The Boardroom

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

What an HOA board must do in New Hampshire: condo duties under RSA 356-B, plus the records, meeting and contract rules RSA 292 adds January 1, 2027.

Justin · 15 min read ·

A secretary on the steps of a white clapboard town hall in late autumn, a neighbour in a wool coat climbing toward her holding out a folded letter.

The Rebel Answer

What an HOA board has to do legally in New Hampshire depends on what the community is: a condominium follows the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, while a homeowners' association formed under RSA 292 follows RSA 292:8-m, which adds records, executive-session and family-contract rules on January 1, 2027. From that date an RSA 292 homeowners' association must keep eleven kinds of records (including architectural decisions, and ballots and proxies for one year), let a member examine and copy them on 15 days' notice, hold executive sessions only for four listed reasons with no final vote, and put a contract with a company in which an owner, a director or their immediate family has a pecuniary interest to a members' vote after written disclosure, with the interested person recused (RSA 292:8-m, III to V). A condominium board already gives at least 21 days' notice of the annual meeting with an affidavit (RSA 356-B:37), holds an open board meeting at least once a quarter unless it is a small condominium (RSA 356-B:37-c), sends a budget summary with its reserves within 30 days of adopting a proposed budget, which stands unless 2/3 of all owners reject it (RSA 356-B:40-c), and loses its lien on a unit if it does not furnish a written-requested statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days (RSA 356-B:46, VIII). A subdivision's association answers a buyer's request for resale statements within 10 days (RSA 356-A:9-b).

Picture the secretary of a 60-lot subdivision outside Concord on a November evening. A homeowner has emailed asking for the ballots from last spring's board election and the contract the association signed with a snow-plowing company owned by a director's son. Another director says to ignore it: "We're not a condo. No law makes us hand anything over."

Today, the homeowners' association section of New Hampshire's voluntary corporation law, RSA 292:8-m, says nothing about records. On January 1, 2027, it gains three paragraphs, and with them a list of records to keep, a 15-day window for an owner's request, limits on closed-door sessions, and a members' vote before the association signs a contract in which a director's family has a financial stake. Condominiums already live under rules like these. Here is each duty, tied to its section.

The short answer

  1. What an HOA board has to do legally in New Hampshire depends on what the community is. A condominium follows the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B. A homeowners' association incorporated under RSA 292 follows the voluntary corporation law, including its homeowners' association section, RSA 292:8-m. A subdivision's resales also fall under the Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, RSA 356-A.
  2. From January 1, 2027, an RSA 292 homeowners' association must keep eleven kinds of records, open them to an owner on 15 days' notice, hold executive sessions only for four listed reasons, and get the members' vote before contracting with a company in which an owner, a director or their immediate family has a financial interest.
  3. A condominium board already must give 21 days' notice of the annual meeting, hold an open board meeting every quarter (unless it is a small condominium), send a budget summary with its reserves within 30 days of adopting it, and answer a written request for a statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days, or lose the lien on that unit.

Last reviewed: November 5, 2026

A New Hampshire association secretary in a woodstove-lit den on a November evening lifts one plain binder from a shelf of identical unlabeled binders, snow falling past a dark window behind her

Which law governs: the Condominium Act, RSA 292, or both

New Hampshire does not have one act for every association. Three statutes reach different boards.

  • A condominium. The Condominium Act applies to all condominiums and condominium projects (RSA 356-B:2). With narrow exceptions, it does not reach property submitted before September 10, 1977 to the older Unit Ownership of Real Property Act, RSA 479-A. Where the Act and your declaration or bylaws conflict, the Act controls (RSA 356-B:6-a).
  • A homeowners' association incorporated under RSA 292. RSA 292:8-m speaks to "any homeowners' association established under this chapter" (RSA 292:8-m). Check your articles of agreement: they say whether your association was formed under RSA 292.
  • A subdivision of lots. The Land Sales Full Disclosure Act covers subdivided land, which it defines to exclude condominiums (RSA 356-A:1, VI). Its resale rule binds a property owners' association, unless the subdivision is exempt; one exemption is subdivided land of not more than 15 lots, parcels, units or interests (RSA 356-A:3, I).

Read your declaration, bylaws and articles beside this list.

