The Boardroom

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

Oregon HOA board legal requirements under the Planned Community Act: meetings, budgets, reserves, records, fines, and the 2026 fire-hardening rule.

Justin · 15 min read · October 21, 2026

A woman in a central Oregon kitchen on a hazy evening, holding a sheet of paper and looking out at a cedar backyard fence, pine trees and a smoky orange sky beyond

The Rebel Answer

Under Oregon's Planned Community Act (ORS 94.550 to 94.783), a board that the full act reaches holds an owners' meeting every calendar year with 10 to 50 days' notice, keeps board meetings open, adopts a budget every year and sends owners a summary within 30 days, updates the reserve study every year, sends every owner a financial statement within 90 days of year end, answers records requests within 10 business days, and gives written notice and a chance to be heard before any fine. Since June 5, 2026, a request to install fire-hardened materials is deemed approved unless the association answers it in a reasoned written opinion within 90 days.

Picture this. After a smoky summer, an owner in a central Oregon subdivision asks the architectural committee if she can swap the cedar fence along her back line for metal. The committee chair, a volunteer, says they will look at it when the board meets next quarter. Then the quarter slips. Under a law that took effect on June 5, 2026, that delay has a price: unless the association denies the request, or asks for changes, in a reasoned written opinion delivered within 90 days, the application is deemed approved (Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 86, section 4(2)).

That is how Oregon's Planned Community Act works. It does not ask much of a volunteer board, but what it asks comes with a clock, a vote count or a delivery method, and those are easy to miss. Here is the list, each duty linked to the Oregon Legislature's own text.

The short answer

The duties: Legally, an Oregon HOA board under the full act has to do twelve things. The core of them: hold an owners' meeting every calendar year with 10 to 50 days' notice; keep board meetings open; adopt a budget every year and send owners a summary within 30 days; update the reserve study every year; send every owner a financial statement within 90 days of year end; answer records requests on time; and give written notice and a chance to be heard before any fine.

The law: the Oregon Planned Community Act, ORS 94.550 to 94.783. How much of it applies depends on when your community was created and how big its budget is.

The newest rule: since June 5, 2026, a request to install fire-hardened materials is deemed approved unless the association answers it in a reasoned written opinion within 90 days.

Last reviewed: October 21, 2026

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

Oregon's law for homeowners associations is the Planned Community Act, ORS 94.550 to 94.783. Condominiums are a different chapter (ORS chapter 100), so if your community's documents say "condominium," this page is not your list.

How much of the act applies turns on two facts: when the community was created, and its class (ORS 94.550, 94.570, 94.572).

Class I: at least 13 lots, and an estimated annual assessment above $10,000 for all lots or $100 per lot (ORS 94.550).
Class II: not Class I, at least five lots, and an annual assessment above $1,000 for all lots (ORS 94.550).
Created on or after January 1, 2002: the whole act applies to a Class I community. A Class II community gets all of it except the reserve section, ORS 94.595, and ORS 94.604 (ORS 94.570).
Created before January 1, 2002, and not under the act: a long list of its sections applies, including meetings, budgets, records, insurance and liens, but only "to the extent that those statutes are consistent with any governing documents" (ORS 94.572). Owners can amend their documents to conform (ORS 94.573).

So the first job is to find your declaration, check the date it was recorded, and do the class arithmetic. Every duty below names the section it comes from, so an older community can check each one against its own documents.

The twelve things the law actually requires

1. Hold an owners' meeting every calendar year, with real notice. The association must hold at least one meeting of the owners each calendar year (ORS 94.650(1)). Notice goes out not less than 10 and not more than 50 days before the meeting, hand delivered or mailed to each owner's mailing address (or the address the owner designated in writing), and to any mortgagee that asked for it (ORS 94.650(4)). It states the date, time, place and agenda, including the general nature of any proposed amendment, any budget changes, and any proposal to remove a director (ORS 94.650(5)).

The quorum is the number of people entitled to cast 20 percent of the votes, unless your declaration or bylaws set a higher figure (ORS 94.655(1)). If a meeting cannot be organized for lack of a quorum, the owners present may adjourn it, and the next meeting can run on a reduced quorum only if it is at least 48 hours later or the notice said in advance that the quorum would drop (ORS 94.655(3), (4)).

20% of the votes is a quorum for an Oregon HOA meeting unless the declaration or bylaws set a higher figure. — ORS 94.655(1)

2. Call a special meeting when enough owners ask. If your bylaws do not set a percentage, a special meeting must be called when 30 percent or more of the owners request it in writing; bylaws may set the figure anywhere from 10 to 50 percent (ORS 94.650(2)). If notice is not given within 30 days after the request reaches the president or secretary, an owner who signed it may set the meeting and send the notice (ORS 94.650(3)). A written ballot cannot stand in for that meeting (ORS 94.647(1)(d)).

