The Boardroom

What Does an HOA Board Actually Have to Do Legally in Kentucky?

Kentucky's HOA law dates from 2023. What a board must do under the Planned Community Act, from the 10% quorum to budgets, each tied to its KRS section.

Justin · 16 min read ·

On a maple-lined Kentucky subdivision street in October, a board director pauses at the end of a driveway to talk with a neighbor holding a coffee mug, both looking thoughtful

The Rebel Answer

What an HOA board has to do legally in Kentucky is set by the Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.801), in force since June 29, 2023, alongside the community's own declaration and bylaws. The association holds an annual meeting at least once a year with a 10 percent quorum, noticed 10 to 30 days ahead with the agenda, and owners holding 20 percent can request a special meeting, convened within 30 days. Board meetings are open to owners except during executive sessions. The board adopts a budget every year and sends it to owners within 30 days; a budget more than 15 percent above last year's goes to a special meeting where owners consider ratifying it. A special assessment needs a majority of the full board and a meeting within 30 days where a majority of all lots can rescind or reduce it. Before any fine, the owner gets written notice and the opportunity to be heard. A financial report is prepared within 180 days after the fiscal year, at a standard set by revenue. Provisions already in documents recorded before June 29, 2023 keep their force unless the Act specifically says otherwise, but the Act overrides old caps on assessments.

The treasurer of a subdivision outside Lexington brings next year's budget to the board in October. Insurance went up, the entrance wall needs work, and the new number is 18 percent higher than last year's. Two directors are ready to vote it through that night. A third has read the state law and asks the question that changes the evening: once we adopt it, don't the owners get a meeting to decide whether to keep it?

They do. Since June 29, 2023, Kentucky has had a homeowners association statute of its own, the Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801, created by 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23. Now a state law sets an annual meeting with a 10 percent quorum, open board meetings, a financial report sized to the association's revenue, notice and a chance to be heard before any fine, and an owner check on special assessments and on budgets that jump by more than 15 percent. Here is the list, each duty tied to its section on the Kentucky General Assembly's own site.

The short answer

  1. What an HOA board has to do legally in Kentucky is set by the Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.801), in force since June 29, 2023, alongside the community's own declaration and bylaws. It reaches every planned community that has an association, but unless it says so specifically, it does not invalidate a provision that was already in documents recorded before that date.
  2. The core duties: an annual meeting with a 10 percent default quorum and 10 to 30 days' notice stating the agenda, open board meetings, an annual budget sent to owners within 30 days, a financial report within 180 days of year end at a standard set by revenue, records owners can examine, and written notice and a chance to be heard before any fine.
  3. The owner checks most boards miss: a special assessment needs a majority of the full board and a meeting within 30 days where owners can rescind or reduce it, and a budget more than 15 percent above last year's goes to owners at a special meeting to consider ratifying it.

Last reviewed: November 3, 2026

On an October evening, three Kentucky HOA board members sit on a screened back porch, the treasurer holding a single sheet turned away from the camera while a second director leans back with his arms crossed

Which law governs: the Planned Community Act, and your documents

The Act's own short title is the Planned Community Act (KRS 381.801). A planned community is a group of residential dwellings, excluding condominiums, made up of individual lots, where a deed, common plan or declaration requires that all owners join an association, that owners or the association hold property or facilities for everyone, or that owners pay membership fees for them (KRS 381.785(13)). Two kinds of neighborhood are left out: one whose only shared expense is a common road to the lots, and one that does not have a homeowners association established by declaration, plat or deed.

All planned communities in Kentucky are subject to the Act, with one limit a board needs to know. Unless the Act says so specifically, nothing in it invalidates a provision of a governing document if that provision was in the document when it was recorded and the document was adopted or recorded before June 29, 2023 (KRS 381.786(1)). And many sections start with "unless otherwise provided in the declaration or bylaws," so your own documents still decide a great deal.

So the first job is to read your declaration and bylaws beside this list. If your community is a condominium, it is not a planned community under this Act, and this page is not your list.

The eleven things the law actually requires

1. Be run by an elected board of at least three owners. The association is made up of the lot owners and administered by a board of directors elected from among them. The owners elect a board of at least three directors, who take office no later than the end of any declarant control period (KRS 381.787(2)). Your declaration or bylaws must provide for the number of directors, how they are elected and for what terms, the board's powers and duties, how directors are removed, how the documents are amended, and how board meetings are called, noticed and conducted (KRS 381.787(5)).

Three neighbors stand talking on the stone steps of a small white gazebo at a subdivision entrance on a summer evening, a sycamore behind them

Owners hold the last word on who serves. Unless your documents require a higher share, owners may remove any director, with or without cause, by a majority vote of those present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at a meeting with a quorum; a director the declarant appointed is the one exception (KRS 381.787(6)).