Two board members on the covered porch of a white farmhouse on a crisp autumn afternoon read through a thick stapled document together, its pages turned away, a stone wall and maples beyond

Step one: What the law requires of an RSA 292 homeowners' association

1. Keep these eleven kinds of records, from January 1, 2027. The association must retain (RSA 292:8-m, III(a)):

  • detailed records of receipts and expenditures, and other appropriate accounting records;
  • minutes of every members' and board meeting other than executive sessions, a record of every action taken without a meeting, and a record of actions a committee took in place of the board;
  • the members' names, in a form that produces an alphabetical list with the address the association uses for each and the number of votes each may cast;
  • its original and amended organizational documents, original and amended plats or maps, and every rule in effect;
  • all financial statements and tax returns for the past 3 years;
  • the names and addresses of its current directors, members and officers;
  • its most recent annual report to the secretary of state, if any;
  • financial and other records detailed enough to comply with other law;
  • copies of its current contracts;
  • records of every board or committee decision to approve or deny a design or architectural request;
  • ballots, proxies and other voting records, for one year after the vote.

The last two catch boards out: a yes or no on a fence request becomes a record, and so does every ballot, for a year.

2. Open the records to an owner on 15 days' notice, from January 1, 2027. A member, or the member's authorized agent, may examine and copy them during reasonable business hours or at a mutually convenient time and place, on 15 days' notice in a record that reasonably identifies the specific records requested (RSA 292:8-m, III(b)). Copies include electronic copies, if available (III(e)).

15 days is the notice an owner of an RSA 292 homeowners' association gives to examine and copy its records, from January 1, 2027. — RSA 292:8-m, III(b)

The association may withhold eight listed kinds, among them personnel and medical records, contracts being negotiated, litigation, privileged attorney communications, executive session records and other members' accounts (III(c)). It may charge a reasonable fee for copies, no more than the charge for copying a governmental record under RSA 91-A:4, IV(d) (III(d)). It does not have to compile information, and what it hands over may not be used commercially (III(f), (g)).

HOA Records Request: What the Board Must Hand Over, and When

In the timber-framed loft of a converted barn used as a community room, a homeowner lifts the lid of a plain cardboard file box the treasurer has just set before her at a trestle table, afternoon light through a small window

3. Hold executive sessions only during a meeting, only for four reasons, and vote in the open, from January 1, 2027. The board and its committees may go into executive session only during a regular or special meeting, and may take no final vote or action there. The session may be held only to consult the association's attorney; to discuss existing or potential litigation, mediation, arbitration or administrative proceedings; to discuss labor or personnel matters; or to discuss contracts being negotiated, including bids, if the board determines that premature general knowledge would put the association at a disadvantage or that public knowledge would violate someone's privacy (RSA 292:8-m, IV).

4. Put a family-interest contract to the members, from January 1, 2027. If an owner or a director, or an immediate family member of either, has a pecuniary interest in a company seeking a contract with the association, the association may not enter into it unless three things happen (RSA 292:8-m, V):

The three conditions in RSA 292:8-m, V, before the contract is signed.

  1. Disclose: In writing and prominently, to all members, before or with the meeting notice
  2. Vote: A majority of the votes cast by the membership, at a meeting with a quorum
  3. Recuse: The interested person does not vote

That is the snow-plowing contract in the opening. From January 1, 2027, a new contract like it goes to the members first.

HOA Board Conflict of Interest: Step Out Without Losing Quorum

Inside a white New England meeting house on a winter evening, one director steps away from the board table to a side chair while neighbors in coats raise their hands to vote from rows of wooden pews

5. Know the two rules already in force. Outside associations that include timeshare ownership, if more than 50 percent of the votes are acquired by a single person after developer control ends, a 2/3 majority is required to amend the bylaws, the budgets and any contracted property management service (RSA 292:8-m, I). And an association approved by the planning board may not be dissolved under RSA 292 before a hearing before that board under RSA 676:2 (RSA 292:8-m, II).

6. Count votes the way the corporation law allows. Members vote only as the articles or bylaws provide, and no member or director gets more than one vote (RSA 292:6-b). Unless the articles reserve it to the members, the board may change the bylaws, subject to repeal by a 2/3 majority action of the members (RSA 292:6).