Homeowners on folding chairs in a wood-beamed Oregon clubhouse on a rainy evening, listening to a board member who holds a plain clipboard, fir trees past the wet windows

3. Keep board meetings open. Every board meeting is open to owners (ORS 94.644(1)). The board may go into executive session only to consult its lawyer, or to discuss personnel, contract negotiations with third parties, or the collection of unpaid assessments (ORS 94.644(2)(a)). Except in an emergency, it must vote in an open meeting to close the door, and the presiding officer must say what will be discussed and, as precisely as possible, when the deliberations can be disclosed (ORS 94.644(2)(b)). Nothing decided behind the door takes effect until the board reconvenes in the open and votes on it (ORS 94.644(2)(c)).

Where most lots are the owners' principal homes, notice of a board meeting is posted on the property at least three days ahead, or sent by another method reasonably calculated to reach owners, email included (ORS 94.644(6)). And the rules cannot be dodged "by chance or social meetings or by any other means" (ORS 94.644(3)).

In Oregon, a quorum of the board settling something over coffee does not get around the open-meeting rule.

4. Adopt a budget every year, and send owners a summary within 30 days. The board must adopt a budget at least once a year, and the budget must include the money going to the reserve account (ORS 94.645(1), (2)). Within 30 days after adopting it, the board sends every owner a summary (ORS 94.645(3)). If the board fails to adopt one, the last adopted budget stays in effect (ORS 94.645(4)).

A board treasurer at a park picnic table on a mild evening sliding a sheet into a plain envelope beside a stack of others, children riding bikes on the path behind her

5. Update the reserve study every year, and keep a maintenance plan. In a community the whole reserve section reaches (a Class I community created on or after January 1, 2002, or one created under the act before then), the association keeps a reserve account for major maintenance, repair or replacement of items expected to need it in more than one and less than 30 years, including exterior paint if the common property has painted surfaces (ORS 94.595(2)(a)). The board must determine the reserve requirements every year, by conducting a reserve study or reviewing and updating the existing one, using the starting balance, each item's remaining useful life and replacement cost, the year's inflation, and investment returns (ORS 94.595(3)(a)). It also prepares a maintenance plan with a schedule, and updates it as needed (ORS 94.595(4)).

The account is kept separate and used only for its purpose (ORS 94.595(6)(a)). Neither the board nor the owners may vote to stop funding it unless the board determines it will be adequately funded for the following year, and after turnover, skipping a year's funding takes the approval of all owners (ORS 94.595(8)). For a subdivision recorded before October 23, 1999, whose documents require a reserve account, the study and maintenance plan duties start when the board adopts a resolution or a majority of owners petition for them, and are due within a year (ORS 94.595(5)).

The reserve year, as ORS 94.595 and 94.645 lay it out.

Study: Update the reserve study with this year's numbers

Plan: Review the maintenance plan and its schedule

Budget: Put the reserve contribution in the annual budget

Owners: Send the budget summary within 30 days

A board member and a crouching contractor in rain jackets on a wet wooden walkway by a pond in western Oregon, the contractor pointing at a weathered railing post

6. Keep the money in the association's name, and report it within 90 days. Every assessment and every other association dollar goes into one or more federally insured accounts in the association's name, and every expense is paid from an association account (ORS 94.670(2)). Within 90 days after the fiscal year ends, the board prepares a balance sheet and an income and expense statement and sends a copy to every owner (ORS 94.670(4)).

If annual assessments exceed $75,000, that statement must be reviewed by an independent Oregon CPA within 300 days after year end (ORS 94.670(5)), unless at least 60 percent of the owners vote each year not to (ORS 94.670(7)). In smaller communities created on or after January 1, 2004, or under ORS 94.572, a review happens when a majority of owners petition for one (ORS 94.670(6)).

$75,000 in annual assessments is the line above which an Oregon HOA's year-end financial statement must be reviewed by an independent CPA, unless 60% of owners vote not to that year. — ORS 94.670(5), (7)

7. Keep the records in Oregon, and open them on time. The association keeps its records within the state (ORS 94.670(1)) and makes them reasonably available for examination, and copies on written request, to an owner or mortgagee asking in good faith for a proper purpose (ORS 94.670(9)(a)). It may withhold only what the statute lists: personnel and medical records, contracts under negotiation, legal advice on those matters or on litigation, information whose disclosure would break the law, executive-session materials, and other owners' individual files (ORS 94.670(9)(b)). Proxies and ballots are kept for one year (ORS 94.670(1)(b)).

