The Happy Valley HOA Nobody Runs Anymore Still Owns Part of Your Neighborhood

"When an HOA stops operating, its responsibilities do not disappear."

That line comes from a City of Happy Valley staff briefing prepared for the October 6, 2026 City Council work session. It describes a situation that changes how a buyer should read a Happy Valley listing. A line reading "HOA dues: $0" can mean the home has no association. It can also mean the association still exists, still owns common property, and has nobody running it.

Most of the trouble shows up during the transaction, while your contingency clock is running.

The count from City Hall

The briefing, presented by Steve Campbell, Happy Valley's Director of Public Safety, says the city has approximately 135 homeowner associations, ranging from 12 homes to more than 300. Fewer than 35 appear to be fully functioning. About 25 perform only limited duties, and roughly 75 are essentially inactive.

City staff describe an inactive HOA as one that often has no board, collects no dues, carries no insurance, and performs little or no maintenance. The briefing also says some residents don't know they belong to an HOA or share responsibility for common property.

Do the math on those figures and more than half of the city's associations are dormant. A buyer comparing two Happy Valley homes, one with monthly dues and one without, may be comparing a funded association with an unfunded one, and both homes may sit in planned communities with common tracts.

This isn't new. The city's FY 2010–11 budget says an HOA liaison "was hired to bring current and defunct HOA's into compliance with state law and open space maintenance requirements." In 2011 the city announced its second annual free HOA educational seminar at City Hall, and it held a free HOA Workshop on May 21, 2026. The city's own HOA contact form gives residents three choices: they don't know whether the neighborhood has an HOA, the neighborhood has one that is "not currently in operation," or it has an active one.

What happens when common property becomes a problem

When an association goes quiet, the open spaces, pathways, and tracts it owns stay where they are. The briefing lists what can happen to them: overgrowth, dangerous trees, blocked pathways, illegal dumping, unauthorized structures. It also says uninsured common property creates significant liability, and that if someone is injured, "the homeowners may be collectively responsible."

When the city gets a complaint and there's no board or management company to contact, the briefing says notices and enforcement may have to go to every homeowner tied to the property. The process it describes runs in this order:

1. Staff try to find HOA representatives, or homeowners willing to organize the corrective work.
2. If the condition is a nuisance or safety hazard, the city may notify every affected homeowner and give them 10 days to submit a plan to fix it.
3. If the problem isn't corrected, the city may do the minimum work needed to remove the hazard.
4. The cost could then be split among the responsible homeowners using a legally approved method, and each homeowner gets an invoice with 30 days to pay.
5. Unpaid amounts could become liens if City Code and Oregon law authorize it.
6. As a separate route, the city could issue citations requiring each homeowner to appear in municipal court.

The briefing notes that this process may fix an immediate hazard but doesn't reactivate the HOA or provide for future maintenance. So the tract can end up back where it started, with the same owners responsible for it.

Why this matters during escrow

Oregon's resale process for planned communities assumes an association that can answer the phone. That assumption runs through each step below.

Under ORS 94.712, a buyer in a voluntary conveyance is jointly and severally liable with the seller for the seller's unpaid assessments. The same section offers protection. When the owner or the owner's agent asks, "the board of directors shall make and deliver a written statement of the unpaid assessments," and the buyer isn't liable for unpaid assessments that the statement leaves out. That protection depends on a board existing to write the statement.

The rest of the paperwork works the same way:

The package the OREF addendum contemplates is long. It covers articles, bylaws, CC&Rs, rules, board resolutions, the reserve study, budgets and financial statements, insurance, assessment notices, up to 24 months of board and owner minutes, inspection reports, claims, and an accountant's review report. For an association that has had no board for years, much of that list may not exist. What's missing tells you as much as what arrives.

Dissolving the association doesn't end it

Buyers sometimes look up the HOA's corporate filing, find it dissolved, and decide the question is settled. Oregon law says otherwise. Under ORS 94.626, if a homeowners association is dissolved, "whether inadvertently or deliberately," it automatically continues as an unincorporated association under the same name. It keeps all the property, powers, and obligations it had before, and the directors and officers who served immediately before dissolution continue to serve it.

So a lapsed state registration doesn't make the common tract ownerless. It means the people who were last on the board may still technically be the board, whether or not they know it.

The Secretary of State's records cut both ways too. The active business search returns only active names, and inactive entities need a separate Inactive Business Search request. An empty result from the active search doesn't prove there's no HOA.

The checks that work when nobody answers

Since the association's own paperwork may not come, the useful evidence sits in records that exist whether or not a board does.

• Seller's Property Disclosure Statement. Unless the seller is excluded, ORS 105.464 requires the form for each buyer making a written offer. Its Common Interest section asks whether an HOA or other governing entity exists, its name and contact information, assessments, common areas or joint-maintenance arrangements, litigation, and covenant violations. You have five days after delivery to revoke unless you waive that right.
• Preliminary title report and the declaration. The OREF sale agreement has the seller order a preliminary title report and copies of recorded documents within one business day, with a five-business-day title-objection window by default. Under ORS 94.580, a planned-community declaration must identify the association and legally describe property that is or must become common property. If you find a declaration, you've found an association, whatever the dues line says.
• Clackamas County records. The county's Recording Division gives access to recorded real-property records through its Digital Research Room, and the plat-name index lets you find a subdivision's plat before checking it for common tracts. An association may also record an information statement with the county clerk under ORS 94.667, but because recording it is optional, the absence of one proves nothing.
• Signs of activity. Ask for recent minutes, a current budget and financial statement, proof of insurance, assessment notices, and the names of current directors or a manager. OREF's buyer advisory lists minutes, governing documents, finances, litigation, insurance, and common-area inspection reports as due diligence.

None of this is legal advice. If the title report shows a common tract and the association can't produce minutes or insurance, have a real estate attorney or your escrow officer look at it before your review period closes.

What the October 6 work session could change

The October 6 agenda item is a briefing with staff options. It doesn't adopt any HOA rule. Staff recommend coming back with legal analysis and ordinance options for both future and existing developments, an annual HOA registration and reactivation program, renewed HOA 101 workshops, a standardized nuisance-abatement and cost-recovery process, and options for assessments, utility billing, and liens.

An ordinance modeled on Oregon's Planned Community Act could require an active board, current city contact information, insurance on common property, adequate dues, and a maintenance plan. The city might also collect authorized charges through utility bills if a utility provider agrees, which the briefing calls a collection method only. Staff note that the city's authority to make an existing HOA operate, collect dues, or carry insurance needs further legal review.

For a buyer, that means the rules for dormant associations may change after you close. A registration or reactivation requirement would fall on the owners who are there at the time.

FAQ

If a listing shows no HOA dues, does that mean there's no HOA? No. City staff describe inactive associations as ones that often collect no dues at all. Check the title report for a recorded declaration.

Could I be billed for a tract I never use? Under the current process, the city may divide abatement costs among the responsible homeowners and send each one an invoice with 30 days to pay. Who counts as responsible depends on the governing documents, which is a question for an attorney.

Does the city help restart an inactive HOA? The city's HOA page says it offers outreach, registration, grant information, and educational resources, and staff currently send letters asking members to re-form the association, along with an offer of training.

If you're writing an offer in a Happy Valley planned community and the association paperwork comes back thin, Peak Realty can walk the title report, the disclosure statement, and the county plat with you before your review window closes. Selling instead? Get your free home valuation, and we'll help you gather the HOA documents a buyer will ask for before you list.