7. Answer a buyer within 10 days. When a lot in a subdivision covered by RSA 356-A is resold, the buyer may obtain from the property owners' association, before the contract date, six statements: capital and major maintenance spending expected in the current or next 2 fiscal years, the reserve and any earmarks, the last income statement and balance sheet, pending suits, insurance, and whether the prior owner's improvements are known to violate the covenants. The principal officer furnishes them within 10 days of a written request (RSA 356-A:9-b).

A board president hands a plain sealed envelope to a real estate agent on the front steps of a colonial house, a bare wooden post with nothing hanging from it in the yard and autumn leaves on the walk

Step two: What the Condominium Act requires of a condominium board

8. Govern by bylaws, as a fiduciary. The bylaws provide for self-government by an association of all the unit owners, and the board of directors has a fiduciary relationship to the association's members (RSA 356-B:35). Directors and officers not appointed by the declarant owe the care and loyalty of a director of an RSA 292 corporation, and an officer may not be paid unless a 2/3 majority of the voting interests present at a properly called meeting waives that each year (RSA 356-B:40).

9. Hold the annual meeting, with 21 days' notice and an affidavit. The association meets at least once a year. The officer named in the bylaws gives each owner notice of the time, place and purpose at least 21 days before any annual or regularly scheduled meeting and 7 days before any other, and the purposes must include any budget change or proposal to remove an officer or director. The secretary or another authorized officer who is also a director prepares an affidavit, with the owners' address list, attesting that notice went to all of them; it stays available for at least 3 years (RSA 356-B:37, I). Notice goes to the mailing or email address an owner designates, otherwise to the unit (RSA 356-B:37-a).

Owners holding at least 33 percent of the votes, or a lower percentage the bylaws set, may require a special meeting; if the association does not notify owners within 30 days, they may send notice themselves (RSA 356-B:37, II).

21 days is the least notice a New Hampshire condominium gives each unit owner of an annual or regularly scheduled meeting. — RSA 356-B:37, I

10. Meet in the open at least once a quarter. Not less than once each quarter, the board holds an open regular meeting at which owners have a reasonable opportunity to comment. Notice of each board meeting goes to every director and every owner at least 10 days ahead, or 5 days if at least 70 percent of the owners are full-time residents, with the time, date, place and agenda, unless the meeting is in a schedule already given to owners or deals with an emergency. Materials sent to directors beforehand are made reasonably available to owners at the same time, except unapproved minutes and executive session matters. The board may also hold a meeting closed to owners, but only if it records it and makes the recording available to owners for up to 30 days on request (RSA 356-B:37-c). Executive sessions follow the same four reasons and no-final-vote rule as the new RSA 292 section (RSA 356-B:37-d).

In the brick lobby of a converted New Hampshire mill condominium on a weekday evening, owners in folding chairs face three directors at a small table while an owner at the back speaks, tall arched windows dark behind

11. Get the minutes out, and answer a request in 15 days. The board makes copies of the minutes of all meetings available within 60 days of the meeting or 15 days after the board approves them, whichever comes first, keeps them available for at least 3 years, and responds to an owner's written request for the minutes within 15 days (RSA 356-B:37, VI).

12. Adopt a budget the owners can reject only by a 2/3 vote of all of them. At least once a year, the board adopts a proposed budget. Within 30 days it sends every owner a summary, including any reserves and the basis on which they are calculated and funded, and sets a ratification meeting 10 to 60 days later. Unless 2/3 of all unit owners (or a larger number the declaration sets) reject it there, the budget is ratified, whether or not a quorum is present. A rejected budget leaves the last ratified one in force. A special assessment follows the same steps, unless the board decides by a 2/3 vote that an emergency, as the section defines it, requires one (RSA 356-B:40-c).

HOA Budget Variance: Three Questions Before You Raise Dues

A condominium treasurer in a knit hat walks a carpeted hallway of her building on a winter morning, bending to slide a plain envelope under each unit door, a short stack in her other hand

13. Show the money before the annual meeting, and on request. Financial information is presented on a profit and loss statement, in the same format each year, available to owners 30 days before the annual meeting. Each owner has access, within 15 days of asking, to its contracts, loans and their terms, debts and account balances (RSA 356-B:37-e).

