Arizona HOA Compliance
3. Compliance topics grid
1. Introduction
Consider the way Arizona handles its homeowners' associations. The state splits the work between two statutes: the Planned Communities Act, A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 16, which governs planned communities, and the Condominium Act, A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 9, which governs condominiums.1,2 The planned-community statute defines an association as a nonprofit corporation, or an unincorporated association, created under a declaration to own and operate common areas or facilities.3 When disputes turn into lawsuits, they generally begin in the Arizona Superior Court, move on to the Arizona Court of Appeals, and finally reach the Arizona Supreme Court as the court of last resort.4 Here is something to note: Arizona has no dedicated HOA regulator. The Arizona Department of Real Estate says plainly that it does not regulate HOAs, though state law does allow certain owner-association disputes to be filed with ADRE for possible referral to the Office of Administrative Hearings.5,6 Lawmakers have stayed busy. In 2025, they enacted measures on association meeting recordings, mixed-use condominium expense allocation, planned-community lien foreclosure thresholds, and political signs.7 Put it all together, and Arizona combines detailed association statutes, recurring legislative amendments, and an administrative dispute path for qualifying HOA and condominium disputes.8
2. Primary statute and key resources
- Arizona Planned Communities Act, A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 16. Section 33-1801 states the chapter applies to all planned communities, and it remains the foundational framework for planned-community governance.9
- Arizona Condominium Act, A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 9. Section 33-1201 states the chapter applies to all condominiums, and it serves as the specific statutory scheme for condominium governance in the state.10
- Arizona Judicial Branch, appellate courts. The Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court, and the Arizona Supreme Court is the court of last resort.11
- Arizona Department of Real Estate, HOA Dispute Information. ADRE says it does not regulate HOAs, but its process receives statutory HOA petitions for possible referral to the Office of Administrative Hearings.12
- Arizona Attorney General, Consumer Complaints. The office accepts consumer complaints involving alleged deceptive or unfair practices, though it does not act as a private attorney for homeowners.13
4. Arizona's recent regulatory landscape
Recent Legislation
Arizona's 2025 session reached into the corners of association practice: meeting recordings, mixed-use expense allocation, lien foreclosure thresholds, and political signs. Four bills, one effective date.
SB 1039 · Laws 2025, Ch. 13 · 2025 Regular Session
Here is what this law does. It amends A.R.S. 33-1248 and 33-1804, and it tells a condominium or planned-community board that records an open meeting to hold on to that recording for at least six months and to hand over the unedited version to a member who asks.[14][15]
| Property managers | Meeting-recording practices now need a retention step and a clear path for responding to member requests. |
| HOA board members | Choosing to record an open meeting now carries a six-month retention and disclosure obligation. |
| Community association attorneys | Meeting policies and production templates should account for both planned-community and condominium statutes. |
| Homeowners | Members have a clearer route to request unedited recordings when the board records an open meeting. |
HB 2322 · 2025 Regular Session
Here is a law for mixed-use buildings. The act sets out how condominiums that include commercial structures separate from residential structures should allocate their common expenses.[16][17]
| Property managers | Mixed-use condominium budgets need closer expense coding by structure type and benefit category. |
| HOA board members | Boards of affected condominiums should confirm that commercial and residential allocations match the amended statute. |
| Community association attorneys | Governing-document reviews should test whether existing expense provisions conflict with the new allocation rules. |
| Homeowners | Residential and commercial owners may see more specific explanations for how common expenses are assigned. |
SB 1494 · Laws 2025, Ch. 71 · 2025 Regular Session
The act amends A.R.S. 33-1807, and it raises the threshold for planned-community assessment-lien foreclosure to a delinquency of at least 18 months or $10,000, whichever arrives first.[18][19]
| Property managers | Collection workflows need threshold checks before foreclosure counsel is engaged. |
| HOA board members | Boards should separate ordinary collection activity from foreclosure decisions and document the statutory trigger. |
| Community association attorneys | Demand letters, foreclosure pleadings, and board resolutions should reflect the higher statutory threshold. |
| Homeowners | Planned-community owners receive a larger delinquency and time threshold before association lien foreclosure can begin. |
SB 1378 · 2025 Regular Session
The act expands the definition of a political sign in a homeowners' or condominium unit owners' association to include flags meant to influence the outcome of an election.[20][21]
| Property managers | Political-sign enforcement checklists should include qualifying election-related flags. |
| HOA board members | Boards should avoid treating qualifying flags differently from other covered political signs. |
| Community association attorneys | Rules and violation letters should be updated for the amended definition. |
| Homeowners | Owners gain statutory support for certain election-related flag displays in associations. |
Recent Court Rulings
Arizona's courts have been lining up boundaries: how boards take final action, what limits the lien-foreclosure statute imposes, and when accrued warranty claims can be assigned to an association.
