experienced collection counsel — fee recovery is harder than in UCIOA states. The calculator separates the regular-common-charge limited priority from all sub-priority items.

No. RPL Sec. 339-z limits the priority to the periodic common charges adopted under the budget. Special assessments — by definition, non-periodic, one-time levies for capital projects, reserve replenishment, or emergency expenses — fall into the sub-priority portion. New York City practitioners encounter this frequently with Local Law 11 facade-repair special assessments that can run tens of thousands of dollars per unit; the entire special assessment is sub-priority. Confirm in the board's books that the charge is properly categorized as a special assessment rather than a regular common charge before assigning it to the sub-priority bucket.

Upon receiving notice of the condominium lien (typically through service of the board's RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure or upon requesting a payoff letter), the first-mortgagee almost always TENDERS the six-month limited-priority amount to the board to preserve its first-priority position. The tender is paid to the board; the first-mortgagee adds the amount to the loan balance or recovers from escrow / the unit owner. After tender, the board's foreclosure continues against the SUB-PRIORITY position only. The mechanics are similar to UCIOA states but the dollar amount is smaller because New York's window is six months versus nine. Boards should structure the demand to facilitate prompt tender — itemize regular common charges separately from special assessments and attorney fees.

Yes — EXCLUSIVELY. RPAPL Article 13 governs all real-property foreclosures in New York, including condominium-lien enforcement. There is NO power-of-sale (nonjudicial) foreclosure permitted under any circumstance in New York. The board files a foreclosure complaint in New York Supreme Court for the county where the property is located, serves the unit owner and all junior encumbrancers (and the first-mortgagee), prosecutes through judgment, and proceeds to a sheriff's sale (or referee's sale in NYC) under the court's supplemental judgment of foreclosure and sale. Typical New York condominium-lien foreclosures take 24-36 months from filing to sale, often longer in New York City courts. See the companion foreclosure-timeline calculator.

RPL Sec. 339-aa provides that the condominium lien continues for SIX YEARS from the date the common charge became due, unless an action to foreclose has been commenced within the six-year window. This is the same six-year period that applies to most contract-based actions in New York (CPLR Sec. 213). Practical implication: a board cannot let a delinquency sit indefinitely — the six-year limit applies separately to each month's common-charge delinquency. Old common charges fall off the lien as the six-year window expires. Boards should retain collection counsel well within the window for any meaningful delinquency.

The six-month window under RPL Sec. 339-z is measured looking BACKWARD from the priority TRIGGER DATE. The trigger date is typically (a) the date the first-mortgagee files its foreclosure action against the unit, (b) the date the lender requests a payoff letter from the board, or (c) the date the board files its own RPAPL Article 13 foreclosure. The six MOST RECENT months of unpaid common charges preceding the trigger date qualify for limited priority; older months fall into sub-priority. If a unit owner is 12 months delinquent and the trigger date is today, months 7-12 (the most recent six) are limited priority; months 1-6 (the oldest six) are sub-priority. The calculator assumes monthly increments are uniform; if the monthly amount changed mid-period, separate the calculations into pre-change and post-change segments.

The principal differences: (1) WINDOW LENGTH — New York is six months under RPL Sec. 339-z; Connecticut is nine months under CGS Sec. 47-258(b). (2) ATTORNEY FEES — New York EXCLUDES attorney fees from priority; Connecticut INCLUDES reasonable attorney fees and costs within the super-priority. (3) SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS — both states exclude special assessments from priority. (4) STATUTE FRAMEWORK — Connecticut adopted UCIOA in 1984; New York has not adopted UCIOA and the 1964 Condominium Act remains the governing statute. (5) FORECLOSURE TIMELINE — both states are judicial; Connecticut strict foreclosure is faster (6-12 months typical) than New York Supreme Court foreclosure (24-36 months typical, longer in New York City). Practitioners moving between the two jurisdictions should expect materially different recovery outcomes on the same delinquency facts.

Under RPL Sec. 339-aa, the board files a VERIFIED STATEMENT OF LIEN with the recording officer (typically the county clerk; in New York City, the city register for the borough where the property is located). Recording is not required to perfect the lien against the unit owner — the lien arises automatically when the common charge becomes due under RPL Sec. 339-z — but recording IS required to preserve priority against subsequent good-faith purchasers, lessees, and mortgagees. As a practical matter, boards record the statement of lien before instituting foreclosure to (a) establish the priority date against later encumbrances, (b) put the unit owner on formal notice, and (c) facilitate title insurance issuance on any subsequent transfer. The recorded lien is also a credit-bureau signal that often prompts an owner cure.

If the unit is sold to a good-faith purchaser for value before the lien is recorded under RPL Sec. 339-aa, the purchaser takes free of the unrecorded portion. If the lien is recorded, the purchaser takes subject to it and the board may foreclose against the new owner. Practical implication: title insurance underwriters routinely require a payoff letter from the board before insuring a New York condominium transfer — confirming that all common charges are paid current. Boards should respond promptly to payoff requests and itemize regular charges, special assessments, and other items separately so the title underwriter can confirm priority-protected versus sub-priority recovery.

Resources

Links marked sponsoredmay earn The Fennec Lab a commission. They do not affect the calculator's output. See disclosures.

New York State Senate — RPL Sec. 339-z (lien priority) — RPL Sec. 339-z — six-month limited-priority statute
New York State Senate — RPL Sec. 339-aa (recording and enforcement) — RPL Sec. 339-aa — recording and judicial enforcement
New York State Senate — RPAPL Article 13 (judicial foreclosure) — RPAPL Article 13 — judicial-foreclosure procedure applicable to condominium liens
Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC) — CNYC — New York City practitioner reference for condominium governance and enforcement