Arizona HOA Laws in 2026: What Changes on September 12 — and the A.R.S. Title 33 Rules Every Board Should Know

Four Arizona association laws take effect on September 12, 2026. S.B. 1246 raises the condominium foreclosure threshold to eighteen months or $10,000 and adds a special-assessment carve-out to both chapters. S.B. 1290 inserts two words — “without action” — into the planned-community open-meeting statute, ending closed-session votes for HOA boards while leaving condominium boards alone. H.B. 2397 rewrites what a resale disclosure package must contain in both chapters, without touching the fee caps. H.B. 4011 gives every Arizona association a statutory duty to act reasonably, in a brand-new section for planned communities and a new subsection for condominiums.

None of that is law yet. Arizona has no rolling effective date: a bill signed in the regular session takes effect on the general effective date, which azleg.gov’s general effective dates table sets at 09-12-2026 for the Fifty-seventh Legislature’s Second Regular Session — ninety days after sine die. The 2025 date was 09-26-2025. A condominium board that started applying the new foreclosure threshold when the bill was signed is early: a foreclosure filed on the new rule before September 12 is filed on a statute that does not yet exist.

Arizona’s association law is two near-parallel chapters of Title 33 — Chapter 16, §§33-1801 through 33-1818, for planned communities, and Chapter 9, §§33-1201 through 33-1270, for condominiums. They track each other closely enough that boards assume a rule in one is a rule in the other. That assumption is where most Arizona compliance failures start.

2026 at a glance — every bill an Arizona board is still absorbing

Two rows deserve a note. S.B. 1290 amends only §33-1804, so on September 13 an Arizona condominium board may still take action behind a closed door that the HOA board across the street may not. And H.B. 2322, not H.B. 2323, is the mixed-use allocation bill; H.B. 2323 amended §44-1222 and has nothing to do with associations.

Which law governs your association — §33-1801, §33-1802 and the pre-1974 exemption

A.R.S. §33-1801(A) is one line: “This chapter applies to all planned communities.” The definition does the sorting. Under §33-1802(6), a planned community is a development with real estate owned or maintained by an association “in which the declaration expressly states both that the owners of separately owned lots, parcels or units are mandatory members and that the owners are required to pay assessments to the association for these purposes.” It expressly excludes timeshares, “a condominium that is governed by chapter 9 of this title,” and “a real estate development that is not managed or maintained by an association.”

So the test is the declaration, not the signage. Mandatory membership plus mandatory assessments plus an association that maintains something puts you in Chapter 16. Recorded covenants with no association and no assessments put you outside both chapters — Arizona has no statute for that community at all.

The exemption boards most often miss is §33-1801(C)(2). Chapter 16 does not apply to an association “created or incorporated before January 1, 1974” that “does not have authority to enforce covenants, conditions and restrictions related to the use, occupancy or appearance of the separately owned lots.” Both halves must be true — old and without use-restriction enforcement power. A 1968 association that can tell an owner what color to paint the house is not exempt. An exempt association may opt in under subsection (D) with a majority of all members and a recorded notice of election, effective on recording.

The four places the two chapters genuinely diverge

Add S.B. 1290’s closed-session split on September 12 and there are five. Everything else — records, resale, audits, conflicts, removal, absentee ballots, the violation-notice exchange — runs word for word in both chapters under a different number. When you read an Arizona article citing only one chapter, check which one before acting on it.

Meetings — §33-1804 and §33-1248

§33-1804(A) opens every meeting of the members’ association, the board “and any regularly scheduled committee meetings” to members and their written designees, who “shall be allowed to attend and speak at an appropriate time during the deliberations and proceedings.” The board must let a member speak “once after the board has discussed a specific agenda item but before the board takes formal action on that item.” Closed sessions are limited to five grounds — attorney legal advice, pending or contemplated litigation, an individual’s personal, health or financial information, an individual employee’s job performance or complaints, and a member’s appeal of a violation or penalty — and subsection (C) requires the board to identify the authorizing paragraph before closing the door. Since S.B. 1039 took effect on September 26, 2025, a board that records an open meeting “shall keep a copy of the recording for at least six months and make the unedited recording available to any member on request.” The condominium twin, §33-1248, is identical.