A Z N H Revocable Trust v. Sunland Springs Village Homeowners Association
Here is what the Court of Appeals did. It took up board meeting procedures under Arizona association statutes and concluded that final board action belongs in open session, not in an executive-session vote. The practical takeaway is that associations should revisit their executive-session agendas, their open-session action items, and their voting practices.[22][23]
| Property managers | Agenda preparation should distinguish executive discussion from open-session action items. |
| HOA board members | Boards should avoid taking final votes in executive session. |
| Community association attorneys | Meeting protocols should be revised for agenda specificity and open-session action. |
| Homeowners | Members receive stronger visibility into board action that must occur in open session. |
Windrose Estates Homeowners Association v. Wright
The Court of Appeals held that A.R.S. 33-1807 displaced the common-law authority to set aside an HOA lien foreclosure sale solely because the sale price was grossly inadequate, and the court reinstated the sale after turning aside notice and service objections. The case is not closed. The Arizona Supreme Court docket lists a petition for review under CV-26-0021-PR, so watch for word on whether the high court will take it up.[24][25]
| Property managers | Delinquency files should preserve service history, notices, ledger support, and board authorization. |
| HOA board members | Foreclosure decisions require careful process review before the matter reaches sale. |
| Community association attorneys | Litigation strategy should account for the statutory foreclosure scheme and review status. |
| Homeowners | Failure to respond in the foreclosure action can materially limit later challenges to the sale. |
Pointe 16 Community Association v. GTIS-HOV Pointe 16, LLC
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an anti-assignment clause, one that barred assignment of a purchase agreement and buyer rights, did not stop homeowners from assigning accrued implied-warranty claims to their homeowners' association. The practical effect is this: Arizona associations may have a path to pursue assigned construction-defect claims, provided the assignment language and the claim posture line up with the opinion.[26][27]
| Property managers | Construction-defect intake should identify which owners have assigned claims and which common elements are implicated. |
| HOA board members | Boards considering defect litigation should separate association-owned claims from owner-assigned claims. |
| Community association attorneys | Assignment language, purchase agreements, and accrued-claim timing require close review. |
| Homeowners | Owners in affected projects may be able to assign certain accrued claims to the association for collective litigation. |
Regulatory Developments
Arizona's regulatory work is split between an administrative hearing path for some HOA disputes and a standing reminder from the Attorney General about what the Open Meeting Law does not cover.
Arizona Department of Real Estate / Office of Administrative Hearings
Under A.R.S. 32-2199.01, an owner or an association in a Title 33, Chapter 9 or Chapter 16 dispute can petition ADRE for a hearing on alleged violations of condominium documents, planned-community documents, or applicable statutes. The commissioner, or a designee, may then refer a qualifying petition to OAH. OAH, for its part, says qualifying petitions have to involve a dispute between a homeowner and a condominium or planned-community association.[28][29]
| Property managers | Petition responses should be treated as formal dispute files, with records, notices, and board authority collected early. |
| HOA board members | Boards should understand that some disputes may proceed through an administrative hearing rather than ordinary civil litigation. |
| Community association attorneys | Jurisdiction screening is important because the process excludes several categories of disputes. |
| Homeowners | The process gives owners and associations a statutory hearing route for qualifying document and statute disputes. |
Arizona Attorney General
The Arizona Attorney General is clear on this point: the Arizona Open Meeting Law does not apply to homeowners' associations.[30]
| Property managers | Meeting compliance should be based on the HOA and condominium statutes, not public-body Open Meeting Law procedures. |
| HOA board members | Boards should avoid assuming that public-agency meeting rules replace the association-specific statutes. |
| Community association attorneys | Advice should distinguish Title 33 association meeting statutes from the public-body Open Meeting Law. |
| Homeowners | Complaints about association meetings generally need to be framed under association law rather than the public Open Meeting Law. |
Active Policy Debates
During the 2026 Regular Session, the HOA measures introduced or engrossed included HB 2342 on planned-community shade structures, HB 2834 on ADRE petition filing fees, HB 2128 on association actions and meetings, and HB 4011 on HOA duties.31,32,33,34 Taken together, they tell us the legislature continues to pay close attention to architectural restrictions, meeting governance, administrative dispute access, and the standard for discretionary association action.