2. Hold an annual meeting, and call a special one when owners ask. The Act tells the association what its declaration or bylaws must include (KRS 381.792). An annual meeting of the association is held at least once a year, and its quorum is 10 percent of the lot owners (KRS 381.792(1)). The president, a majority of the board, or a written request from 20 percent of the owners (or a lower share your documents set) can call a special meeting, and once the secretary receives the owners' written request, the special meeting is convened within 30 days (KRS 381.792(2)).

The members' meeting, in the order the statute sets it.

  1. Request: 20 percent of the owners ask in writing
  2. Convene: The secretary convenes it within 30 days
  3. Notice: Owners hear 10 to 30 days ahead, agenda included
  4. Quorum: 10 percent of the lots, in person or by proxy, at the start

On a crisp fall morning, a homeowner in a quilted vest hands a folded handwritten letter over a black plank horse fence to the board secretary

3. Give owners 10 to 30 days' notice, with the agenda. Notice of every association meeting goes to owners no less than 10 days and no more than 30 days ahead. The secretary, or another officer your bylaws name, sends it by United States mail to each owner's mailing address of record, by hand, or electronically, and it states the time, the place and the items on the agenda (KRS 381.792(3)).

10 to 30 days is the window for notice of a Kentucky association meeting, and the notice has to state the agenda. — KRS 381.792(3)

Send it more than 30 days out and it is too early; fewer than 10 days out and it is too late. Put the date the notice goes out on the board's calendar the same night you set the meeting.

A board secretary walks a sidewalk of brick ranch houses on a cool morning with a canvas tote of plain envelopes, sliding one through a front door's mail slot

4. Count quorum and votes the way the statute counts them. A quorum is present throughout an association meeting if persons entitled to cast 10 percent of the lots' votes are there in person or by proxy at the beginning (KRS 381.792(4)). Three rules come with it:

  • One lot, one vote. Cumulative voting is not allowed. Your documents may allow electronic voting or voting by mail (KRS 381.792(4)(b)).
  • Proxies expire. A proxy ends one year after the date it was signed unless it says a shorter term (KRS 381.792(4)(a)).
  • A majority of the votes cast decides, unless your documents require approval by more owners (KRS 381.792(4)(c)).

The board has its own quorum: unless your bylaws set a larger share, 51 percent of the directors present at the start of the meeting (KRS 381.793(1)).

In an elementary school cafeteria in the evening, a board secretary at a folding check-in table greets arriving neighbors, who hand her small blank paper slips

5. Open board meetings to the owners. Unless your bylaws say otherwise, board meetings are open to the owners except during executive sessions (KRS 381.793(2)). The Act does not list the reasons for an executive session, so your bylaws and good sense decide what goes there; the default is that owners may sit in.

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6. Adopt a budget every year, and send it to the owners within 30 days. Unless your documents provide otherwise, the board annually adopts and amends a budget for revenues and expenditures, and the budget may include reserves for the future repair and replacement of capital goods (KRS 381.790(1)). The board provides the adopted budget to all owners within 30 days (KRS 381.797(7)(a)).

When the adopted budget is more than 15 percent above the previous year's, the board gives the members notice of a special meeting to consider ratifying it (KRS 381.797(7)(b)). The same subsection has the board hold a meeting within 45 days after the summary has been provided to members. The budget is deemed ratified, whether or not a quorum is present, unless a majority of all owners (or a larger vote your declaration sets) reject it. If they do, the existing budget continues until the board adopts another one under the same subsection (KRS 381.797(7)(c) to (e)).

15 percent is the increase over last year's budget that sends a Kentucky HOA budget to the owners for a ratification meeting. — KRS 381.797(7)(b)

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7. Assess equally, and take special assessments to the owners. Each lot's share of the common expenses is allocated equally among all the lots, and the board assesses it at least annually from the budget it adopts (KRS 381.796(2)). The board may charge interest or a late fee on a past-due assessment at a rate it sets, not above any maximum rate the law allows (KRS 381.796(4)).

A special assessment is allowed when the board finds it is in the association's best interests and the money goes mainly to the maintenance and upkeep of the common areas and other areas the declaration makes the association's job, including capital expenditures (KRS 381.797(3)). After the declarant control period ends, it takes a majority of the full board, not just of the directors in the room. Within 30 days after the board passes it, a meeting of the association is held so owners can rescind or reduce it, and doing so takes a majority of the total number of lots, cast in person or by proxy (KRS 381.797(4)).

A special assessment, in the order Kentucky's statute sets it.

  1. Finding: The board finds it serves the association
  2. Vote: A majority of the full board approves it
  3. 30 days: A meeting of the association is held
  4. Owners: A majority of all lots can rescind or reduce it

The Act also protects the directors who ask. If owners rescind or reduce a special assessment that a director or officer needed to do their fiduciary duty, that director or officer is not liable for failing to perform it, and the association indemnifies them against any damage from a claimed breach of fiduciary duty arising from it (KRS 381.797(5)).

