The Boardroom

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

Texas Property Code Chapter 209 in plain words: nine duties of an HOA board, the 15 decisions that need an open meeting, and what the law does not require.

Justin · 10 min read · October 4, 2026

In a small Texas community center at dusk, a board president sets her phone face down on a folding table as neighbors take their seats in rows of chairs facing the board

The Rebel Answer

Legally, a Texas HOA board has to record and keep current a management certificate, hold open board meetings with notice to owners, produce records within 10 business days, call an annual meeting, run elections the statute's way, and send written, often certified, notice before a fine, a collection agent's fees or a lien.

In Texas, an HOA board can approve a routine repair by email and be fully within the law. It cannot fill an empty board seat that way, or raise the dues, or fine a neighbor. Section 209.0051 of the Property Code names 15 decisions a board may make only in an open meeting the owners were told about in advance. It is the list to read before your next email vote.

Chapter 209 is a law about notice: when to warn, how to send the letter, how long to wait. It never tells a board to hire anyone.

A board member typing a reply on his phone beside a broken sprinkler in a grassy subdivision median while an irrigation repairman kneels at the open valve box

The short answer

Chapter 209 governs a Texas HOA where membership is mandatory and the declaration lets the association charge assessments; condominiums have their own chapters.

The law is mostly notice: mailed 10 to 60 days before a board meeting, or posted 144 hours ahead and emailed; records produced within 10 business days; certified mail before a fine.

It does not require a manager, a reserve study or an audit. It does require a recorded management certificate, an annual meeting, and two notices before any lien.

Last reviewed: October 4, 2026

Which law governs your community

Chapter 209 applies to a residential subdivision whose declaration lets the association collect assessments on all or most of the property, where membership is mandatory for all or most owners, whatever the association calls itself (§ 209.003). It does not apply to a condominium. Your declaration, bylaws and rules add duties of their own, but only once they are filed in the county's real property records; until then they have no effect, and an association cannot collect a regular assessment under an unfiled instrument (§ 202.006).

The nine things Chapter 209 actually requires

1. Record a management certificate, and keep it current. The association records a management certificate in every county the subdivision touches, naming the subdivision, the association, its mailing address, who manages it (or its designated representative) and any transfer fees (§ 209.004). A change is recorded within 30 days of the association learning of it, and each filing goes electronically to the Texas Real Estate Commission within 7 days. What few boards know: while no certificate is on file, an owner is not liable for the association's collection attorney's fees, or for interest on a delinquent assessment.

2. Hold board meetings in the open, with real notice. Regular and special board meetings are open to owners (§ 209.0051(c)). A closed session (personnel, litigation, contracts, enforcement, the attorney) ends with any decision summarized in the open and in the minutes. Notice, giving the date, hour, place and general subject, is mailed to every owner 10 to 60 days ahead, or posted on common property or the association's website at least 144 hours before a regular meeting (72 before a special one) and emailed to every owner who registered an address (§ 209.0051(e)). The board keeps written minutes.

15 decisions a Texas board may not consider or vote on outside an open meeting with notice to owners, among them fines, budgets, assessment increases, special assessments and filling a board vacancy. — Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0051(h)

Anything else may be decided by email or phone, if every director gets a reasonable chance to weigh in and vote and the action goes in the next meeting's minutes.

A board member pressing a notice sign into the grass beside the stone subdivision entrance under a live oak in the early morning, a neighbor jogging past

3. Produce the records in 10 business days. Whatever the governing documents say, an owner (or their agent, attorney or CPA) may examine and copy the association's books and records, financial records included (§ 209.005). The request comes by certified mail. Within 10 business days the association sends dates to inspect or produces the copies; if it cannot, it sends the owner a written notice saying so and naming a date no later than 15 business days after that notice. Without a recorded records production and copying policy, it cannot charge for copies. The association does not have to release an owner's violation history, payment history or contact details (other than the address), except as they appear in the minutes, unless that owner consents in writing or a court orders it. An association of more than 14 lots adopts a retention policy that keeps:

the certificate of formation, bylaws, restrictive covenants and their amendments, permanently;
financial records, minutes, tax returns and audit records, 7 years;
current owners' account records, 5 years;
contracts of a year or longer, 4 years after they end.

4. Call the annual meeting. Whatever the documents say, the board calls an annual meeting of the members (§ 209.014). If it does not, an owner can demand one by certified mail, and if the board still has not called it within 30 days, three or more owners can form an election committee and call a meeting to elect the board themselves.

5. Run elections the statute's way. Expired seats are filled by owner election; the board may fill a vacancy for the rest of that term (§ 209.00593), but only at an open, noticed meeting (§ 209.0051(h)). Notice of a vote at a meeting goes out 10 to 60 days ahead; for a vote outside a meeting, at least 20 days before the last day a ballot counts (§ 209.0056). Owners must be offered an absentee ballot, a proxy or an electronic ballot (§ 209.00592). A contested vote for a board seat is written and signed unless the association has adopted secret-ballot rules (§ 209.0058). An association of more than 100 lots asks for candidates at least 10 days before sending ballots, gives at least 10 days to answer, and lists every eligible candidate who asks. Outside narrow exceptions, a rule stopping an owner from running is void, and two people sharing a primary residence cannot both sit on the board unless the association has fewer than 10 residences (§ 209.00591).

An older homeowner at the curbside mailbox at the end of his driveway in the morning, sliding a sealed ballot envelope inside and raising the flag

6. Put the fine policy in writing, and warn before you fine. If your documents allow fines, the board adopts an enforcement policy listing violation categories, a fine schedule and the hearing process, and posts it online or sends it to every owner each year (§ 209.0061). Before a fine, a common-area suspension, a damage charge, a non-assessment suit or a credit-bureau report, the owner gets a certified-mail notice (§ 209.006). It describes the violation and any amount due, sets a reasonable date to cure a curable violation that does not threaten health or safety, offers a hearing if requested within 30 days, and mentions the rights of owners on active military duty. Cure by the date, and no fine. The hearing is held within 30 days of the request, with 10 days' notice. Its documents and photos reach the owner 10 days ahead, or the owner gets an automatic 15-day postponement (§ 209.007).