Two mechanics cause most of the trouble. Board notice and agenda are due “at least forty-eight hours in advance” after declarant control ends (§33-1804(D)), and §33-1804(E)(4) sweeps in any quorum “that meets informally to discuss association business, including workshops,” which “shall comply with the open meeting and notice provisions of this section without regard to whether the board votes or takes any action.” Member meetings run on a different clock — “not fewer than ten or more than fifty days in advance,” with the notice stating the purpose. Our sister site hoameeting.com covers §33-1804 at length, including what S.B. 1290’s “without action” does to a planned-community executive session on September 12, 2026.

Budgets and assessments — §33-1803(A), §33-1243(D) and §33-1255

For planned communities, §33-1803(A) is the whole of Arizona’s budget law:

“Unless limitations in the community documents would result in a lower limit for the assessment, the association shall not impose a regular assessment that is more than twenty percent greater than the immediately preceding fiscal year’s assessment without the approval of the majority of the members of the association.” — A.R.S. §33-1803(A)

Read the three limits inside that sentence. It reaches the regular assessment only — a special assessment is not covered, however large. It measures against “the immediately preceding fiscal year’s assessment,” not a three-year average. And a lower cap in the declaration controls. There is no ratification meeting, no owner vote, no notice period attached: below 20 percent, an Arizona HOA board adopts the budget and that is the end of it.

Condominiums work the opposite way. There is no cap in §33-1255 — assessments are simply “made at least annually, based on a budget adopted at least annually” — and the brake is a ratification meeting in §33-1243(D). Within thirty days after adopting a proposed budget the board delivers a summary to all owners and sets a meeting “not fewer than fourteen or more than thirty days after mailing of the summary.” Then:

“Unless at that meeting a majority of all the unit owners or any larger vote specified in the declaration rejects the budget, the budget is ratified, whether or not a quorum is present. If the proposed budget is rejected, the periodic budget last ratified by the unit owners shall be continued.” — A.R.S. §33-1243(D)

Quorum is irrelevant and rejection takes a majority of all owners, not of those voting — a bar almost no condominium clears at ordinary turnout. One exception matters: none of subsection (D) applies where “the board of directors is expressly authorized in the declaration to adopt and amend budgets from time to time.” H.B. 2322 added §33-1255(H) on September 26, 2025 for mixed-use projects: an expense that exclusively benefits commercial structures is assessed exclusively against commercial units, residential against residential, and a shared expense “in proportion to the category of the structures benefitted, whether assessed in a general assessment or special assessment or otherwise.” After declarant control, only a unanimous owner vote changes that allocation.

Now the thing Arizona boards believe that is not true. Arizona imposes no reserve study requirement, no reserve funding requirement and no reserve investment rules on either planned communities or condominiums. The statutes touch reserves in two places, both disclosure: the resale package states “the total amount of money held by the association as reserves” and includes “a copy of the most recent reserve study of the association, if any” (§33-1806(A)(3)(d), (A)(6); §33-1260). That conditional “if any” is the entire Arizona law of reserve studies. What actually pushes Arizona condominiums to commission one is Fannie Mae — Lender Letter LL-2026-03 makes Full Review mandatory and raises the minimum reserve contribution to 15 percent of annual budgeted income for applications on or after January 4, 2027. Those are lender conditions on individual loans, not legal requirements on your association, and we do not think a board should reverse-engineer its budget to hit them; we explain why in Fannie Mae condo warrantability in 2027. Fund reserves because the roof has a remaining useful life.

Collections — §33-1803(A)–(B) and §33-1807

This is the section that costs Arizona associations money, and the one most collection policies get wrong.

The late trigger and the late charge. Under §33-1803(A), “a payment by a member is deemed late if it is unpaid fifteen or more days after its due date, unless the community documents provide for a longer period.” Late charges “are limited to the greater of fifteen dollars or ten percent of the amount of the unpaid assessment and may be imposed only after the association has provided notice that the assessment is overdue or provided notice that the assessment is considered overdue after a certain date.” Both conditions are missed constantly: the fifteen-day floor can be lengthened by the documents but never shortened, and the late charge is unlawful unless an overdue notice went out first. Subsection (B) applies the same $15-or-10% cap to a late payment of a penalty.

Payment application, twice over. Section 33-1803(A) requires that “any monies paid by the member for an unpaid assessment shall be applied first to the principal amount unpaid and then to the interest accrued.” §33-1807(K) then orders the whole account, “notwithstanding any provision in the community documents or in any contract between the association and a management company or any other agent of the association, including any agreement or contract with any attorney”: unpaid assessments, due-but-not-delinquent assessments, late charges if the declaration authorizes them, reasonable collection fees and costs, then court-awarded attorney fees, “in that order, with any remaining amounts applied next to other unpaid fees, charges and monetary penalties.” Fines go last. A management or fee agreement that pays fees off the top is void as to that order, and an owner who pays $600 against a $600 assessment arrearage is current on assessments even with $2,000 of fines outstanding.

