Alabama HOA Board Elections

1. Overview: How board elections are governed in Alabama

In Alabama, how a board gets elected depends on what kind of community is holding the election — and the gap between a condominium and a planned community is wide. Condominiums created on or after January 1, 1991 elect their boards under a single statute: the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991, Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 et seq.,¹ which draws on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act. Condominiums created before that date still answer to the older Alabama Condominium Ownership Act, Ala. Code § 35-8-1 et seq.,² and that law says far less about elections, leaning almost entirely on the declaration and bylaws. Planned communities — the non-condominium homeowners' associations — created on or after January 1, 2016 fall under the Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, Ala. Code § 35-20-1 et seq.³ But that statute barely touches elections. It covers declarant control, notice of the first election, and how candidates get nominated, and then it hands the rest to the recorded CC&Rs and bylaws, backed by the corporate defaults in Title 10A, the Alabama Business and Nonprofit Entities Code.⁴

Alabama has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it carries no Davis-Stirling-style election machinery — no statutory secret-ballot mandate, no independent inspector of elections, no fixed timetable for nominations or ballots. For most planned communities, that makes Alabama a governing-documents-first state, where the bylaws, read against Title 10A, do most of the work. The sections that follow lay out what each statute settles and what it leaves to the documents.

2. The election framework

2A. The 1991 Condominium Act: board governance and declarant control

For condominiums created after January 1, 1991, the executive board acts for the association under Ala. Code § 35-8A-303, and the unit owners elect that board once declarant control ends.⁵ The 1991 Act sets up a declarant-control period first, during which the declarant may appoint and remove board members and officers (§ 35-8A-303(d)). Then control phases out on fixed triggers. No later than 90 days after the declarant has conveyed 25 percent of the units that may be created to other owners, those owners must elect at least one board member and at least 25 percent of the board; no later than 90 days after 50 percent have been conveyed, they must elect at least 33 1/3 percent (§ 35-8A-303(e)).⁵ And no later than the end of any declarant-control period, the owners must elect a board of at least three members, a majority of them owners other than the declarant (§ 35-8A-303(f)).⁵

That provision fixes the floor on board size and composition. Everything more specific — the exact number of seats, the officer titles, terms, qualifications, and the way members are elected, removed, and replaced — the bylaws have to handle under § 35-8A-306(a).⁶ The Act requires at least one association meeting a year (§ 35-8A-308)⁷ and sets a default quorum of 20 percent of the votes that may be cast for the board, unless the bylaws say otherwise (§ 35-8A-309).⁸ Proxies are expressly allowed (§ 35-8A-310).⁹ Because the Act follows the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act rather than UCIOA, it leaves out the detailed election machinery you find in California's Davis-Stirling Act; beyond the declarant-control triggers, the numbers are mostly the governing documents' job.

2B. Pre-1991 condominiums

Condominiums created before January 1, 1991 answer to the Alabama Condominium Ownership Act, Ala. Code § 35-8-1 et seq.² Its election framework looks different from the 1991 Act's, and it is noticeably thinner: § 35-8-10 tells the bylaws to set the form of administration, the titles of officers and board members, the powers, duties, and manner of selecting, removing, and compensating them, plus the method of calling meetings and the quorum percentage.¹⁰ The statute itself fixes no declarant-control triggers, no term lengths, and no notice periods — those live in the declaration and bylaws. Which act applies turns on when the condominium was created, which generally means the date the declaration was recorded. The 1991 Act reaches back to pre-1991 condominiums only for a short list of sections under § 35-8A-102, and the board-governance, meeting, quorum, and voting sections (§§ 35-8A-303 and 35-8A-308 through 35-8A-310) are not on it.¹¹ So a pre-1991 condominium runs its elections under its own documents and Chapter 35-8, not under the 1991 Act's election rules.

2C. Planned communities and the corporate-law election framework

Alabama does have a planned-community statute — the Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, Ala. Code § 35-20-1 et seq. — but it is not a full election code. It applies to developments under a declaration recorded with the judge of probate, and by its terms it governs associations created on or after January 1, 2016; associations formed before then can opt in through their declaration (§ 35-20-3).³ On elections, the Act does three discrete things. It lets the declaration set a declarant-control period for electing directors (§ 35-20-7).¹² It requires the declarant to give written notice of the first owner election "[w]ithin 120 days of the date the members have the right to elect a board of directors," and to "[p]rovide for nominations of candidates for election to the board of directors at the meeting on the written consent of at least 10 percent of the membership, unless otherwise provided in the governing documents" (§ 35-20-9).¹³ And it makes the declaration control where it conflicts with other governing documents (§ 35-20-8).¹⁴

