Virginia HOA laws and regulations - 2026 guide

The Virginia Property Owners' Association Act (POAA), often called the Virginia Homeowners Association Act, governs most Virginia HOAs. It sits at Title 55.1, Chapter 18 of the Virginia Code, §§ 55.1-1800 through 55.1-1836, and applies to planned developments with declarations recorded after January 1, 1959 plus subdivisions created under the Subdivided Land Sales Act (§ 55.1-1801).

The current section numbers date from the July 1, 2019 recodification (Acts 2019, c. 712); any citation to old Title 55 is obsolete.

Two other statutes fill in what the POAA leaves out. The Virginia Condominium Act (Title 55.1, Chapter 19) covers condominium regimes, which the POAA expressly excludes along with cooperatives and time-shares. The Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act (Title 13.1, Chapter 10) applies because most Virginia HOAs incorporate as nonstock corporations. It supplies defaults on quorum and director duties, including conflicts of interest, wherever the POAA is silent.

Two more chapters matter to owners. Since July 1, 2023, every resale disclosure rule lives in the Virginia Resale Disclosure Act (Title 55.1, Chapter 23.1); Acts 2023, cc. 387 and 388 repealed the old POAA disclosure sections, §§ 55.1-1808 through 55.1-1814. Title 54.1, Chapter 23.3 creates the state regulator and the Ombudsman.

The POAA sections a rental owner will use most often:

The Common Interest Community Board (CICB), a policy board inside the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), registers and disciplines Virginia HOAs. Under § 54.1-2348 the Governor appoints its 11 members: three community managers, one attorney practicing association law, one CPA who audits associations, one time-share representative, two developers, and three citizens.

The board writes the regulations, issues certificates of registration, and approves manager training. It also sets the license and certification criteria for paid CIC managers.

This is a licensing track for people who manage communities professionally in Virginia, not a credential homeowners must obtain merely because they own property in a community.

Every property owners' association must register within 30 days after its declaration is recorded (a condominium association registers within 30 days after declarant control ends) and file an annual report on DPOR form A492-0550ANRPT-v12.

18VAC48-60-60 sets fees effective December 31, 2025 at $45 initial and $30 renewal for communities of 1–50 lots, rising to $180 initial and $170 renewal above 5,000 lots. An association that lets registration lapse for more than 12 months must start over with a new application.

Registration controls the association's ability to collect resale certificate fees. An HOA that is not registered, current on its annual report, and current on board assessments cannot lawfully collect those fees (18VAC48-60-14(B)).

The CICB can also issue cease-and-desist orders after notice and hearing (§ 54.1-2352), seek an injunction in court, and levy a monetary penalty of up to $1,000 per violation against a governing board (§ 54.1-2351(H)). Check an association's registration status on the DPOR website before you close on a lot in it.

The Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, also inside DPOR, handles owner complaints, but only about violations of state law and CICB regulations. Its determinations do not bind the association. DPOR states the office cannot give legal advice or award damages. It also cannot enforce your declaration or bylaws, overturn a board vote, or intervene in an association's internal affairs except to prevent or cure a statutory violation.

State statute outranks every association document, and each document below it must trace its authority upward. When two sources conflict, the ranking runs:

1. Federal and state law.§ 55.1-1830 deems every declaration provision severable and voids any provision that is unlawful. Open-meeting rules in § 55.1-1816 apply 'without regard to whether the property owners' association is incorporated or unincorporated.'
2. The recorded declaration.Under Nonstock Act § 13.1-814.1, when the declaration conflicts with the articles of incorporation or bylaws on dues, assessments, fees, or membership, 'the community association's declaration or condominium instruments shall control.' Fine authority exists only if the declaration or rules adopted under it 'expressly so provide' (§ 55.1-1819).
3. Articles of incorporation and bylaws.Where these are silent, the Nonstock Act supplies defaults: a quorum of members holding one-tenth of the votes (§ 13.1-849), directors elected by plurality with no cumulative voting (§ 13.1-852), and proxies valid for 11 months when no term is stated (§ 13.1-847).
4. Board-adopted rules and regulations.The Supreme Court of Virginia in Sully Station II v. Dye (2000) held that 'the initial inquiry must be whether the Association acted within the scope of its authority under the Declaration and other governing documents. Reasonableness does not become an issue until it is determined that the Association did not violate the Declaration.'

Amendments follow the same logic. A general power to 'modify' a declaration does not authorize adding a brand-new restrictive covenant; the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed that holding in Dorcon Group, LLC v. Westrick on June 6, 2024. And a mortgagee who receives notice of a proposed declaration amendment has 60 days to object in writing under § 55.1-1829; silence counts as consent.

§ 55.1-1807 guarantees every member in good standing the right to vote in proportion to ownership interest and inspect association records. It also guarantees the right to receive meeting notices and challenge fines. The definition of 'lot owner' in § 55.1-1800 includes people who own a lot to rent it out, so a landlord holds the same rights as an owner-occupant.

