Indiana HOA compliance, enforced as code

Decision body — the board

The board adopts the schedule of fines and assesses fines; the recorded board decision is the assessment act. IC 32-25.5-3-12(a), (f)

In CommonGround: CommonGround routes the fine decision to the board and requires the recorded decision before any fine is assessed.

Notice, opportunity to be heard, and a recorded decision

A fine may be assessed only for a violation included in the adopted schedule of fines, after the subsection (f) notice, on a recorded board decision. IC 32-25.5-3-12(f)

In CommonGround: The workflow has no path around it: the notice must be sent, the opportunity to be heard must be offered, and the decision must be recorded — in that order — before a fine can exist.

Required violation-notice contents

Before assessing a fine the board must provide notice of (1) the violation for which the fine will be assessed, (2) the amount of the fine, and (3) the date on which the fine will be assessed. (4) For a fine assessed on an ongoing or recurring basis, the notice must ALSO state the defined-period or until-cured basis and describe how the fine will be calculated and assessed. IC 32-25.5-3-12(f)

• Violation
• Fine amount
• Assessment date

In CommonGround: CommonGround drafts the notice with all 3 statutory elements in place; a notice missing any of them cannot be sent.

Decision directly from the statutory notice

Indiana grants no hearing-before-fine right: the owner's process rights are the four-element pre-assessment notice plus the pre-litigation grievance procedure (fine claims are no longer exempt from chapter 5; the respondent may demand a meeting within 10 BUSINESS days of the claim notice). IC 32-25.5-3-12(f); IC 32-25.5-5-4, -5-10 (HEA 1115-2026)

In CommonGround: CommonGround lets the board record the decision straight from the statutory notice — while still preserving the complete notice-and-decision audit trail.

Adopted fine schedule / policy required

No fine without a board-adopted schedule of fines setting forth the violations subject to fine, the amount per violation, recurring-basis statements with calculation descriptions, and a maximum aggregate fine amount. Adoption-meeting notice must include the proposed schedule ((b)); the schedule must be available for member inspection ((c)); amendments require notice and may be member-revised by special-meeting majority ((d)–(e)). IC 32-25.5-3-12(a)–(e)

In CommonGround: No fine can be generated without the adopted fine policy or schedule on file — CommonGround checks for the artifact before the workflow opens.

Your schedule's own maximum is binding

The adopted schedule must state 'a maximum aggregate fine amount for any single violation,' and 'a fine assessed on an ongoing or recurring basis may not exceed the maximum aggregate amount stated in the schedule of fines.' IC 32-25.5-3-12(a)(4)

In CommonGround: CommonGround enforces your association's own scheduled maximum: a recurring fine can never exceed it, and a schedule without a stated maximum can't support a fine at all.