5. Closing note
Our look at Arizona is ongoing. HOA Weekly's coverage will grow as new bills, rulings, and regulatory developments come along. Federal frameworks also reach into Arizona associations where their jurisdictional elements are met, among them the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the OTARD rule. That federal coverage will be collected at /federal/.35
Footnotes
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 33-1801, Planned Communities Act applicability ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 33-1201, Condominium Act applicability ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 33-1802, planned-community definitions ↩
- Arizona Judicial Branch, Today's Court System Has Three Levels ↩
- Arizona Department of Real Estate, Homeowners Association Dispute Information ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 32-2199.01, hearing rights and procedures ↩
- Arizona Legislature, 2025 House Summary Complete, HOA-related enacted bills ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 32-2199.01, condominium and planned-community hearing process ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 33-1801 ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 33-1201 ↩
- Arizona Judicial Branch, Appellate Courts ↩
- Arizona Department of Real Estate, Homeowners Association Dispute Information ↩
- Arizona Attorney General, Consumer Complaints ↩
- Arizona Legislature, Laws 2025, Ch. 13, SB 1039 ↩
- Arizona Legislature, 2025 House Summary Complete, SB 1039 effective date ↩
- Arizona Legislature, HB 2322 House Bill Summary, signed version ↩
- Arizona Legislature, 2025 House Summary Complete, HB 2322 effective date ↩
- Arizona Legislature, Laws 2025, Ch. 71, SB 1494 ↩
- Arizona Legislature, 2025 House Summary Complete, SB 1494 effective date ↩
- Arizona Legislature, SB 1378 House Bill Summary, signed version ↩
- Arizona Legislature, 2025 House Summary Complete, SB 1378 effective date ↩
- Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, A Z N H v. Sunland Springs, No. 1 CA-CV 25-0424 ↩
- Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, AppellaDockets entry for A Z N H v. Sunland Springs ↩
- Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two, Windrose Estates Homeowners Association v. Wright, Nos. 2 CA-CV 2024-0074 and 2 CA-CV 2025-0058 ↩
- Arizona Supreme Court, Windrose Estates et al. v. Justin T. Wright, No. CV-26-0021-PR docket ↩
- Arizona Supreme Court, Pointe 16 Community Association v. GTIS-HOV Pointe 16, LLC, No. CV-24-0182-PR ↩
- Arizona Supreme Court, news release on Pointe 16 Community Association v. GTIS-HOV Pointe 16, LLC ↩
- Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. § 32-2199.01, petition and referral process ↩
- Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings, Homeowner Association Petitions ↩
- Arizona Attorney General, Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team complaint information ↩
- Arizona Legislature, HB 2342, Senate Engrossed, homeowners' associations; shade structures ↩
- Arizona Legislature, HB 2834 House Bill Summary, claims against HOAs; filing fees ↩
- Arizona Legislature, HB 2128, House Engrossed, homeowners' associations; condominiums; actions; meetings ↩
- Arizona Legislature, HB 4011 Senate Fact Sheet, HOAs; duties ↩
- HUD, Fair Housing Act overview; U.S. Department of Justice, ADA law and regulations; CFPB, debt collection resources; U.S. Department of Justice, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act; FCC, OTARD rule ↩