Three directors of a five-seat Arizona board meet at a kitchen table on a Saturday morning to talk through the landscaping bids. Nobody votes. Nobody posted a notice. If three is a quorum under your bylaws, that was a board meeting, and every owner in the community had the right to walk in and speak. Arizona's Planned Communities Act says so in one line (§ 33-1804(E)(4)): any quorum of the board that meets informally to discuss association business, workshops included, follows the open meeting and notice rules.
That is the shape of Arizona law. It is less about paperwork than about doing the board's business where the owners can see it.
The short answer
- An Arizona HOA board has to do its business in the open and inside a few hard limits: open meetings with 48 hours' notice once the developer has handed over control, records within 10 business days, no regular assessment more than 20% above last year's without a member majority, notice and a hearing before any fine, and no foreclosure until an owner is 18 months or 0,000 behind, whichever comes first.
- Those duties come from the Planned Communities Act (A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 16), which governs an Arizona HOA whose declaration makes membership mandatory and requires owners to pay assessments; condominiums have their own chapter.
- It does not require a manager or a reserve study. It does require an annual audit, review or compilation, and absentee ballots in place of proxies.
Last reviewed: October 4, 2026
Which law governs your community
Chapter 16 applies to every planned community (§ 33-1801). A planned community is a development whose association owns or maintains property, and whose declaration expressly states both that owners are mandatory members and that they must pay assessments (§ 33-1802). A condominium is governed by Chapter 9 of the same title instead. An association created before January 1, 1974 that has no power to enforce covenants is outside the Act unless a majority of all its members elect in writing to come under it and record that election. Your declaration, bylaws and rules add duties of their own; where the Act says "notwithstanding any provision in the community documents," the Act wins.
The ten things Chapter 16 actually requires
1. Hold every meeting in the open, in Arizona
All meetings of the board, the members and any regularly scheduled committee are open to every member (§ 33-1804). A member may speak once after the board discusses an agenda item and before it votes, and anyone attending may audio- or video-record the open portions. The board cannot require advance notice, and its rules cannot stop the recording unless the board records the meeting itself and gives the unedited recording to members on request. A meeting may close only to discuss, without acting, five things: legal advice, pending or contemplated litigation, an individual's personal, health or financial information, an employee's job performance or complaints, and a member's appeal of a violation (unless that member asks for it in the open). Before closing, the board names the paragraph that allows it. Every meeting of the board and the members is held in Arizona.
2. Give the notice the statute sets
Once the developer has handed over control, notice of each board meeting and its agenda goes to members at least 48 hours ahead, by newsletter, conspicuous posting or other reasonable means, stating the date, time and place. An emergency meeting may act only on the emergency, and its minutes say why it was called. Members meet at least once a year. Notice of a members' meeting is hand delivered or mailed 10 to 50 days ahead, with its purpose, including any proposed amendment, any assessment change that needs member approval and any proposal to remove a director.
48 hours notice of every board meeting and its agenda to the members, after the developer hands over control, and a quorum meeting informally, workshops included, follows the same rule. — A.R.S. § 33-1804(D)–(E)
3. Open the books in 10 business days, free
All financial and other records are reasonably available to any member or their written representative (§ 33-1805). The association has 10 business days to make them available, may not charge for the review, and has 10 business days to provide copies, at no more than 15 cents a page. It may withhold attorney communications, pending litigation, the minutes of a lawfully closed session, an individual's personal, health or financial records, and employee records. If the board records an open meeting, it keeps the recording at least six months and gives it, unedited, to any member who asks (§ 33-1804(A)).
4. Keep the dues inside the cap, and the late fee inside the law
Unless your documents set a lower limit, a regular assessment may not rise more than 20% over the preceding fiscal year's without the approval of a majority of the members (§ 33-1803). A payment is late at 15 days unless your documents allow longer. A late charge is capped at the greater of
5 or 10% of the unpaid assessment, and may be charged only after the association has given notice that the assessment is overdue.5. Give notice and a hearing before a fine, and answer the owner's letter
The board may fine a member for a violation only after notice and an opportunity to be heard (§ 33-1803(B)). An owner who gets a written violation notice may answer by certified mail within 21 calendar days. The association then has 10 business days to reply in writing with the provision violated, the date of the violation or when it was observed, the first and last name of whoever observed it, and how to contest it, unless the notice already said so. If the original notice did not explain how to contest it, the association takes no enforcement action until that exchange is done, and tells the owner in writing that they may petition the Arizona Department of Real Estate for a hearing (§ 32-2199.01).
6. Collect dues by the statute's ladder
The association has a lien for assessments from the day they fall due, and recording the declaration perfects it (§ 33-1807). The lien covers the assessments, their late charges if the declaration allows them, reasonable collection costs and court-awarded attorney fees. What few boards know: a fine is a "member expense," and it can never become that lien. The association must win a court judgment for it, and even then it cannot foreclose on it. Unless the owner directs otherwise, payments go first to assessments, then to their late charges, collection costs and court-awarded attorney fees, and only then to fines.
The steps Arizona law puts between a missed payment and a foreclosure.
