PHOENIX, Ariz. — Aug. 21, 2026 — On September 12, 2026, two of the most significant homeowner-association reforms Arizona has passed in years take effect. HB4011 writes a “neutral, fair, without favoritism, and nonarbitrary” reasonableness standard into state law for board discretion. SB1290 bars HOA boards from taking formal votes in closed executive session, requiring the actual decision to happen on the record, in the open.
Both laws share one design assumption: that the decisions affecting homeowners happen in meetings, and that meetings can be noticed, minuted, and reviewed. A new analysis from BadHOA, an independent, noncommercial resource that tracks Arizona HOA law for homeowners, identifies four board maneuvers that satisfy the letter of both laws while defeating their purpose — without a single violation.
“These laws were built to put decisions on the record. The workarounds don’t fight that requirement head-on — they just move the decision somewhere the requirement doesn’t reach.” — BadHOA
The four workarounds BadHOA identified
- Move the decision out of the meeting entirely. A single open-session vote can hand one officer standing authority over an entire category of decisions — legal matters, contracting, enforcement. Once granted, individual decisions under that authority are no longer “board actions”: no agenda, no minutes, no closed session to ban, and nothing for HB4011’s reasonableness standard to test.
- The silent quorum. On a small board, delegating approval power to two officers who happen to equal a quorum converts what bylaws would otherwise treat as a noticed board meeting into an informal exchange — a text thread, a call, an email — with no notice or minutes required.
- Redefine what counts as a “record.” Arizona’s records-inspection statute, A.R.S. § 33-1805, exempts records only by content — privilege, pending litigation, closed-session minutes, personal data — never by format. BadHOA found a recurring claim that board email categorically isn’t an inspectable “record,” despite no such exception existing in the statute.
- The engagement no one voted for. Legal correspondence sent on association letterhead can look board-authorized without ever having been voted on — issued instead on the say-so of a single officer and the management company.
“Do all four in open session, cleanly, and no transparency law is technically violated. The result is a board that can make and fund consequential decisions — including decisions aimed at a single homeowner — with no agenda, no minutes, no closed session to ban, and no discretionary record for a reasonableness standard to reach.”
Why it matters statewide
More than half of metro Phoenix residents live in a community governed by an HOA. BadHOA’s public database currently tracks 12,191 Arizona HOAs and condo associations covering an estimated 828,087 homes — roughly 26% of Arizona’s housing stock. No state agency regulates HOA boards or management companies directly; the Arizona Department of Real Estate’s dispute process is the only formal, after-the-fact venue available to homeowners.
BadHOA argues the four-part pattern — consolidate, delegate, narrow, and act without a vote — is portable from one HOA to any other, which is why the group is flagging it ahead of the laws’ effective date rather than after enforcement questions arise.
What homeowners can do
BadHOA’s article outlines concrete countermeasures for each workaround, including:
- Objecting on the record, before a vote, to motions that consolidate authority in one officer or delegate to a quorum-sized subset of the board
- Filing standing records requests that test whether delegated authority is actually being tracked
- Requiring an association to cite the specific A.R.S. § 33-1805(B) exception when it denies a records request
- Asking for the board minutes or unanimous written consent behind any legal action taken in the association’s name
The full analysis, including citations to A.R.S. § 33-1804, § 33-1805, HB4011, SB1290, and the 2007 Arizona Court of Appeals decision Tierra Ranchos Homeowners Ass’n v. Kitchukov, is available at badhoa.com/articles/read/how-hoa-boards-get-around-arizonas-new-transparency-laws.
About BadHOA
BadHOA.com is an independent, noncommercial resource that helps Arizona homeowners understand their rights under Title 33 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. The site provides plain-language summaries of Arizona HOA law, a statewide HOA directory, an accountability report card grading legislators, management companies and law firms on HOA issues, a bill tracker, and free homeowner tools including records-request and response-letter generators. BadHOA is not affiliated with, and does not accept money from, any HOA, management company, law firm, or governing body. The site sells nothing and carries no advertising. Reporters and researchers may cite BadHOA’s data and reporting with attribution; underlying figures are drawn from Arizona Corporation Commission filings, county parcel and recorder records, and the Arizona Legislature.
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