Seven New Arizona HOA Laws Take Effect September 12, 2026
Open meetings, a new duty to act reasonably, foreclosure limits, protected flags, backyard shade structures, and resale rules.
The Workaround: How HOA Boards Can Route Around Arizona’s New Transparency Laws
Two major reforms take effect September 12, 2026 — and these maneuvers are built to satisfy the letter of the law while defeating its purpose. Here’s what homeowners should watch for.
How to Remove or Recall Your HOA Board Members in Arizona
The A.R.S. § 33-1813 removal process — petition, special meeting, and vote — step by step.
How to Request a Reasonable Accommodation (or Modification) From Your HOA in Arizona
Your Fair Housing Act rights — assistance animals, accessible parking, ramps, and rule variances — and how to ask for them.
Design Guidelines and House Rules Can’t Rewrite Your Rights — That Takes a CC&R Amendment
A board can adopt house rules and design guidelines to implement the declaration. But if a “rule” changes a fundamental right the CC&Rs grant or protect, it’s really an amendment — and that takes an owner vote, not a board memo.
If Your HOA Sends You Someone Else’s Private Information, Don’t Publish It
Records productions sometimes arrive with other people’s personal, financial, or health information left unredacted. Even though the association failed to protect it, the right move — and the smart one — is to keep it private, not post it or weaponize it.
Ask for the Invoices and the Check Register — Not Just the Financial Statements
A balance sheet tells you totals; it doesn’t show where the money actually went. To see that, request the underlying records — the check register and the vendor invoices — which you’re entitled to as association records.
Your HOA Can’t Just Make Up a Rule: The Limits on Board Rule-Making
A board can adopt rules — but only within the authority its governing documents grant, only consistent with the declaration and Arizona statute, and only reasonably. A rule that oversteps those limits is unenforceable, no matter how official it looks.
The Member Portal Is Not a Substitute for a Records Request
When you ask for records, “it’s all on the portal” isn’t compliance. A member portal is controlled by the association, rarely holds everything you’re entitled to, and can change or vanish. Your statutory records request is a separate, enforceable right.
How to Set Up ChatGPT or Claude to Help You With Your HOA
Given the right materials, an AI assistant is a genuinely useful HOA co-pilot — it can make sense of your governing documents, point you to the right statute, draft records requests, and organize your timeline. Here’s what to load into a project, what to ask, and where AI trips up.
Make Your HOA’s Management Company Prove What It’s Actually Allowed to Do
A management company only has the authority the Board delegated to it in writing — and only powers the Board itself holds. Request the management contract (it’s a record you’re entitled to see) and check what’s delegated against your governing documents.
Your HOA’s Manager Isn’t a Lawyer — and Neither Are You: Raising a Legal Concern the Right Way
Non-lawyer management staff generally can’t give legal opinions on the HOA’s behalf. But you probably aren’t a lawyer either — so the strongest move isn’t to out-lawyer them, it’s to raise the concern as a documented question for the Board’s own counsel.