Homeowners seated on aluminum bleachers beside a neighborhood tennis court at golden hour raise their hands while a board member at the front counts

8. Give written notice and a chance to be heard before any fine. A lot's assessment can include fines the board levies, costs from an owner's or occupant's willful or negligent damage, and the costs of enforcing the documents, including reasonable attorney fees (KRS 381.797(1)). Before the board imposes a charge for fines, damages or an individual assessment, it gives the owner written notice and the opportunity to be heard (KRS 381.797(2)).

In a living room, a homeowner sits across a coffee table from three board members, showing them printed photographs of her backyard fence

9. Keep the records, and open them to owners. The association keeps a complete set of financial records, records of what owners paid, records detailing and supporting what it paid contractors, suppliers and service providers, minutes of association and board meetings, and the names and mailing addresses of the owners; owners keep their address and contact information current with the secretary (KRS 381.790(3)).

An owner may examine and copy the books, records and minutes under reasonable standards your documents or board rules set, including the time and place and a reasonable copying fee (KRS 381.795(1)). Unless the board approves, an owner may not examine personnel matters, communications with legal counsel or attorney work product about potential, threatened or pending litigation or other property-related matters, contracts or transactions under negotiation, information about collections or lists of past-due owners, or anything state or federal law keeps private (KRS 381.795(2)).

At a clubhouse table, a homeowner lifts a manila folder out of an open cardboard file box while the board secretary sits beside her with her hands folded

10. Have a financial report prepared every year, at the standard your revenue sets. The association keeps financial records detailed enough to prepare financial statements under generally accepted accounting principles. No later than 180 days after the fiscal year ends (or on a date your documents set), it has a financial report prepared for that year, and within 30 days after the board receives it, makes it available to owners electronically at no charge or on paper for a reasonable fee (KRS 381.794).

Annual revenue The report the Act requires
Under $125,000 A statement of cash receipts and disbursements, every source of income and expense by account
$125,000 to under $300,000 A compilation by an accounting professional
$300,000 to under $1,000,000 A review by a certified public accountant
$1,000,000 or more An audit by a certified public accountant

An association may always choose a higher standard than its revenue requires (KRS 381.794(3)).

A volunteer treasurer at a home office desk on a gray winter afternoon, a calculator beside a neat stack of receipts turned face down and a mug of coffee at her elbow

11. Carry insurance, if the association was formed after June 29, 2023. Unless the declaration says otherwise, an association formed after that date obtains insurance no later than the first conveyance of a lot: property insurance on the common areas at replacement cost, liability insurance for the common areas, and any other insurance its documents require (KRS 381.790(2)). This subsection covers only associations formed after June 29, 2023; it sets no insurance rule for older ones.

Two board members walk past a neighborhood swimming pool closed for the season on an overcast autumn day, one pointing up at the pool house roof

What the law does not require

  • A reserve study or a reserve minimum. The budget may include reserves for future repair and replacement (KRS 381.790(1)(a)), and common expenses include any reserves for replacing the common areas (KRS 381.796(1)). Neither section orders a study or a minimum amount.
  • An audit for every association. An audit by a CPA is required only at $1,000,000 or more in annual revenue; below $125,000, a statement of cash receipts and disbursements is enough (KRS 381.794(3)).
  • Rewriting your old documents. The Act does not invalidate a provision already in documents recorded before June 29, 2023, unless it says so specifically (KRS 381.786(1)).
  • Respecting an old assessment cap. This one runs the other way. The assessment section overrides any limit on the amount of assessments or of annual increases in existing declarations, bylaws, rules or regulations (KRS 381.797(8)). A cap in your 1998 declaration no longer binds the board; the 15 percent ratification meeting and the special assessment meeting are the owners' checks now.
  • Banning every political sign. Governing documents may not prohibit an owner or resident from displaying political yard signs on their property from 30 days before an election to 7 days after it, unless local ordinance allows longer; the association may set reasonable rules on placement, size and manner (KRS 381.800).
  • Shutting an owner out of their street. An owner who does not pay can be denied access to common areas, but never to a common-area road that gives direct access to their lot (KRS 381.797(6)).

What this means for a self-led board

Kentucky's Act is short, and most of it is about money and who gets told. Put three things on one page and most of the traps close. A calendar for the annual meeting, with the date notice goes out, inside the 10-to-30-day window and with the agenda attached. A budget timeline: adopted, sent to every owner within 30 days, and, if it is more than 15 percent above last year, the special meeting that follows. And the year-end report, due 180 days after the fiscal year closes, at the standard your revenue sets.

Then read your declaration and bylaws against the list. Where a document recorded before June 29, 2023 already answers a question, it still governs, with one large exception: an old cap on assessments or increases no longer binds the board.

