What is a common interest community?

The defining features are mandatory membership and mandatory assessments, both created by the recorded declaration. Planned communities, condominiums and cooperatives are all species of the same genus, and many state acts — particularly those based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — regulate them under one framework.

The distinction from a voluntary neighbourhood association is total. A voluntary association can ask for dues; a common interest community can levy them, lien for them, and in most states ultimately foreclose.

Which statute applies to a given community often turns on when it was created and whether the declaration submitted it to a particular act. Older communities are frequently governed by an earlier version of the law, or by their documents alone.