The lien, and what it does not cover. The lien arises “from the time the assessment becomes due,” and “recording the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection” — no separate lien recording is required or effective (§33-1807(A), (F)). It sits behind encumbrances recorded before the declaration, a recorded first mortgage, first deed of trust or first contract for sale, and tax liens, and it is “extinguished unless proceedings to enforce the common expense lien are instituted within six years after the full amount of the assessment becomes due” (subsection (G)). It also does not reach fines. Under §33-1802(5), “member expenses” are “fees, charges, late charges and monetary penalties or interest,” and §33-1807(B) is blunt: “member expenses are not enforceable as common expense liens under this section” — the association gets only a judgment lien, which “may not be foreclosed and is effective only on conveyance of any interest in the real property.”

The 30-day certified-mail warning. Before an association hands a file to an attorney or an outside collection agency, §33-1807(L) requires this notice, verbatim, at least thirty days ahead:

“Your account is delinquent. If you do not bring your account current or make arrangements that are approved by the association to bring your account current within thirty days after the date of this notice, your account will be turned over for further collection proceedings. Such collection proceedings could include bringing a foreclosure action against your property.”

“The notice shall be in bold-faced type or all capital letters and shall include the contact information for the person that the member may contact to discuss payment. The notice shall be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, and may be included within other correspondence sent to the member regarding the member’s delinquent account.” — A.R.S. §33-1807(L)

Three details decide whether it counts: bold-face or all caps; certified mail, return receipt requested, because neither first-class nor email satisfies the statute; and a named person the owner can call. A collection agency acting as the association’s managing agent does not trigger the notice — an outside agency or an attorney does.

The statement of account. Subsection (M) requires a statement “in lieu of a periodic payment book” with the same frequency assessments are billed, showing “the current account balance due and the immediately preceding ledger history.” One exemption only: a planned community “that ha[s] fewer than fifty lots and that do[es] not contract with a third party to perform management services.” Every self-managed 60-lot HOA in Arizona owes this, and it is the easiest duty in the section to overlook.

The payoff statement — the ten days that can erase your lien. Subsection (J) gives the association ten days to answer a written request from a lienholder, escrow agent, member or designee for the amount of unpaid liens. Then the sentence that belongs on the wall of every management office: “failure to provide the statement to the escrow agent within the time provided for in this subsection extinguishes any lien for any unpaid assessment then due.” A missed email during a closing is not a service failure; it is the statutory destruction of the association’s lien.

Foreclosure. Since S.B. 1494 took effect on September 26, 2025, a planned-community lien “may be foreclosed only if the owner has been and remains delinquent in the payment of any assessment or portion of the assessment for a period of eighteen months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first, as determined on the date the action is filed,” and only after the board “shall exercise reasonable efforts to communicate with the member and offer a reasonable payment plan before filing a foreclosure action.” The condominium section, §33-1256(A), still reads “for a period of one year or in the amount of $1,200 or more” — the live text today, which is why a condominium board mid-collection needs to know its own date. S.B. 1246 changes it on September 12, 2026, replacing “one year” with eighteen months and “$1,200” with $10,000, and adding one sentence to both §33-1256 and §33-1807:

“FOR ANY SPECIAL ASSESSMENT WITH AN INITIAL VALUE OF $10,000 OR MORE, ONLY THE EIGHTEEN-MONTH DELINQUENCY THRESHOLD APPLIES.” — S.B. 1246 (2026), amending A.R.S. §33-1256 and §33-1807

That carve-out matters more than it looks. A $12,000 roof special assessment would otherwise cross the $10,000 dollar test the day it is levied, letting an association file on day one of a delinquency. From September 12, 2026, a special assessment of $10,000 or more can be foreclosed only on the eighteen-month clock.

A collections calendar for a $300-a-month assessment

At $300 a month the eighteen-month clock always arrives first: $10,000 of assessments alone would take roughly thirty-four months. For most Arizona associations the dollar test is never the operative one, and a collection policy built around “$10,000” will simply never fire. Washington runs the same problem on a different track — under RCW 64.90.485 an association there owes a 30-day notice of delinquency, a 15-day standstill and a foreclosure floor of three months of assessments or $2,000 before filing, which we walk through in Washington collections after SB 5686. Arizona is quieter at the front end and far slower at the back.