Use this list to check whether your association is honoring them:

• Records: submit a written request, and the association must make records available within 5 business days if professionally managed or 10 business days if self-managed (§ 55.1-1815). The right 'shall exist without reference to the duration of membership,' so a lot you bought last month qualifies. If the board refuses, a circuit court can order inspection at the corporation's expense and award your attorney fees if the refusal lacked a reasonable basis (§ 13.1-935).
• Member meetings: you are owed at least 14 days' notice of the annual or any regularly scheduled meeting and 7 days' notice of other meetings, and you may vote by absentee ballot or proxy. The association must hold at least one annual meeting.
• Board meetings: you may attend every one, record any open portion, and speak during the required member comment period. The association must make agenda packets furnished to directors available for your inspection at the same time, except for executive session material.
• Communication: the board must set up a reasonable, effective, and free method for owners to communicate with each other and with the board about association matters (§ 55.1-1817).
• Selective charges: an HOA cannot bill you for something it does not bill every owner unless the charge is for a service provided, tied to common area use, or a resale fee authorized by § 55.1-2316. In Burkholder v. Palisades Park Owners Association (2023), the Court of Appeals of Virginia struck down inspection fees that the declaration did not expressly authorize.
• Rentals: total rental, application, and processing fees an association may charge you or your tenant cannot exceed $50 for the term of any lease (§ 55.1-1806).
• Home-based business: the HOA cannot ban one inside your residence unless the declaration says otherwise, though it may set reasonable time, place, and manner limits (§ 55.1-1821).
• Due process before any fine: the board must give you written notice and a chance to cure, followed by an opportunity for a hearing with counsel, as detailed in the next section.

A Virginia HOA can charge at most $50 for a single violation or $10 per day for a continuing violation, and the daily charge stops at 90 days, for a ceiling of $900 per continuing offense. These caps come from § 55.1-1819(D), last amended in 2021, and the 2025 and 2026 General Assembly sessions left them unchanged.

The limits and procedural requirements in one place:

Before a single dollar accrues, the board must send written notice to the address you use for meeting notices and give you a reasonable opportunity to correct the violation. If you do not, the board must offer you a hearing before the board or the tribunal named in the governing documents, with the right to be represented by counsel. The POAA does not specify a fixed 14-day hearing-notice period or a seven-day deadline for delivering the result. A board that imposes a charge without the required sequence creates a procedurally defective charge.

Two more limits shape the number. The board may fine only if the declaration or rules adopted under it 'expressly so provide'; a silent declaration means no fines at all. And once either side files suit, whether to collect, to enjoin, or to challenge the charges, 'no additional charges shall accrue.'

Fines are not the same as dues. Unpaid assessments are not subject to the $50 and $10 caps; they run through the lien statute, and under § 55.1-1824 the board may add a late fee, capped at the penalty rate in § 58.1-3915, to any installment unpaid 60 days after its due date. Fines do, however, become an assessment against your lot for lien purposes once the board validly imposes them.

An HOA holds a lien on every lot for unpaid assessments from the moment they are due, and since July 1, 2024 it has ten years after recording a memorandum of lien to foreclose. The 2024 amendments to § 55.1-1833 (HB 880, chapters 55 and 349) extended the enforcement window from 36 to 120 months and set a $5,000 minimum debt, excluding attorney fees and costs, before any foreclosure. No 2025 or 2026 bill touched the section.

The statutory sequence, with each deadline:

Two defects can invalidate or set aside a foreclosure. The association's principal officer must verify the memorandum by oath; a Virginia construction and community association law blog reports that courts have voided foreclosures where counsel signed instead. Separately, the statute says failure to comply with the advertisement requirements 'shall, upon petition, render a sale of the property voidable by the court.'

Lien priority protects your lender more than you. The HOA's perfected lien comes ahead of all later liens except real estate taxes, encumbrances recorded before the declaration, and sums unpaid on a mortgage or deed of trust recorded before the lien was perfected.

Sale proceeds pay expenses of sale first, followed by taxes and assessments. The HOA lien comes next, followed by junior claims, with any residue going to you.

If you finance acquisitions, factor assessment arrears into how you structure rental property loans in Virginia. A recorded HOA lien now sits on title for a decade.

All members of record may attend every board meeting, including any committee or subcommittee meeting where directors discuss association business, under § 55.1-1816(A), and the board may not use 'work sessions' or informal gatherings to get around that. The board must keep minutes and make them available under § 55.1-1815(B). Directors may not vote by secret or written ballot in an open meeting except for officer elections.

Notice for board meetings is looser than for member meetings. The statute requires publication 'where reasonably calculated to be available to a majority of lot owners' and sets no fixed number of days.

You can force better notice by filing a written request once a year with your name and address, including your zip code and email. The board must then send you notice of each board meeting by first-class mail or email. Special and emergency meetings need only notice 'reasonable under the circumstances,' delivered when directors receive notice.