If you do one thing this week, pull last year's total revenue and look it up in the table above. That one number tells you which financial report the Act requires, and the 180-day clock on it started the day your fiscal year ended.

The bottom line Kentucky's Planned Community Act gave HOA owners an annual meeting with a 10 percent quorum, open board meetings, a financial report sized to revenue, a chance to be heard before any fine, and a meeting to check any special assessment or any budget that rises more than 15 percent.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Kentucky Planned Community Act apply to my HOA? If your community is a group of residential lots, not a condominium, whose deed, common plan or declaration requires owners to belong to an association or to pay for shared property or facilities, and it has a homeowners association, yes (KRS 381.785(13), 381.786). Provisions already in documents recorded before June 29, 2023 keep their force unless the Act specifically says otherwise (KRS 381.786(1)).

What is the quorum for a Kentucky HOA annual meeting? Ten percent of the lot owners, counted in person or by proxy at the start of the meeting (KRS 381.792(1), (4)). A board meeting's quorum is 51 percent of the directors unless the bylaws set more (KRS 381.793(1)).

Can a Kentucky HOA board pass a special assessment without an owner vote? After the declarant control period, the board passes it by a majority of the full board, but within 30 days a meeting of the association is held where a majority of the total number of lots can rescind or reduce it (KRS 381.797(4)).

Does a Kentucky HOA need an audit? Only at $1,000,000 or more in annual revenue. Below that, the Act requires a review, a compilation, or a statement of cash receipts and disbursements, depending on revenue, prepared within 180 days after the fiscal year ends (KRS 381.794).

This is a plain-language guide, not legal advice. Your governing documents and an attorney licensed in Kentucky have the final word.

Sources:

  • The Planned Community Act, KRS 381.785 to 381.801 (2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23, effective June 29, 2023; KRS 381.800 amended 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 32), as published by the Kentucky General Assembly: KRS Chapter 381

Key takeaways

  • Kentucky's Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.801) took effect June 29, 2023 and reaches every planned community with an association; provisions already in documents recorded before then keep their force unless the Act says otherwise (KRS 381.786).
  • The association is run by a board of at least three directors elected from the owners, and owners can remove a director by majority vote at a meeting with a quorum (KRS 381.787).
  • An annual meeting is held every year; its quorum is 10 percent of the lots, and notice goes out 10 to 30 days ahead with the agenda (KRS 381.792).
  • Owners holding 20 percent can request a special meeting in writing, and the secretary convenes it within 30 days (KRS 381.792(2)).
  • Board meetings are open to owners except executive sessions, and the board quorum is 51 percent of directors unless the bylaws set more (KRS 381.793).
  • The adopted budget goes to every owner within 30 days; above a 15 percent increase, owners get a special meeting to consider ratifying it (KRS 381.797(7)).
  • A special assessment needs a majority of the full board and a meeting within 30 days where a majority of all lots can rescind or reduce it (KRS 381.797(4)).
  • No fine, damage charge or individual assessment without written notice and the opportunity to be heard (KRS 381.797(2)).
  • A financial report is due within 180 days after year end, from a cash statement under $125,000 of revenue to a CPA audit at $1,000,000 or more (KRS 381.794).
  • The Act overrides old caps on assessments or annual increases in existing documents (KRS 381.797(8)).

What this means for your board

For a self-led Kentucky board, the Act is mostly about money and who gets told. Keep the annual meeting notice inside the 10-to-30-day window with the agenda, send the adopted budget to every owner within 30 days and call the ratification meeting if it rose more than 15 percent, take any special assessment to a full-board majority and the 30-day owner meeting, and have the year-end financial report prepared within 180 days at the standard your revenue sets. Then read your declaration and bylaws against the list: a provision already recorded before June 29, 2023 still governs, except an old cap on assessments, which no longer binds the board.

Frequently asked

What does an HOA board have to do legally in Kentucky?

What an HOA board has to do legally in Kentucky is set by the Planned Community Act (KRS 381.785 to 381.801), in force since June 29, 2023, alongside the community's own declaration and bylaws. The association holds an annual meeting at least once a year with a 10 percent quorum, noticed 10 to 30 days ahead with the agenda, and owners holding 20 percent can request a special meeting, convened within 30 days. Board meetings are open to owners except during executive sessions. The board adopts a budget every year and sends it to owners within 30 days; a budget more than 15 percent above last year's goes to a special meeting where owners consider ratifying it. A special assessment needs a majority of the full board and a meeting within 30 days where a majority of all lots can rescind or reduce it. Before any fine, the owner gets written notice and the opportunity to be heard. A financial report is prepared within 180 days after the fiscal year, at a standard set by revenue. Provisions already in documents recorded before June 29, 2023 keep their force unless the Act specifically says otherwise, but the Act overrides old caps on assessments.

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