Dynamite Management runs financials and collections for Arizona associations — the 30-day certified notice, the payment-application order, the payoff statement inside 10 days — inside HOA Fiscal, from Vancouver, Washington. See how condo and HOA financial management works.

Fines and enforcement — §33-1803(B)–(E) and H.B. 4011’s new duty

Arizona sets no dollar cap on association fines. Section 33-1803(B) authorizes the board, “after notice and an opportunity to be heard,” to “impose reasonable monetary penalties on members for violations of the declaration, bylaws and rules of the association,” and requires the notice to “include information pertaining to the manner in which the penalty shall be enforced.” Reasonableness is the only ceiling — and after September 12, 2026 it is a reasonableness the statute defines.

What the statute does regulate tightly is the exchange after a violation notice. Under subsection (C), an owner who receives written notice that the condition of the property violates the community documents — “without regard to whether a monetary penalty is imposed by the notice” — “may provide the association with a written response by sending the response by certified mail within twenty-one calendar days after the date of the notice.” Then subsection (D) starts a ten-business-day clock:

“Within ten business days after receipt of the certified mail containing the response from the member, the association shall respond to the member with a written explanation regarding the notice that shall provide at least the following information unless previously provided in the notice of violation: 1. The provision of the community documents that has allegedly been violated. 2. The date of the violation or the date the violation was observed. 3. The first and last name of the person or persons who observed the violation. 4. The process the member must follow to contest the notice.” — A.R.S. §33-1803(D)

Item 3 stops associations cold: “the first and last name of the person or persons who observed the violation” means an anonymous complaint cannot survive a certified-mail response — somebody’s name goes on the reply, whether a neighbor, an inspector or the manager. Item 4 carries the freeze in subsection (E): unless the contest process was already stated in the violation notice, “the association shall not proceed with any action to enforce the community documents, including the collection of attorney fees, before or during the time prescribed by subsection D.” The same sentence requires written notice of the member’s option to petition for an administrative hearing in the state real estate department under §32-2199.01. The fix takes ten minutes: put the contest process in the violation letter template and the freeze never applies to you. The condominium parallel is §33-1242(B)–(D), identical in every operative word.

H.B. 4011 adds the standard those fines will be measured against. Effective September 12, 2026, it creates a new planned-community section and a new condominium subsection carrying the same two sentences:

“A. THE ASSOCIATION HAS A DUTY TO ACT REASONABLY IN THE EXERCISE OF ITS DISCRETIONARY POWERS. B. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, ‘DUTY TO ACT REASONABLY’ INCLUDES THE DUTY TO EXERCISE DISCRETIONARY POWERS NEUTRALLY, FAIRLY, WITHOUT FAVORITISM AND IN A NONARBITRARY FASHION.” — H.B. 4011 (2026), adding A.R.S. §33-1821; the same language becomes §33-1242(E) for condominiums

Owners have argued unreasonableness in Arizona association disputes for years without a section number to hang it on. Now it is a statute with four adjectives an owner’s lawyer can plead. What that means for a board is documentary, not dramatic: selective-enforcement disputes turn on the violation log — which properties were cited, on what date, by whom, and what happened next. An association that fines one owner for a boat in the driveway while three others sit uncited has always had a problem; from September 12, 2026 it has a problem with a section number. Enforce the rule against everyone or amend the rule, and keep the log that shows you did.

Records — §33-1805 and §33-1258

§33-1805(A) makes all financial and other records “reasonably available for examination by any member or any person designated by the member in writing as the member’s representative,” and forbids charging for review: “the association shall not charge a member or any person designated by the member in writing for making material available for review.” The clocks match on both sides — “the association shall have ten business days to fulfill a request for examination” and ten business days to provide copies once purchase is requested. Copies are capped: “an association may charge a fee for making copies of not more than fifteen cents per page.” Fifteen cents — not a per-request administrative fee, not staff time.

Subsection (B) lists the only five things that may be withheld, each narrower than boards assume: privileged attorney-association communications; pending litigation; “meeting minutes or other records of a session of a board meeting that is not required to be open”; personal, health or financial records of an individual member, employee or contractor’s employee; and job-performance, compensation, health or complaint records for an individual employee. Subsection (C) adds that disclosure is not required where it “would violate any state or federal law.” Nothing there withholds a bank statement, a vendor contract, a general ledger, or an owner’s ledger for their own lot. §33-1258 is the condominium twin.

