The short answer
- Homeowners complained most to the Virginia HOA Ombudsman about associations that never answered a complaint or had no written complaint procedure, the largest group for both condominiums and property owners' associations in 2024-25.
- The Office received 310 complaints that year, up 81% from 171.
- Among the topics raised in appeals to the Ombudsman, meetings and access to records led, two areas where the report calls the statutes "quite clear".
Three hundred and ten complaints from Virginia homeowners reached the state's HOA Ombudsman in its 2024-25 year. The biggest group was not about money. It was about nobody answering.
You would expect a number like that to be about assessments, fines or a pool that never opened.
That is not a scandal. It is paperwork, the kind that lives in one person's inbox until the day that person moves on.
The count: What Virginia homeowners complained about
310 complaints to Virginia's HOA Ombudsman in 2024-25, an 81% increase over the 171 received the year before. — Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, Annual Report 2024-2025 (RD938)
The top of each of the report's two charts, by type of community:
| Property owners' associations | Condominiums | |
|---|---|---|
| Complaints to the Office | 91 | 49 |
| Never answered a submitted complaint | 28 | 13 |
| Had no complaint procedure at all | 21 | 8 |
| Meetings and executive sessions | 10 | 11 |
| Access to books and records | 10 | 6 |
For property owners' associations, the two procedure problems together were 49 of 91 complaints. For condominiums, they were 21 of 49, and the report names them the most often raised. Its words on property owners' associations: "The largest grouping of complaints was related to an association's failure to adopt a complaint procedure and failure to respond to a submitted association complaint."
A homeowner who gets a final "no" from the board can file a Notice of Final Adverse Decision with the state. There were 87 in the same year, up from 69. On the report's chart of appeal topics, meetings and executive sessions (21) and access to records (16) stood well above everything else.
It is a hallmark of good governance of a community that its business is conducted in the sunshine, not the shadows. — Virginia Common Interest Community Ombudsman, Annual Report 2024-2025
Who it happened to: Not just self-managed boards
Of all the complaints, 214 came from professionally managed associations. 89 came from self-managed ones. 7 came from associations run by their own employees.
The report goes further on condominiums: most of them are professionally managed, and "a knowledgeable common interest community manager should have no difficulty" helping with the complaint process. Unanswered complaints and missing procedures still topped the condo chart.
So the gap is not who runs the community. It is whether the process is written down and owned. A complaint form in a manager's shared drive is as lost as one in a treasurer's email if nobody on the board can find it the day the manager leaves.
The rule: Virginia's complaint process, step by step
Since 2012, Virginia regulations have required every association to have a complaint procedure (18 VAC 48-70-50). The report calls setting one up "a straightforward and achievable task": a form, then three actions.
The process Virginia's regulation (18 VAC 48-70-50, as amended August 1, 2025) requires.
- Before: Adopt a complaint form and a way to submit it, and share both with members.
- Within 14 days: Acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing.
- At least 14 days before: Tell the owner the date, time and place the board will consider it.
- Within 7 days of deciding: Deliver the written final decision in the required format.
The fourth step is where boards that do have a process still slip. The report says many final decisions omit several required parts, and lists six, drawn from the regulation:
- The date it was issued.
- Specific citations to the common interest community laws or regulations that led to the decision.
- The association's registration number.
- The manager's name and license number, if you have a manager.
- The owner's right to file a Notice of Final Adverse Decision with the Office.
- The Office's contact information.
Two smaller rules most boards have not seen. The statute behind the process (Va. Code § 54.1-2354.4) says a record of each complaint must be kept for at least one year after the association acts on it. And amended regulations that took effect August 1, 2025 say the final decision must be dated the day it is issued, and that your complaint procedure must set out any appeal process and its deadlines, or say there is none and the decision is final.
Why the format matters A homeowner has 30 days from the board's final decision to file with the state, with a $25 fee. A decision with no date and no notice of that right leaves both sides guessing.
The report's own view: a properly drafted final decision "could reduce the growing numbers of complaints to the office," and could tell some owners their issue is not one the state reviews at all.
The other two: Meetings and records
The appeals tell a different story. They are led by two topics where, in the report's words, "the statutory provisions are quite clear."
On meetings: "It is very rare that an association does not have to conduct business in an open meeting with notice provided to the association members." Executive sessions are allowed, but the statutes set out the reasons and the steps, and "improperly held executive sessions should not be a common complaint."
On records: unless the statutes say otherwise, "a board should not fail to provide owners in good standing with access to the books and records of the association."
Neither rule is hard. Both tend to fail one way: a request arrives by email, one person means to answer it, and nobody else knows it came in. Look up the exact response time your governing law sets (in Virginia, the Property Owners' Association Act and the Condominium Act each have their own records section), then keep a log that proves you met it.
| Date received | Who asked | What they asked for | Who answers | Date answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
It lives with the board's records, not in one person's inbox. When an owner says nobody answered, you open the log.
What changes next: The money comes back by law
Virginia's HB 2750 (effective July 1, 2025) says that when a management contract ends, the manager must transfer and release all of the association's funds and close all bank accounts within a reasonable time (Va. Code § 54.1-2353). The law covers the money. It cannot make anyone remember who answers complaints or where the records log lives, so give each one a name, a place and a date before anyone hands anything over.
HOA Handover Checklist: The Five Open Items Boards Lose
Your move: One sentence, one page, one log
No new policy manual. Three things at the next meeting:
- Read your complaint procedure out loud, or admit you do not have one. In Virginia, check it against the four steps and six parts above.
- Start the records-request log today, and name the one board member who checks it each month.
- Say this at the meeting: "Before we adjourn, who answers a complaint or a records request if it arrives tomorrow, and where would the rest of us find it?"
If nobody can answer that sentence, you have found the thing most likely to land your association in next year's count.
Frequently asked questions
What do homeowners complain about most to the Virginia HOA Ombudsman? In 2024-25, for both condominiums and property owners' associations, the largest group of complaints was about associations that never answered a submitted complaint or had no complaint procedure. Among appeals of final board decisions, the biggest topics were meetings and executive sessions, and access to records.
Can a Virginia homeowner complain directly to the Ombudsman? Usually not first. The owner files through the association's own complaint procedure, and only after a final adverse decision can they file a Notice of Final Adverse Decision, within 30 days and with a $25 fee. If the association has no procedure or never responds, the owner can report that directly to the Office on a separate form.
Our community is not in Virginia. Does any of this apply? The numbers and the complaint-procedure rule are Virginia's. But most states have their own rules on owner access to records and open board meetings, which were the top appeal topics here. Check your state's statute and your governing documents, or ask your association's attorney. This is general information, not legal advice.