Tampa is full of associations. Condo towers downtown and in Harbour Island, townhome communities in Westchase and New Tampa, gated neighborhoods in Riverview and FishHawk. If you own in any of them, you pay assessments. If you stop, your association gets a lien.

If you also owe the IRS, two liens now sit on the same unit. Florida law gives associations a strong priority rule. Federal law has its own rules for the federal tax lien. When they collide, here is how it tends to sort out, and why the answer is not always what an association’s collection lawyer expects.

Florida’s association lien statutes

For condominiums, Fla. Stat. 718.116(5)(a) says the association has a lien on each condominium parcel to secure the payment of assessments. Except as otherwise provided, the lien is effective from and relates back to the recording of the original declaration of condominium. As to first mortgages of record, the lien is effective only from the recording of a claim of lien.

For homeowners associations, Fla. Stat. 720.3085(1) follows a similar pattern. When authorized by the governing documents, the association has a lien on each parcel that relates back to the date the original declaration of the community was recorded, except as to first mortgages of record, against which it is effective from the recording of a claim of lien.

Under Florida law, then, an association lien for 2026 assessments can claim priority as of a declaration recorded in, say, 1998. Against most Florida creditors, that relation-back is very powerful.

Why Florida law does not settle priority against the IRS

The priority of a federal tax lien against competing liens is a question of federal law. The Supreme Court established the basic framework long ago. In United States v. City of New Britain, 347 U.S. 81 (1954), the Court applied the principle that the first in time is the first in right, and explained that a competing lien counts as first in time only when it has become choate, meaning the identity of the lienor, the property subject to the lien, and the amount of the lien are established.

Apply that to an association lien. Assessments for months that have not yet come due do not have an established amount. A state statute that says the lien relates back to the declaration does not, by itself, make the lien for future assessments choate as of that date under the federal test. So the relation-back rule that works against other Florida creditors may not carry the same weight against the United States.

IRC 6323 adds another layer. The filed Notice of Federal Tax Lien determines priority against four protected classes under IRC 6323(a): purchasers, holders of security interests, mechanic’s lienors and judgment lien creditors. An association with only a statutory assessment lien is not obviously any of those. Courts have analyzed these conflicts in different ways, and outcomes depend on the facts, the timing of the assessments and the federal lien, and the court. I am not going to pretend the law is perfectly uniform here.

The practical pattern

With that caution, the pattern tends to look like this:

  • Assessments that came due and were unpaid before the federal tax lien arose have a strong argument for priority, especially if the association recorded a claim of lien for them.
  • Assessments that came due after the federal tax lien arose generally face the IRS’s argument that the federal lien was first in time and the association’s lien for those amounts was not choate when the federal lien attached.
  • Interest, late fees and attorney fees allowed under Fla. Stat. 718.116 or 720.3085 follow their own timing questions and are often contested.

Associations and their lawyers sometimes assume the declaration date settles everything. When the United States is a party, it often does not.

When the association forecloses

Florida association liens are foreclosed in court, in the circuit court for the county where the property is located. Whether the federal tax lien survives the sale turns on whether the United States is made a party.

  • If the United States is named. 28 U.S.C. 2410(a) allows the United States to be named in a foreclosure action involving property on which it has a lien. The government can remove the case to federal court under 28 U.S.C. 1444. A judicial sale can discharge the federal lien, but under 28 U.S.C. 2410(c), for a lien arising under the internal revenue laws, the United States has 120 days from the date of sale to redeem the property, or the state redemption period if longer.
  • If the United States is not named. Under IRC 7425(a), if a notice of federal tax lien was filed before the action began, the judgment and sale are made subject to and without disturbing the federal lien. The buyer at the association’s sale takes the unit with the IRS lien still on it.

For a unit owner, neither path makes the IRS debt go away. The IRS will claim surplus proceeds according to its priority. For a buyer at an association foreclosure auction in Hillsborough County, an unaddressed federal tax lien is a serious title problem. My guide on IRS foreclosure lawsuits and mortgage foreclosures explains the federal side in more detail.

An illustration

Consider a hypothetical Channelside condo. The declaration was recorded in 2007. The owner stopped paying the IRS, and the IRS assessed the tax in March 2024 and filed its notice with the Hillsborough County Clerk in August 2024. The owner kept paying condo assessments until January 2025, then stopped. The association recorded a claim of lien in June 2025 and filed suit to foreclose.

Under Florida law, the association would point to 718.116(5)(a) and claim priority from 2007. Against the United States, the analysis is different. Every assessment the association is trying to collect came due in 2025, after the federal tax lien arose on assessment in March 2024 under IRC 6322. Under the choateness approach of New Britain, the IRS has a strong argument that it is first in time as to those amounts.

Change one fact. If the owner had stopped paying assessments in 2022, and those assessments were fixed and due before the federal tax lien arose, the association’s position improves considerably. Timing is the whole game.

Condo safe harbor and first mortgages

Florida also limits what a first mortgagee who takes title through foreclosure must pay the association for past-due assessments, under rules in 718.116 and 720.3085. Those rules govern the relationship between the lender and the association. They do not change the federal tax lien analysis, but they affect how much money is available for everyone else, including the IRS and the owner.

What unit owners who owe the IRS should do

If you owe the IRS and live in an association community, these are the priorities I usually recommend:

  1. Keep assessments current if at all possible. Association collection moves faster than IRS collection, and Florida allows recovery of interest, late charges and reasonable attorney fees. A $1,500 balance can become a $6,000 balance quickly.
  2. Count dues as a housing expense. The IRS includes homeowner and condominium association dues in the housing and utilities allowance under IRM 5.15.1.10.1. See the Hillsborough County housing standards.
  3. Watch for special assessments. Large special assessments for repairs can be a legitimate reason to ask the IRS to allow expenses above the standard, with documentation.
  4. If the association sues, tell your tax lawyer. The interaction with the federal lien can change how the case should be handled.

The same logic applies to Hillsborough County property taxes, which have an even clearer priority over the IRS. See property tax liens versus IRS liens. GetIRSHelp.com has more on how federal tax liens work.

Florida wrote the association’s lien. Congress wrote the IRS’s. When they meet, the federal rulebook is the one the judge opens first.