Then a gap worth naming out loud: Arizona sets no records retention schedule at all. The only retention rules in either chapter are S.B. 1039’s six-month meeting recording and the one-year ballot retention in §33-1812(A)(7) and §33-1250(C)(7). Nothing tells an association how long to keep minutes, ledgers, contracts or tax returns. Adopt your own — permanent for the declaration, bylaws, rules, plats, minutes and audits; seven years for accounting records, bank statements, contracts and tax returns — and put it in a board resolution so it survives the next manager change. The records chapter of how to self-manage an HOA walks the build.

Resale disclosure — §33-1806, §33-1260 and H.B. 2397

Today, §33-1806(A) splits the duty by size: “for planned communities with fewer than fifty units, a member shall mail or deliver” the package, and “for planned communities with fifty or more units, the association shall mail or deliver” it — in both cases within ten days after receipt of a written notice of pending sale naming the purchaser, “in either paper or electronic format.” Contents are the bylaws and rules, the declaration, a dated statement (principal contact, the assessment and everything unpaid, whether the association insures any part of the unit, “the total amount of money held by the association as reserves,” known unrecorded alterations violating the declaration with no obligation to look back “more than six years,” pending litigation between association and member, and the purchaser acknowledgment returned within fourteen calendar days), the current operating budget, the most recent annual financial report, the most recent reserve study “if any,” and a summary of pending lawsuits. §33-1260 is the condominium version.

The fees are capped hard, and H.B. 2397 did not move them: an aggregate of $400 for “resale disclosure, lien estoppel and any other services related to the transfer or use of the property,” a rush fee of not more than $100 for service inside seventy-two hours, and an update fee of not more than $50 when thirty or more days have passed. The same fee applies “without regard to whether the association is furnishing the statement or other documents in paper or electronic format.” Fees are collected “no earlier than at the close of escrow,” only once per transaction, and no other transfer-related fee is permitted — a violation carries “a civil penalty of not more than one thousand two hundred dollars.” H.B. 2397 restyles the dollar figures and renumbers the fee subsection from (C) to (D). That is all it does to the money.

What it does to the contents is substantial, and it does it in both chapters — worth stressing, because most Arizona coverage has described H.B. 2397 as a condominium bill. Effective September 12, 2026, both sections require the association or seller to “ELECTRONICALLY TRANSMIT or deliver” the package to the purchaser or the purchaser’s designated agent, and both add: the current bylaws and rules; the declaration and final plat; “A COPY OF THE BOARD-APPROVED MINUTES OF ALL OPEN MEETINGS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR THE PREVIOUS THREE MEETINGS”; the amount and payment schedule for the annual assessment plus remaining installments on any approved and assessed special assessment; “THE AMOUNT AND PURPOSE OF ANY SPECIAL ASSESSMENT APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS BUT NOT YET ASSESSED OR ANY SPECIAL ASSESSMENT SUBMITTED BY THE BOARD FOR MEMBER APPROVAL WITHIN THE PREVIOUS FOUR MONTHS”; any lien, judgment lien or recorded lis pendens; “THE AMOUNT AND PURPOSE OF ANY TITLE TRANSFER FEE OR OTHER SIMILAR FEE, HOWEVER DENOMINATED, THAT IS AUTHORIZED IN THE DECLARATION AND ESTABLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION PURSUANT TO SECTION 33-442”; “A COPY OF THE ASSOCIATION’S MOST RECENT INCOME AND EXPENSES FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR ALL OPERATING AND RESERVE ACCOUNTS”; “ANY OUTSTANDING AND UNRESOLVED VIOLATION” cited against the property; whether the community is under declarant control and the percentage of lots the declarant owns; notice that any summarized report may be viewed in full within ten days of a written request; a rewritten purchaser acknowledgment warning about foreclosure “WITHOUT THE EQUITY PROTECTION OF THE HOMESTEAD ACT”; and, where multiple associations govern the property, notice that each one’s disclosure fee applies. The “most recent annual financial report” line becomes the annual “AUDIT, REVIEW OR COMPILATION” report — tying the resale package directly to the audit duty below.