- Late: 15 days unpaid; a late charge only after an overdue notice
- Certified letter: 30 days before an attorney or collector
- Payment plan: Offered before any foreclosure is filed
- Foreclosure: Only at 18 months behind or 0,000 owed, whichever comes first (a special assessment of 0,000 or more waits the full 18 months)
The 30-day letter carries the statute's own words, in bold or capital letters, with a contact for discussing payment. A community of 50 or more lots, or one with a manager, sends each owner a statement of account as often as assessments fall due. Asked in writing, the association states what is owed on the home within 10 days. If it misses that deadline for a licensed escrow agent, the lien for every unpaid assessment then due is gone. An association may not transfer ownership or control of its owners' debts (§ 33-1807(O)).
7. Let every member vote without a proxy
After the developer hands over control, proxies are out (§ 33-1812). The association provides for voting in person and by absentee ballot, and may add email or fax. Each ballot lists every proposed action with a for and an against, is good for one election only, and gives a deadline at least seven days after the board delivers it. Ballots, envelopes and sign-in sheets are kept for at least a year and open to members.
8. Respect the removal petition
Members may remove any director the developer did not appoint, with or without cause (§ 33-1813). In an association of 1,000 members or fewer (larger ones have their own numbers), a petition signed by owners holding 25% of the votes or 100 votes, whichever is less, obliges the board to call, notice and hold a special meeting within 30 days. If it does not, every director is deemed removed at midnight of the 31st day: not only the one the petition named, every one of them.
9. Get a financial review every year, and declare your conflicts
Unless your documents require a CPA audit, the board provides for an annual financial audit, review or compilation, finished within 180 days of the fiscal year's end and available to members on request within 30 days after that (§ 33-1810). A director who would benefit from a paid contract or decision, or whose parent, grandparent, spouse, child or sibling would, declares the conflict in an open meeting before the discussion (§ 33-1811). The director may still vote. A contract made without that declaration is void.
10. Put a director on the architecture committee, and do not withhold approval unreasonably
Every design review or architectural committee includes at least one board member, who chairs it (§ 33-1817). Approval of a project's plans may not be unreasonably withheld. Where the association takes a security deposit for new construction, the statute sets the trust account, the review meetings and the timeline for giving it back.
Selling or renting When a home sells in a community of 50 or more properties, the association sends the buyer the documents and disclosure statement within 10 days of notice, and may charge the seller no more than $400 in aggregate for that report and related transfer services, plus up to
00 for a rush and $50 for an update (§ 33-1806). For a rental, it may ask only for the adult tenants' names and contacts, the lease dates and the vehicles (plus photo ID in an age-restricted community), for a fee of no more than $25 per new tenancy (§ 33-1806.01).
What the law will not let a board ban
Break the for-sale sign rule below and a board loses its lien rights on that home for six months. Whatever your documents say, an Arizona association may set reasonable rules but may not prohibit: the American, Arizona and several other listed flags, political signs within the election window, and commercially produced for-sale signs (and for-rent signs where renting is allowed) (§ 33-1808); a solar energy device (§ 33-1816); a backyard shade structure (§ 33-1816.01); or, once the developer has handed over control, artificial turf where natural grass is allowed (§ 33-1819).
What the law does not require
- No management company. Nothing in Chapter 16 requires one, and the Act itself provides for communities that "do not contract with a third party to perform management services" (§ 33-1807(M)).
- No reserve study. A seller's disclosure includes the association's most recent reserve study "if any" (§ 33-1806(A)). Your declaration may still ask for one.
- No CPA audit, unless your documents say so. A review or a compilation meets § 33-1810.
Arizona asks a volunteer board to do its work in the open and to stay inside a few hard numbers. It does not ask you to hire anyone.
What this means for a self-led board
Arizona's numbers are short enough to keep on one card: 48 hours, 10 business days, 20%, 15 days, 21 days, 30 days, 18 months,
0,000. Boards get into trouble in the spaces between meetings, where a workshop turns into a decision, an email turns into a fine, or a late fee goes out before anyone sent the overdue notice.Three things to do this week:
- Ask each director to name the last time a quorum talked board business outside a noticed meeting, and put the next such talk on a posted agenda.
- Check this year's assessment against last year's: more than 20% higher needs a majority of the members.
- Pull your violation notice and your 30-day collection letter and check each against § 33-1803 and § 33-1807(L).
The takeaway
Arizona does not ask a board for a manager or a reserve study. It asks for open meetings with 48 hours' notice once the developer has handed over control, records in 10 business days, a dues cap, a fair hearing before a fine, and a long, lettered road before a foreclosure. A self-led board can run every line of it.
Frequently asked questions
Can our Arizona HOA board hold a workshop without notice? Not if a quorum attends. Under § 33-1804(E)(4), a quorum meeting informally to discuss association business, workshops included, follows the open meeting and notice rules, whether or not it votes.
Can an Arizona HOA put a lien on a home for unpaid fines? No. A fine is a member expense, and member expenses cannot be a common expense lien (§ 33-1807(B)). The association must win a court judgment for them, and that judgment lien cannot be foreclosed.
How much can an Arizona HOA raise dues in a year? No more than 20% over the preceding fiscal year's regular assessment without a majority of the members' approval, unless your documents set a lower limit (§ 33-1803(A)).
What Does an HOA Board Actually Have to Do Legally in California?
This is a plain-language guide, not legal advice. Your governing documents and an attorney licensed in Arizona have the final word.
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