Within 10 business days of a written request, the association furnishes the declaration and bylaws, rules, the latest financial statement, the operating budget, the reserve study and any architectural guidelines (ORS 94.670(10), (11)). An owner who asks in writing also gets, within 10 business days, a statement of what they owe, including fines, interest and late charges, and the rates behind them (ORS 94.670(8)).

A board secretary at a home office desk on a rainy Saturday morning lifting a stack of copies from a small printer, an open file box beside her and a tree outside

8. Insure, bond, and file. The board maintains property insurance on the common property's insurable improvements, at full replacement cost if available at reasonable cost, and a public liability policy (ORS 94.675(1)). It reviews that coverage at least once a year (ORS 94.640(3)). A Class I or Class II association also carries fidelity bond coverage for everyone with access to its money, directors and any management company included, and for computer and funds-transfer fraud, in an amount at least equal to the funds in its accounts (ORS 94.675(7)); after turnover, the board, with the approval of a majority of the votes present at a meeting, can elect, a year at a time, to drop or reduce it (ORS 94.675(9)). The board files the association's income tax returns every year and keeps a current mailing address (ORS 94.640(4), (8)).

Two board members on a clubhouse porch at dusk reading a thick bound document together, one pointing at a page, pink rhododendrons in bloom beyond the railing

9. Give notice and a hearing before any fine. A fine must be reasonable, and the association can levy it only after written notice and an opportunity to be heard (ORS 94.630(1)(n)). Fines and late charges must be based on a schedule in the declaration or bylaws, or on a board resolution, that has been delivered or mailed to each lot. The same notice and hearing come before cutting off utilities paid from assessments or access to recreational facilities (ORS 94.630(1)(m)).

Email works for most notices if the board chooses, but not for a notice of failure to pay an assessment, a lien foreclosure, or an action the association may take against an owner (ORS 94.652(2)). Those go on paper.

An Oregon fine, in the order the statute sets it.

Schedule: A fine schedule in the documents or delivered to each lot

Notice: Written notice of the violation, on paper

Hearing: A chance for the owner to be heard

Fine: A reasonable fine, under the schedule

A board member handing a plain envelope to a homeowner holding a rake on an Oregon front walk on an autumn afternoon, wet leaves on the lawn and a white van behind

10. Offer mediation before suing an owner. Before starting litigation or an administrative proceeding against an owner, the party that wants to file must offer to use a dispute resolution program in the county, by hand delivery or certified mail, return receipt requested (ORS 94.630(4)(a)). If the offer is not accepted within 10 days, the case may proceed (ORS 94.630(4)(b)). The rule does not apply where delay would cause irreparable harm, or to a suit to collect assessments other than fines (ORS 94.630(4)(f)).

A homeowner and a board member at a small round table in a quiet mediation room, a calm mediator between them listening, fir trees through the window behind

11. Collect through the lien, by the statute's steps. The association has a lien on a lot for unpaid assessments, perfected by recording the declaration, and it includes interest, late charges and attorney fees (ORS 94.709(1), (2)). Before any suit to foreclose, the association records a verified notice of claim of lien in the county deed records stating the amount due, the owner and the lot (ORS 94.709(2), (3)). The lien can be kept in force for up to six years from the date the assessment is due (ORS 94.709(4)(a)). In a collection suit, the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorney fees (ORS 94.719).

6 years from the date an assessment is due is the longest an Oregon association's lien for it can be kept in force. — ORS 94.709(4)(a)

12. Answer fire-hardening and EV-charger requests on the statute's clock. Since June 5, 2026, a provision that bans fire-hardened building materials outright, or prices them out of reach, is void (Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 86, section 4(1)). An application to install fire-hardened materials, or remove ones that are not, is deemed approved unless the association denies it or asks for changes in a written opinion that is delivered within 90 days, explains its basis in reasonable detail, and is not arbitrary or capricious (section 4(2)).

An electric vehicle charging station gets a shorter clock: when the owner complies with the statute, the association approves a completed application within 60 days, unless it reasonably asks for more information (ORS 94.762(2)). And a ban on solar panels is void, though the association may set reasonable size, placement and appearance rules (ORS 94.778).