Three additions are condominium-only, because they have to be: §33-1260 also requires “ANY KNOWN MATERIAL DEFICIENCY OR CONDITION OF THE LIMITED COMMON ELEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNIT OR COMMON ELEMENTS KNOWN BY THE ASSOCIATION FOR WHICH THE PURCHASER WILL BE LIABLE FOR THE DIRECTLY ASSESSED REPAIR COSTS WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF THE PURCHASE,” insurance certificates showing coverage limits and deductibles under §33-1253, and a statement of whether any corporation or LLC owns and leases thirty-five percent or more of the units. Two timing points round it out: for a community under fifty units, where the seller delivers, the ten-day clock is re-keyed to “ACCEPTANCE OF THE PURCHASER’S OFFER TO PURCHASE”; for fifty or more, where the association delivers, it still runs from a written notice of pending sale, which must now carry the purchaser’s email address as well as a mailing address. A new subsection tempers the exposure — everything disclosed “SHALL BE BASED ON THE GOOD FAITH RELIANCE ON ASSOCIATION RECORDS OR INFORMATION, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OR VALIDATION” — with damages narrowed to a seller or association “KNOWINGLY OR RECKLESSLY FAILING to disclose” or “KNOWINGLY OR RECKLESSLY PROVIDING MATERIALLY FALSE OR MISLEADING STATEMENTS.”

For a manager this is a September project, not a January one. Three sets of approved minutes and an operating-and-reserve income statement have to come out of live books on a ten-day clock, for a $400 cap that H.B. 2397 did not raise.

Financial reporting — §33-1810 and §33-1243(J)

§33-1810 is one sentence long and applies to every association in the state:

“Unless any provision in the planned community documents requires an annual audit by a certified public accountant, the board of directors shall provide for an annual financial audit, review or compilation of the association. The audit, review or compilation shall be completed no later than one hundred eighty days after the end of the association’s fiscal year and shall be made available upon request to the members within thirty days after its completion.” — A.R.S. §33-1810

There is no revenue threshold and no small-association exemption. A twelve-lot HOA with a $9,000 budget owes the same annual engagement a 900-unit condominium owes; §33-1243(J) says the same for condominiums in the same words. If the documents demand a CPA audit, the documents win and the board has no choice among the three.

I spent years auditing association financial statements before I started managing them, so the difference among the three is worth stating plainly. A compilation presents management’s numbers in financial-statement format with no assurance at all — the accountant has tested nothing, and the report says so. A review applies analytical procedures and inquiry for limited assurance. An audit is the only one where someone independently confirms bank balances, tests the assessment receivable, samples disbursements for approval, and issues an opinion. Cost tracks that ladder steeply, and most small Arizona associations satisfy §33-1810 with a compilation — a lawful and honest choice so long as nobody describes it to owners as an audit. What a compilation cannot do is catch the thing an audit exists to catch. If your association has never had one, has had the same signer on the bank account for a decade, or is coming out of a manager transition, buy the audit once and go back to compilations after. The 180-day and 30-day clocks are the enforceable part: a December 31 year end means the engagement is due by June 29.

Elections and removal — §33-1812, §33-1250 and §33-1813

§33-1812(A) is categorical: “after termination of the period of declarant control, votes allocated to a unit may not be cast pursuant to a proxy.” Not limited, not disfavored — void, notwithstanding anything in the community documents, with a single exception for timeshare associations. Associations still running annual meetings on proxies are holding invalid elections. The replacement is mandatory: “the association shall provide for votes to be cast in person and by absentee ballot,” with email or fax delivery optional on top. Condominiums under §33-1250(C) are identical after declarant control, but subsection (B) expressly permits proxies during it — void if undated or revocable without notice, terminating one year after the date.

Seven requirements govern every absentee or delivered ballot:

Subsection (B) settles a recurring fight: absentee and other delivered ballots “are valid for the purpose of establishing a quorum.” The condominium list is the same except that §33-1250(C)(6) accepts “either the actual or electronic signature.” Arizona sets no statutory member-meeting quorum in either chapter — that number comes from the bylaws.

Removal runs on its own track in §33-1813. Owners may remove any director not appointed by the declarant, with or without cause, “by a majority vote of those voting on the matter at a meeting of the members” where a quorum is present. The petition threshold is twenty-five percent of the votes or one hundred votes, whichever is less, in an association of a thousand or fewer members; ten percent or a thousand votes, whichever is less, above that. Then the deadline that decides these fights: “the special meeting shall be called, noticed and held within thirty days after receipt of the petition,” and if the board fails, “the members of the board of directors are deemed removed from office effective at midnight of the thirty-first day.” Not the petitioned director — the whole board, by operation of law, without a vote. Special-meeting quorum drops to twenty percent of the votes or a thousand votes, whichever is less, and the prevailing party in litigation over a removal recovers fees. §33-1243(H) is the condominium copy. A board that receives a removal petition should calendar day 30 that afternoon.