7. Collect dues by the statute's ladder. An association of more than 14 lots adopts and records payment-plan guidelines: an owner may pay off what is past due over at least 3 months without new monetary penalties, and no plan has to run past 18 months (§ 209.0062). Unless the owner has defaulted on a payment plan, payments go first to past-due assessments, then current ones, then assessment-related legal and collection costs, then other attorney's fees, and only then to fines (§ 209.0063). An owner owes a collection agent's fees only after a certified letter listing every amount and giving at least 45 days to pay (§ 209.0064). A lien needs two notices first (§ 209.0094):

The order Texas law sets before an assessment lien.

First notice: First-class mail or email

Second notice: Certified mail, 30 days or more later

The wait: 90 days after the second notice

The lien: Filed with the county

Foreclosing that lien goes through the courts: an expedited foreclosure order, or a court judgment. The expedited order is not needed if the owner, at the time foreclosure is sought, agrees in writing to waive it (§ 209.0092).

A mail carrier at a homeowner's front door holding out a handheld scanner for her signature on a letter, the homeowner signing with one finger, late afternoon

8. Bid the big contracts, and wall off a board member's own. A service contract that will cost more than $50,000 goes through a bid process the association sets (§ 209.0052). A contract with a board member, a relative within the third degree, or a company in which either holds at least 51 percent of the profits needs at least two other bids where reasonably available. The board member sees none of them and stays out of the discussion and the vote; the other directors approve the contract and certify the process by resolution.

9. Put architectural denials in writing, and let the owner appeal. In an association of more than 40 lots, once the developer no longer controls architectural review, a denial goes to the owner by certified mail, hand delivery or electronic delivery (§ 209.00505). It explains the reason, lists any changes that would win approval, and offers a hearing if requested within 30 days. The board hears it within 30 days of the request and may affirm, change or reverse the decision. Board members, their spouses and their households cannot serve on that review committee unless a seat is still empty after every eligible volunteer is appointed (§ 209.00506).

Two board members and a homeowner in her backyard beside a half-built cedar pergola in late afternoon, one board member gesturing toward its height while the homeowner explains

Sixty lots or a manager An association of at least 60 lots, or any association with a management company, also keeps its current recorded governing documents on a website available to members (§ 207.006).

What the law does not require

No management company. Chapter 209 sends a request for minutes to the managing agent "or, if there is not a managing agent, to the board" (§ 209.0051(d)). It expects boards that run themselves.
No reserve study and no audit. Neither is a duty in Chapter 209; audit records are only something to keep once you have them. Your own declaration or bylaws may still require one.
No secret ballot. A board may adopt rules for one (§ 209.0058(d)), but it does not have to.

Texas asks a volunteer board for notice, a fair hearing and a paper trail. It does not ask for a payroll.

What this means for a self-led board

Count the letters in those nine items: three go by certified mail, and the records reply and the architectural appeal hearing each run on a deadline. Texas did not write a law for professionals. It wrote a mailroom. Boards get into trouble when the letters live in one volunteer's car and that volunteer is out of town for three weeks.

Three things to do this week:

Find your management certificate in the county records and on the Texas Real Estate Commission's site, and check that its address is one somebody still opens.
Put the 15 open-meeting decisions on one page and hand it to every director before the next email vote.
Pull your five letters (fine notice, records reply, collection-agent notice, both lien notices) and check each against its section.

A board president at her front door under the porch light handing a single sheet to each of three directors as they arrive for an evening meeting

The takeaway

Texas does not ask a board for a manager. It asks for a current certificate, open meetings with real notice, records on time, and a written warning before every step that costs an owner money. A self-led board can run every line of it.

Frequently asked questions

Can our Texas HOA board vote by email? Yes, for routine business, with every director given a chance to vote. The 15 decisions in § 209.0051(h) need an open meeting with notice to owners.

Does Texas require our HOA to have a reserve study or an audit? Chapter 209 requires neither. Your declaration and bylaws can.

How long does our board have to answer a records request? Ten business days from the certified-mail request. If you cannot produce them in time, send the owner a written notice saying so and giving a date no more than 15 business days after that notice (§ 209.005(e)–(f)).

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

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

Sources:

Texas Property Code, Chapter 209 (Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act): statutes.capitol.texas.gov
Texas Property Code § 202.006 and § 207.006: Chapter 202, Chapter 207

Key takeaways

Chapter 209 governs a Texas HOA where membership is mandatory and the declaration lets the association charge assessments; condominiums are not covered.
A board may act by email on routine business, but 15 decisions, including fines, budgets, assessment increases and filling a vacancy, need an open meeting with notice to owners.
Board meeting notice is mailed 10 to 60 days ahead, or posted 144 hours ahead (72 for a special meeting) and emailed.
Records requests come by certified mail and get an answer within 10 business days.
The management certificate is recorded in every county and filed with the Texas Real Estate Commission; while none is on file, owners owe no collection attorney's fees or interest.
No fine, suspension or damage charge without a certified-mail notice and a chance to cure; no lien without two notices and a 90-day wait.
Chapter 209 does not require a manager, a reserve study or an audit.

What this means for your board

Find your management certificate in the county records and at the Texas Real Estate Commission and check its address; put the 15 open-meeting decisions of section 209.0051(h) on one page for every director; and check your fine notice, records reply, collection-agent notice and both lien notices against their sections.