90 days to deny or ask for changes, in a reasoned written opinion, before an owner's fire-hardening request is deemed approved. — Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 86, section 4(2)

Two neighbors beside a newly built low stone wall and a strip of gravel along a house in a central Oregon pine-forest subdivision, one gesturing toward the wall

What the law does not require

Letting owners speak at board meetings. Owners may attend, but they have no right to participate except as the governing documents or the board allow (ORS 94.644(1)). Many boards hold an owner forum anyway; the statute leaves it to you.
Hiring a management company. The association may hire and fire managing agents (ORS 94.630(1)(c)). Nothing makes it.
An audit every year. The act asks for a CPA review above $75,000 in assessments, and owners can vote that away annually (ORS 94.670(5), (7)). An audit is not in the list.
Paper for everything. At the board's discretion, most notices may go by email, and an owner may opt back to paper (ORS 94.652(1), (3)). The exceptions are payment, foreclosure and enforcement notices.
A meeting for every vote. Unless your documents forbid it, owners may act by written ballot, after 10 days' notice (ORS 94.647(1), (2)(b)). Not for the annual meeting where most lots are principal homes, not to remove a director, and not for an owner-called special meeting.

What this means for a self-led board

Oregon's duties are dates on a calendar more than they are paperwork. Write them down once: the annual meeting window (10 to 50 days of notice), the budget summary (30 days after adoption), the financial statement (90 days after year end), the CPA review if you are over $75,000 (300 days), the reserve update (every year), and the 10-business-day clock on any records request. A board that tracks those dates in one place has most of the act covered.

Two newer clocks deserve a line of their own: 90 days on a fire-hardening request, and 60 on an EV charger. Both belong in whatever your architectural committee uses to log applications, with the date each one arrived.

And keep the seats filled. If the association fails to fill enough board vacancies to make a quorum, an owner or a first mortgagee can ask the circuit court to appoint a receiver after 45 days' notice (ORS 94.642).

Zombie HOA: Who Can Take Over, and Who Pays

The bottom line The Oregon act is short on paperwork and long on clocks. Know your class, put every deadline on one calendar, and answer every application in writing.

A board president at a kitchen counter on a rainy winter evening pressing a row of blank coloured sticky notes along the edge of a closed laptop, a dog watching

Frequently asked questions

Does the Oregon Planned Community Act apply to my HOA? If your community is a planned community (not a condominium under ORS chapter 100), parts or all of it apply. The whole act applies to a Class I community created on or after January 1, 2002; a newer Class II community gets everything but ORS 94.595 (reserves) and ORS 94.604; an older community not created under the act gets a list of sections to the extent they fit its documents (ORS 94.570, 94.572).

How much notice does an Oregon HOA owe owners before the annual meeting? Not less than 10 and not more than 50 days, hand delivered or mailed, with the agenda (ORS 94.650(4), (5)).

What is the quorum for an Oregon HOA meeting? People entitled to cast 20 percent of the votes, unless the declaration or bylaws set more (ORS 94.655(1)).

Can an Oregon HOA deny a fire-resistant fence or roof? It can deny or ask for changes, but only in a written opinion delivered within 90 days that explains its basis in reasonable detail and is not arbitrary or capricious. Otherwise the request is deemed approved (Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 86, section 4(2)).

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

Sources:

Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 94, the Oregon Planned Community Act (ORS 94.550 to 94.783), as published by the Oregon Legislature: oregonlegislature.gov, ORS chapter 94
Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 86 (SB 1551), fire hardening of residential properties, effective June 5, 2026: oregonlegislature.gov, 2026 Oregon Laws chapter 86

Key takeaways

How much of the Planned Community Act applies turns on your class (Class I, Class II) and whether the community was created before or after January 1, 2002 (ORS 94.550, 94.570, 94.572).
Hold an owners' meeting every calendar year, with notice 10 to 50 days ahead; the default quorum is 20 percent of the votes (ORS 94.650, 94.655).
Board meetings are open to owners; an executive session is allowed only for the listed reasons, and anything decided there takes effect only after an open vote (ORS 94.644).
Adopt a budget every year that includes the reserve contribution, and send owners a summary within 30 days (ORS 94.645).
Where the reserve section applies, update the reserve study every year and keep a maintenance plan (ORS 94.595).
Send every owner a financial statement within 90 days of year end; above $75,000 in assessments it gets a CPA review unless 60 percent of owners vote not to (ORS 94.670).
Fines need written notice and a chance to be heard, and payment and enforcement notices go on paper, never email (ORS 94.630(1)(n), 94.652(2)).
Since June 5, 2026, a fire-hardening request is deemed approved unless answered in a reasoned written opinion within 90 days (Oregon Laws 2026, ch. 86, s. 4(2)).

What this means for your board

For a self-led Oregon board, the act is mostly a calendar: 10 to 50 days' notice for the annual meeting, a budget summary within 30 days, a financial statement within 90 days, a reserve update every year, 10 business days on any records request, and now 90 days on a fire-hardening request and 60 on an EV charger. None of it needs a manager; it needs one place where the dates, documents and applications live.