Insurance and conflicts — §33-1253 and §33-1811

Chapter 16 imposes no insurance requirement on planned communities at all — that is the documents’ job. Condominiums are covered by §33-1253(A), which requires property insurance on the common elements, and on units where the documents say so, against all risks of direct physical loss commonly insured against, where “the total amount of insurance after application of any deductibles shall be not less than eighty percent of the actual cash value of the insured property at the time the insurance is purchased and at each renewal date.” Liability coverage is set by the board but never below the declaration’s figure. Each unit owner is an insured person for liability arising from the common elements, and if coverage “is not reasonably available” the association must promptly notify all owners. Subsection (J) is the sentence boards discover after a fire: “the cost of repair or replacement in excess of insurance proceeds and reserves is a common expense.” That is where an underinsured condominium’s special assessment comes from — 80 percent of actual cash value is a statutory floor, not a target.

Conflicts are stricter than most boards expect. Under §33-1811, if a contract, decision or other action for compensation would benefit a director or that director’s “parent, grandparent, spouse, child or sibling,” or a parent or spouse of any of those, the director “shall declare the conflict in an open meeting of the board before the board discusses or takes action on that issue and that member may then vote on that issue.” Arizona lets the conflicted director vote. What it does not allow is skipping the declaration, or making it in executive session. The penalty is absolute: “any contract entered into in violation of this section is void and unenforceable.” Not voidable at the board’s option — void. A landscaping contract with a director’s brother-in-law that was never declared on the record cannot be enforced by either side. §33-1243(C) says the same for condominiums.

What an Arizona board should do this quarter

Boards decide, management implements. Here is the list to work between now and the first meeting after September 12, keyed to sections.

1. Confirm which chapter you are in, in writing. Read the declaration for mandatory membership and mandatory assessments (§33-1802(6)) and, if the association predates 1974, for use-restriction enforcement power (§33-1801(C)(2)). Put the answer in the minutes.
2. Rewrite the collections policy to §33-1807. The 15-day late trigger and $15-or-10% cap behind a prior overdue notice (§33-1803(A)); the §33-1807(K) application order ahead of any management or attorney agreement; the 30-day bold-face certified-mail warning (§33-1807(L)); statements of account each cycle unless you are under fifty lots with no manager (§33-1807(M)).
3. Put the payoff statement on a ten-day tickler. Section 33-1807(J) extinguishes the lien if an escrow agent’s request is missed — the cheapest failure in Arizona association management to prevent.
4. If you are a condominium, note both foreclosure dates. One year or $1,200 through September 11, 2026; eighteen months or $10,000 from September 12, 2026, with only the eighteen-month clock available for a special assessment of $10,000 or more (§33-1256).
5. Fix the violation-notice template before September 12. Put the contest process into the notice so §33-1803(E) never freezes enforcement, and start a violation log recording date, property, observer and outcome — that log is the record H.B. 4011’s standard will be read against (new §33-1821; §33-1242(E)).
6. Rebuild the resale package for H.B. 2397. Three sets of board-approved open-meeting minutes, the final plat, the assessment payment schedule, unassessed special assessments, any §33-442 transfer fee, an income-and-expense statement for operating and reserve accounts, outstanding violations — deliverable electronically inside ten days, still for $400 (§33-1806, §33-1260).
7. Calendar §33-1810. Engage the audit, review or compilation so it completes within 180 days of fiscal year end, and be ready to deliver it within thirty days of a member request. There is no size exemption.
8. Retire proxies and adopt an absentee ballot meeting all seven tests, including the seven-day return window and one-year retention of ballots, envelopes and sign-in sheets (§33-1812; §33-1250) — then adopt a records-retention resolution, because Arizona gives you none (§33-1805).

Boards intending to stay self-managed should read how to self-manage an HOA and can run fund accounting, collections, elections and resale packages on HOA Fiscal. If you also operate in Washington, the parallel guide is Washington HOA laws in 2026: the complete WUCIOA guide — a useful contrast, because Washington regulates reserves and audits heavily where Arizona regulates disclosure and collections instead.

Frequently asked questions

What HOA laws change in Arizona on September 12, 2026?