14. Count the quorum and the proxies the Act's way. Unless the condominium instruments provide otherwise, an owners' meeting has a quorum when persons entitled to cast more than 33 1/3 percent of the votes are present at its start; a missed annual-meeting quorum means rescheduling within 60 days with proper notice and proxies (RSA 356-B:38). In an association of more than 20 units, proxies cast by any one person may not exceed 10 percent of the votes cast. The board sends proxy forms bearing a control number with the notice, disregards any proxy on another form or off its control list, and keeps the proxies for 3 years (RSA 356-B:39, IV).

In a condominium mailroom with plain unnumbered wooden cubbies on a weekday evening, a board secretary holds one form up to the light while a second volunteer checks it against a clipboard turned away from the camera

15. Collect through the lien, and file the memorandum within 6 months. The association has a lien on every unit for unpaid assessments. To perfect it, it records a memorandum, verified by the oath of its principal officer, in the county registry of deeds before 6 months pass from the time the assessment fell due (RSA 356-B:46, I, III). Up to 6 months of regular monthly assessments on a residential unit can come ahead of the first mortgage, but only if the association sends the owner and lender the required notices, the first within 70 days of the delinquency; that priority never covers special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties or interest (RSA 356-B:46, I(c)).

16. Answer a statement request within 10 business days, or lose the lien. An owner, or a buyer under contract, who asks the principal officer in writing is entitled to a recordable statement of the unit's unpaid assessments. Failure to furnish it within 10 business days of receipt extinguishes the lien on that unit, and the statement binds the association. The fee, if the instruments allow one, may not exceed $10 (RSA 356-B:46, VIII). A prospective buyer may also obtain the Act's resale statements, among them the reserve, the last income statement and balance sheet, the governing documents, and the last 3 years of special assessments, within 10 days of a written request (RSA 356-B:58).

10 business days is how long a New Hampshire condominium has to furnish a written-requested statement of unpaid assessments before its lien on that unit is extinguished. — RSA 356-B:46, VIII

A condominium treasurer hurries down the snowy front walk of a brick condominium building in late afternoon, coat unbuttoned, a single plain envelope in hand, toward a car with its headlights on

17. Let owners fly the flag. The association may not ban an owner's outdoor display of the United States flag consistent with the flag code; it may set reasonable rules on size and display (RSA 356-B:47-a).

A small condominium has lighter rules. A small condominium is one created without possibility of conversion or expansion and limited to 25 or fewer residential units (RSA 356-B:3). Its meetings follow RSA 356-B:37, VII, which keeps the 21-day and 7-day notice and the minutes rules but not the notice affidavit; the open board meeting and executive session rules (RSA 356-B:37-c, 37-d) do not apply to it, and its quorum rule is RSA 356-B:38, IV.

What the law does not require

These points are limited to the sections listed on this page.

  • The 2027 rules, before January 1, 2027. Paragraphs III to V of RSA 292:8-m take effect on that date. Until then, that section sets no records, executive session or family-contract rules; look to your bylaws.
  • Those rules, for an association not formed under RSA 292. RSA 292:8-m speaks to associations "established under this chapter". One organized another way should ask its attorney.
  • Open board meetings, budget ratification or a notice period, in RSA 292:8-m. Those are condominium rules in RSA 356-B. An RSA 292 association takes them from its bylaws.
  • A vote to adopt a condominium budget. The proposed budget stands unless 2/3 of all unit owners reject it (RSA 356-B:40-c).

What this means for a self-led board

If your community is a condominium, the rulebook is already on you: the 21-day notice and its affidavit, a quarterly open meeting, minutes within 60 days, the budget summary within 30 days, and the 10-business-day statement that can cost a lien. Put those dates on one calendar, and name who answers a statement request.

If your community is an RSA 292 homeowners' association, you have about eight weeks. Start keeping architectural decisions and ballots as records now, decide who answers a records request, and look at every contract with a company tied to an owner or director.

If you do one thing first, find out which statute your community is under. Everything else on this page follows from that answer.

The bottom line A condominium board already runs under detailed rules. On January 1, 2027, an RSA 292 homeowners' association gets records, executive session and family-contract rules of its own.

Frequently asked questions

Does New Hampshire have an HOA law? Not one act for every association. Condominiums follow the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B. Associations formed under the voluntary corporation law follow RSA 292, including RSA 292:8-m. Resales in subdivisions covered by the Land Sales Full Disclosure Act also follow RSA 356-A:9-b.

