Texas HOA & condo associations in court: the numbers

Texas on the map

5,242 of the 7,195 communities with court records (rings, coloured by their most common case type) have an address or ZIP in the record and are drawn here; the rest have no location in any record and are not on the map, but stay searchable. Click a pin for the community's report, or open the full-screen map.

HOA Spy indexes 17,900 Texas homeowner and condominium associations. 7,195 of them appear in 41,271 court records — 38,062 from county and state trial courts, 2,635 from appellate courts and 574 from federal dockets. Texas ranks 2nd of the 15 states with the most court records on HOA Spy. Every number on this page is computed from official court and county records; data as of 2026-10-02.

The facts

• The records are spread thin: 2,864 of the 7,195 communities with a court record appear in exactly one case, and the ten most-litigated together hold only 1% of the records.
• Associations are usually the ones suing: they were the plaintiff in 25,161 records and the defendant in 3,747 — 87% of the cases with a known side were brought by the association, typically to collect assessments.
• The busiest year on file was 2025, with 6,730 records.
• Collections cases make up 39% of the records (16,145): assessment, debt and contract claims. Next come Other cases (11,036).
• 38,062 records come (92%) from county and state trial courts, 2,635 from appellate courts and 574 from federal dockets.
• 67 records are fair-housing, disability-accommodation or other civil-rights suits — the kind of case a buyer with a service animal or an accessibility request should know about.
• Harris County alone holds 6,518 records (16% of the state) across 1,054 communities.

What the cases are about

Each court record is labelled by its nature of suit the way the map colours it. Texas's 41,271 records break down as:

• Collections16,145 · 39%
• Other11,036 · 27%
• Foreclosure5,084 · 12%
• Property3,173 · 8%
• Tax2,908 · 7%
• Appellate2,635 · 6%
• Insurance180 · 0%
• Civil Rights67 · 0%
• Labor43 · 0%

Collections: assessment, debt and contract claims · Other: dockets that carry no nature of suit or one outside these groups (county civil dockets often say only "civil") · Foreclosure: the association foreclosing its lien, or named in a lender's foreclosure · Property: property and condominium disputes · Tax: tax matters · Appellate: decisions of the state's appellate courts · Insurance: coverage disputes with an insurer · Civil Rights: fair-housing, disability-accommodation and other civil-rights claims · Labor: employment and labor claims

Who is suing whom

The side comes from the role the court recorded for the association where the docket gives one, otherwise from which side of the “v.” the association's name sits. Appeals, petitions and association-versus-association captions stay undetermined.

Filings by year

court records · 2026 is partial

The oldest records on file date from 1954. Years reflect the filing date on the docket (the decision date for appellate opinions); records with no date are left out. Coverage grows as courts are added, so part of any rise is HOA Spy reaching more dockets — see the sources below.

Where the cases are

The county is the community's own (from its registration or ZIP), not the court's. Courts with the most Texas records: Fort Bend - District Clerk (3,516); Tarrant County - District Clerk (2,510); Denton County - District Clerk (1,699); Dallas County - District Court (1,623); Collin County - District Clerk (1,543); Harris County - County Clerk (1,527); Montgomery County - District Clerk (1,354); Travis County - District Clerk (1,349).

Associations with the most court records

A long record is not by itself a verdict on a community: a large association collecting assessments through the courts can have hundreds of small-claims entries. Open the profile to see what the cases are and who brought them.

How Texas compares

The states with the most court records on HOA Spy. The share column is the part of each state's indexed communities that appear in at least one case; it depends on which courts are indexed there as much as on the communities themselves.

Where this data comes from

• Trial courts: re:SearchTX — statewide (e-filed cases)
• Federal dockets and state appellate opinions: CourtListener (RECAP archive and bulk data, snapshot 2026-09-30)
• Association roster: TREC HOA management certificates (Socrata) (16,858 records)
• IRS roster: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (1,098 records)
• Not collected: TX Secretary of State corporate bulk data — paid (SOSDirect)
• Not collected: county recorder lien indexes — no free bulk source found (county-by-county paywalls)

Most HOA litigation happens in state trial courts, which have no national index; HOA Spy reads the portals it can. A Texas community outside the indexed courts can have cases this page does not count. Names are matched conservatively, so an ambiguous match is left out rather than guessed. Sources & methodology.

Questions people ask

How many HOA lawsuits are filed in Texas each year?

In 2025, the last full year, 6,730 court records naming a Texas community association were filed in the courts HOA Spy indexes; the five-year average is 4,440 a year. The busiest year on file is 2025 with 6,730.

Which Texas associations have the most court cases?

By records on file: Briarcreek Owners Association, Inc. (56); Riverstone At Alamo Ranch Homeowners Association, Inc. (53); April Sound Property Owners Association (49). Most of these are suits the associations brought themselves, typically to collect assessments.

Do Texas HOAs sue homeowners more than they get sued?

In the records with a known side, the association was the plaintiff 25,161 times and the defendant 3,747 times. Suits brought by associations are typically assessment collection and lien enforcement; suits against them typically come from owners, insurers or lenders.

How do I check a specific Texas HOA?

Search it by name on HOA Spy: the report lists every lien, case and complaint on file with a link to the official record, and says which sources were checked. Communities with records also have a profile page under the Texas directory. Data as of 2026-10-02.