Four. S.B. 1246 raises the condominium foreclosure threshold from one year or $1,200 to eighteen months or $10,000 (§33-1256) and adds to both chapters that “for any special assessment with an initial value of $10,000 or more, only the eighteen-month delinquency threshold applies.” S.B. 1290 inserts “without action” into §33-1804(A), so a planned-community board may consider but not vote in closed session. H.B. 2397 expands resale disclosure contents in §33-1806 and §33-1260 without changing the fees. H.B. 4011 creates §33-1821 and §33-1242(E), a statutory duty to act reasonably. September 12, 2026 is Arizona’s general effective date for the 2026 session.

Can an Arizona HOA foreclose for unpaid dues?

Yes, but late. Under §33-1807(A) a planned-community lien may be foreclosed “only if the owner has been and remains delinquent in the payment of any assessment or portion of the assessment for a period of eighteen months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first,” and only after reasonable efforts to communicate and an offered payment plan. Condominiums stay at one year or $1,200 under §33-1256 until September 12, 2026. Fines and other member expenses cannot be foreclosed at all (§33-1807(B)), and the lien is extinguished if enforcement is not started within six years.

How much can an Arizona HOA raise dues?

For a planned community, not more than 20 percent over the immediately preceding fiscal year’s regular assessment without approval of a majority of the members — and less if the community documents set a lower limit (§33-1803(A)). The cap covers the regular assessment only; special assessments are not limited by it. Arizona condominiums have no cap under §33-1255; owners instead get a ratification meeting under §33-1243(D), where the budget passes unless a majority of all unit owners rejects it.

Does an Arizona HOA need a reserve study?

No. No Arizona statute requires a reserve study, reserve funding or any particular reserve investment, for planned communities or condominiums. The only statutory mention is disclosure: the resale package must include “a copy of the most recent reserve study of the association, if any” and state the total money held as reserves (§33-1806(A)(3)(d), (A)(6); §33-1260). Fannie Mae’s project standards push condominiums toward a current study, but those are lender conditions on individual loans, not legal requirements on the association.

Does an Arizona HOA need an audit?

Every Arizona association owes an annual financial audit, review or compilation under §33-1810 — or §33-1243(J) for condominiums — with no revenue threshold and no small-association exemption. It must be “completed no later than one hundred eighty days after the end of the association’s fiscal year” and made available on request within thirty days of completion. A CPA audit specifically is required only if the governing documents require one. Most small associations satisfy the statute with a compilation.

What is the maximum late fee an Arizona HOA can charge?

The greater of $15 or 10 percent of the unpaid assessment, and only after the association has given notice that the assessment is overdue or that it is considered overdue after a certain date (§33-1803(A)). A payment is late once unpaid fifteen or more days after its due date unless the documents allow longer. The same $15-or-10% cap applies to late payment of a penalty under §33-1803(B). Money paid on an unpaid assessment applies first to principal, then to accrued interest.

What can an Arizona HOA charge for a resale disclosure?

An aggregate of $400 for resale disclosure, lien estoppel and any other transfer-related service, plus up to $100 for rush service inside seventy-two hours, plus up to $50 for an update when thirty or more days have passed (§33-1806(C); §33-1260(C)). The fees are collected no earlier than close of escrow, once per transaction, and no other transfer fee is permitted — a violation carries a civil penalty of up to $1,200. H.B. 2397 expands the required contents on September 12, 2026 but does not change these amounts.

Does S.B. 1290 apply to condos?

No. S.B. 1290 amends only §33-1804, the planned-community open-meeting section. From September 12, 2026 an HOA board may close a portion of a meeting only for consideration “without action” of the five statutory grounds — it may discuss, but not vote or decide. The condominium section, §33-1248, is not amended and still permits a condominium board to act in a properly closed session. This is one of the five real divergences between the two chapters.

Can an Arizona HOA use proxies?

Not after declarant control ends. Section 33-1812(A) provides that “after termination of the period of declarant control, votes allocated to a unit may not be cast pursuant to a proxy,” notwithstanding anything in the community documents, with an exception only for timeshare associations. The association must provide for voting in person and by absentee ballot, and may add email or fax delivery. Condominiums are the same after declarant control under §33-1250(C), but §33-1250(B) expressly allows proxies during the declarant period, void if undated and terminating one year after the date.

Dynamite Management runs financials and collections for Arizona associations — the 30-day certified notice, the payment-application order, the payoff statement inside 10 days — inside HOA Fiscal, from Vancouver, Washington. See how condo and HOA financial management works or contact us.

Doug McLain is the owner of Dynamite Management and founder of HOA Fiscal, a former CPA who audited association financial statements, and a community association manager for more than 20 years. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm the current text of any section before relying on it.