Past those three points, the Act supplies no board size, no term length, no quorum percentage, and no vote threshold. The order of precedence runs from any applicable statute, to the recorded declaration (the CC&Rs), to the bylaws, to the rules. The Act expressly borrows the law of nonprofit corporations in Title 10A as a tool of construction (§ 35-20-4), and it requires associations formed on or after January 1, 2016 to organize as nonprofit corporations (§ 35-20-5).¹⁵ Title 10A then fills in the corporate defaults for the number of directors, their election, terms, removal, and vacancies, plus member-meeting formalities, wherever the bylaws go silent.¹⁶ Common-law contract and property doctrine governs how you read the CC&Rs and bylaws when they are unclear. The takeaway for a planned community is straightforward: the rulebook for any election is the bylaws read against Title 10A, with only a thin overlay from the HOA Act. A manager cannot point to a detailed "Alabama HOA election law," because the statute does not supply most of the mechanics.

3. Election mechanics

Quick-Reference Election Mechanics Table

A. Eligibility and nominations

For post-1991 condominiums, the statute sets just one eligibility rule: once declarant control ends, a majority of the at-least-three-member board must be unit owners other than the declarant (§ 35-8A-303(f), mandatory). Any further qualifications are a bylaw matter (§ 35-8A-306(a)(3), and the documents can vary them).^5,6 Pre-1991 condominiums leave eligibility entirely to the bylaws (§ 35-8-10).¹⁰ For planned communities, eligibility is contractual — the CC&Rs and bylaws decide it — and the one statutory nomination rule is the HOA Act's first-election provision, which directs the notice to "[p]rovide for nominations of candidates for election to the board of directors at the meeting on the written consent of at least 10 percent of the membership, unless otherwise provided in the governing documents" (§ 35-20-9(b)(2)).¹³

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Post-1991 condominiums have to hold at least one association meeting a year (§ 35-8A-308, mandatory)⁷ and default to a 20 percent quorum unless the bylaws provide otherwise (§ 35-8A-309(a), which the bylaws can change).⁸ The Act sets no fixed number of days for election notice, so that comes from the bylaws. Pre-1991 condominiums draw their meeting and quorum rules straight from the bylaws under § 35-8-10.¹⁰ For planned communities, the only statutory timing rule is the HOA Act's command that, "[w]ithin 120 days of the date the members have the right to elect a board of directors," the declarant give written notice of the first owner election (§ 35-20-9(a)).¹³ Routine annual-meeting notice and quorum are corporate (Title 10A) and contractual (the bylaws), not fixed by any HOA election statute.

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

For post-1991 condominiums, § 35-8A-310 expressly authorizes proxies, and it spells out how multiple owners of one unit cast their votes; every other method is a bylaw matter.⁹ Alabama imposes no statutory secret-ballot requirement, no inspector-of-elections mandate, and no cumulative-voting default for condominiums. Pre-1991 condominiums rely on the bylaws (§ 35-8-10).¹⁰ For planned communities, the bylaws and Title 10A set the voting method. The HOA Act does not prescribe ballots, and Alabama has no statute on electronic voting for associations — so an association needs authority in its own documents before it can vote that way.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

No Alabama statute fixes term length, term limits, or staggering; the documents set them for all three community types (condos under § 35-8A-306(a)(3) or § 35-8-10; planned communities under the bylaws plus Title 10A, which permits classed terms).^6,17 On removal, post-1991 condominiums follow a mandatory statutory rule: "the unit owners, by a two-thirds vote of all persons present in person and entitled to vote at any meeting of the unit owners at which a quorum in person is present, may remove any member of the board with or without cause, other than a member appointed by the declarant" (§ 35-8A-303(g)).⁵ Pre-1991 condominiums leave removal to the bylaws. For planned communities, removal is corporate and contractual: Title 10A supplies the default — under the new Chapter 3A, § 10A-3A-8.08 lets members remove a director with or without cause unless the governing documents say otherwise — and the CC&Rs and bylaws fill in the rest.¹⁸ On vacancies, a post-1991 condominium board may fill a vacancy for the unexpired term (§ 35-8A-303(b));⁵ planned communities use the Title 10A vacancy rule (§ 10A-3-2.10 or § 10A-3A-8.10) plus their own documents.¹⁹

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

Alabama does not legislate much on HOAs, and no recent bill has amended the board-election provisions of the 1991 Condominium Act, the Condominium Ownership Act, or the election sections of the HOA Act. The changes that matter recently are to Title 10A — the corporate code that supplies the director-election defaults for incorporated associations.