What changes for New Hampshire HOAs on January 1, 2027? An association established under RSA 292 gets eleven kinds of records to keep, a member's right to see them on 15 days' notice, executive sessions limited to four reasons with no final vote, and a members' vote, with written disclosure and recusal, before a contract with a company in which an owner, a director or their immediate family has a pecuniary interest (RSA 292:8-m, III to V).

Can New Hampshire condo owners vote down the budget? Only if 2/3 of all unit owners, or a larger number the declaration sets, reject it at the ratification meeting. Otherwise it is ratified, quorum or not (RSA 356-B:40-c).

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

Sources:

  • The New Hampshire Condominium Act, as published by the General Court: RSA 356-B
  • Voluntary Corporations and Associations, including RSA 292:6, 292:6-b and 292:8-m: RSA 292
  • The Land Sales Full Disclosure Act: RSA 356-A

Key takeaways

  • New Hampshire has no single HOA act: condominiums follow the Condominium Act (RSA 356-B), homeowners' associations formed under the voluntary corporation law follow RSA 292 including RSA 292:8-m, and subdivision resales follow RSA 356-A:9-b.
  • From January 1, 2027, an RSA 292 homeowners' association must keep eleven kinds of records, including architectural decisions and ballots and proxies for one year (RSA 292:8-m, III(a)).
  • From that date a member may examine and copy those records on 15 days' notice in a record naming them, at a copy fee capped by RSA 91-A:4, IV(d) (RSA 292:8-m, III(b), (d)).
  • Executive sessions are limited to four reasons, held only during a meeting, with no final vote (RSA 292:8-m, IV; RSA 356-B:37-d for condominiums).
  • A contract with a company in which an owner, a director or their immediate family has a pecuniary interest needs written disclosure, a majority of votes cast at a meeting with a quorum, and recusal (RSA 292:8-m, V).
  • A condominium gives at least 21 days' notice of an annual meeting, with an affidavit kept 3 years (RSA 356-B:37, I), and holds an open board meeting at least once a quarter unless it is a small condominium (RSA 356-B:37-c).
  • A condominium budget summary, with reserves and their basis, goes out within 30 days of adoption; the budget stands unless 2/3 of all unit owners reject it (RSA 356-B:40-c).
  • A condominium that does not furnish a written-requested statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days loses its lien on that unit; the fee is capped at $10 (RSA 356-B:46, VIII).

What this means for your board

For a self-led New Hampshire board, the first job is to know which statute you are under. A condominium already runs on dated duties: the 21-day annual meeting notice and its affidavit, a quarterly open board meeting, minutes within 60 days, the budget summary within 30 days of adoption, and the 10-business-day statement of unpaid assessments that can cost the lien. An RSA 292 homeowners' association has until January 1, 2027 to start keeping architectural decisions and ballots as records, name who answers a 15-day records request, and review every contract with a company tied to an owner or director.

Frequently asked

What does an HOA board have to do legally in New Hampshire?

What an HOA board has to do legally in New Hampshire depends on what the community is: a condominium follows the Condominium Act, RSA 356-B, while a homeowners' association formed under RSA 292 follows RSA 292:8-m, which adds records, executive-session and family-contract rules on January 1, 2027. From that date an RSA 292 homeowners' association must keep eleven kinds of records (including architectural decisions, and ballots and proxies for one year), let a member examine and copy them on 15 days' notice, hold executive sessions only for four listed reasons with no final vote, and put a contract with a company in which an owner, a director or their immediate family has a pecuniary interest to a members' vote after written disclosure, with the interested person recused (RSA 292:8-m, III to V). A condominium board already gives at least 21 days' notice of the annual meeting with an affidavit (RSA 356-B:37), holds an open board meeting at least once a quarter unless it is a small condominium (RSA 356-B:37-c), sends a budget summary with its reserves within 30 days of adopting a proposed budget, which stands unless 2/3 of all owners reject it (RSA 356-B:40-c), and loses its lien on a unit if it does not furnish a written-requested statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days (RSA 356-B:46, VIII). A subdivision's association answers a buyer's request for resale statements within 10 days (RSA 356-A:9-b).

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