Under § 55.1-1832 electronic notice and fully electronic meetings are allowed unless the declaration prohibits them, except that enforcement, lien, and foreclosure notices cannot go out electronically.

A board may close a meeting for only four purposes under § 55.1-1816(C):

• Personnel matters
• Consultation with legal counsel
• Contracts, pending or probable litigation, and violations of the declaration or rules
• Personal liability of members to the association

The procedure is as strict as the list. Directors must vote in open session to enter executive session, and the motion must state the specific purpose. The minutes must record that purpose, and directors must limit their discussion to it. Directors must reconvene in an open meeting and vote on the reasonably identified substance before any contract, motion, or action adopted behind closed doors takes effect.

In a 2023 determination involving Bull Run Swim & Racquet, the DPOR Ombudsman found the association 'may have been in violation of the statute in the past' because 'the board has not always provided a specific purpose for entering executive session, as required by § 55.1-1816(C).'

Directors owe the association their 'good faith business judgment of the best interests of the corporation' under Nonstock Act § 13.1-870. A director's interested transaction survives under § 13.1-871 only if the director disclosed the material facts and the board or members approved it, or the deal was fair to the corporation.

The board must commission a reserve study at least once every five years, review its results every year, and adjust the budget and annual assessment as needed to keep reserves adequate (§ 55.1-1826(B)). The 2024 amendment (c. 324, effective April 2, 2024) kept the five-year cadence word for word, and nothing changed in 2025 or 2026. DPOR's reserve study guidelines recommend a projection period of at least 20 years, typically 30, while stating they do not prescribe a methodology or standard of care.

The board must include reserve disclosures in the annual budget only when the study indicates a need to budget for reserves. When that happens, the budget must show each capital component's estimated replacement cost and remaining useful life. It must also show the accumulated cash reserves and the coming year's contribution.

The budget must include a statement of the procedures the board used to estimate and accumulate reserves. It must also compare the reserves the study recommends with the cash on hand.

A September 22, 2025 DPOR Ombudsman determination involving Menlough Culpeper HOA found that budgets frequently omit those last two statements and the current cost of maintaining capital components. When reserves fall short, the board may later levy a special assessment under § 55.1-1825 if it finds one in the association's best interests and spends the proceeds mainly on common areas and capital components. The board may also borrow under § 55.1-1826(D).

You see all of this in the resale certificate. Under § 55.1-2309(B), the association or its preparer must deliver the certificate within 14 calendar days after a seller's written request or the law deems it unavailable.

The DPOR standardized form (v07/01/2025) attaches the operating budget as Appendix 11 and the reserve study or its summary as Appendix 12.

The certificate must also disclose any restrictions on solar devices and flags, along with political-sign restrictions and the association's complaint procedure. Read Appendix 12 before you buy.

Fees are capped by a DPOR bulletin effective January 12, 2023 and amended July 1, 2023, with the next mandatory CPI adjustment scheduled for 2028:

The association may charge only one preparation-and-delivery fee per transaction. The buyer's escape hatch sits in § 55.1-2312: three days to cancel after contract ratification if the certificate arrived first, three days after receipt if it arrived later, and any time before settlement if it never arrived. Virginia Realtors noted in a June 2, 2026 piece that when a home sits inside two associations, the clock runs from delivery of the last certificate.

The POAA protects four uses that boards most often try to restrict. The scope differs by use: recorded governing documents may prohibit solar devices or EV chargers in specified circumstances, while flag and real estate sign protections follow their own statutory standards. None of these sections was amended in 2024, 2025, or 2026; a portable solar device law arrives in 2027, covered below.

The protections side by side:

Solar comes with a measurable reasonableness test for restrictions short of an outright declaration-based prohibition. A restriction is 'deemed not reasonable' if it 'increases the cost of installation by five percent over the projected cost of the initially proposed installation or ... reduces the energy production by 10 percent below the projected energy production of the initially proposed installation.' You carry the proof through documentation from a Virginia-licensed solar design specialist with NABCEP certification.

EV chargers shift liability to you. Any lot owner who installs one 'shall indemnify and hold the association harmless from all liability, including reasonable attorney fees incurred by the association resulting from a claim, arising out of the installation, maintenance, operation, or use of such electric charging station.' The association may also require you to carry insurance covering charger-related claims and to name it as an additional insured. If a tenant will be using the charger, confirm that your Virginia rental property insurance can add the association as an additional insured before you approve the install.

Flags flip the burden of proof. In any enforcement action over a flag restriction, 'the association shall bear the burden of proof that the restrictions as to the size, place, duration, and manner of placement or display of such flag are necessary to protect a substantial interest of the association.' You may also raise as an affirmative defense that the resale certificate never disclosed the flag limitation as § 55.1-2310 requires.

Signs protect your leasing pipeline. An HOA cannot require you to use its own sign or a real estate sign that fails Real Estate Board standards, and it must permit at least one sign on your lot. Political signs have no parallel statutory right; § 55.1-2310 only requires the resale certificate to disclose any limits on their size, placement, or duration.