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

No proposal to enact a comprehensive Alabama planned-community election statute — or to bolt Davis-Stirling-style election machinery onto the 1991 Condominium Act or the HOA Act — has advanced in the current session.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Alabama lands in the middle of the national spectrum on board elections. It has a condominium statute — the 1991 Act — that gives post-1991 condominiums real election structure: a declarant-control phase-out, a minimum board size, an in-person removal threshold, and proxy authority. But its planned-community statute, the HOA Act, is thin, offering only declarant-control, first-election-notice, and nomination provisions and leaving the rest to the CC&Rs, bylaws, and Title 10A. That puts Alabama among the CC&R-primary states — alongside Arkansas and Mississippi — for the planned-community majority. It stands apart from comprehensive-statute states like California (Davis-Stirling), Florida (Chapters 718 and 720), and Texas (Property Code), and from UCIOA states like Alaska, Colorado, and Vermont, where a statute supplies the election mechanics that Alabama leaves to the documents. For a multi-state operator, the practical rule in Alabama is simple: community type tells you whether to read a statute or the bylaws first. A condominium starts with Chapter 35-8A or 35-8; a planned community starts with the bylaws and Title 10A.

Federal frameworks also reach Alabama associations no matter what the state framework says — the Fair Housing Act and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act in particular, along with the ADA, the FDCPA, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

1. Ala. Code § 35-8A-101 (Alabama Uniform Condominium Act of 1991; short title), Code of Alabama via Alabama Legislative Information System ↩
2. Ala. Code §§ 35-8-1 through 35-8-22 (Condominium Ownership Act), Code of Alabama ↩
3. Ala. Code § 35-20-1 et seq. (Alabama Homeowners' Association Act, Act 2015-292), Code of Alabama ↩
4. Ala. Code § 35-20-4 (Construction and administration; incorporating the law of nonprofit corporations in Chapter 3 of Title 10A) ↩
5. Ala. Code § 35-8A-303 (Executive board members and officers; subsections (b), (d), (e), (f), (g)) ↩
6. Ala. Code § 35-8A-306 (Bylaws; required content, including number of board members and manner of electing and removing members) ↩
7. Ala. Code § 35-8A-308 (Meetings; at least one association meeting each year) ↩
8. Ala. Code § 35-8A-309 (Quorums; 20 percent default unless the bylaws provide otherwise) ↩
9. Ala. Code § 35-8A-310 (Voting; proxies) ↩
10. Ala. Code § 35-8-10 (Bylaws of association; form of administration, officers, selection and removal, meetings, and quorum) ↩
11. Ala. Code § 35-8A-102 (Applicability; list of sections reaching pre-1991 condominiums, which excludes §§ 35-8A-303 and 35-8A-308 through 35-8A-310) ↩
12. Ala. Code § 35-20-7 (Election of a board of directors and officers; modification of declaration; declarant-control period) ↩
13. Ala. Code § 35-20-9 (Notice of election; 120-day first-election notice and 10-percent nomination-consent rule) ↩
14. Ala. Code § 35-20-8 (Priority of declaration) ↩
15. Ala. Code § 35-20-5 (Organization of associations; nonprofit-corporation organization required for associations created on or after January 1, 2016) ↩
16. Ala. Code §§ 10A-3-2.03, 10A-3-2.06, 10A-3-2.09, 10A-3-2.10 (Nonprofit-corporation notice, member quorum, director number/election/terms/removal, and vacancies) ↩
17. Ala. Code §§ 10A-3A-8.04, 10A-3A-8.05, 10A-3A-8.06 (Chapter 3A: selection of directors, terms of directors, staggered terms) ↩
18. Ala. Code § 10A-3A-8.08 (Removal of directors by members or other persons) ↩
19. Ala. Code § 10A-3A-8.10 (Vacancy on board) ↩
20. H.B. 267, Act 2023-503 (enrolled), 2023 Reg. Sess. (Ala. 2023) (adding Chapter 3A to Title 10A), Alabama Legislative Information System ↩
21. S.B. 112, 2024 Reg. Sess. (Ala. 2024), effective Aug. 1, 2024, as summarized in Wolters Kluwer/CT Corporation, Alabama Legislative Updates (cross-verify at the Alabama Legislative Information System) ↩
22. Ex parte Caribe Resort Condo. Ass'n Bd. of Dirs., Nos. SC-2023-0624 & SC-2024-0762 (Ala. Dec. 13, 2024) (citing Ala. Code § 10A-3-2.44(2)) (cross-verify at publicportal.alappeals.gov) ↩
23. Balch & Bingham LLP, Analysis of Ex parte Caribe Resort, including Justice Sellers's partial concurrence and dissent and the opinion's plurality status ↩
24. Howard Ross v. West Wind Condo. Ass'n, No. CL-2023-0829 (Ala. Civ. App. Nov. 8, 2024) and related appeals (cross-verify at publicportal.alappeals.gov) ↩