Arkansas HOA Compliance
3. Compliance topics grid
1. Introduction
Consider Arkansas, where the common-interest framework is narrower than what you find in many larger HOA states. The Arkansas Horizontal Property Act, Ark. Code § 18-13-101 et seq., governs horizontal property regimes and condominium-style ownership through recorded master deeds, common elements, bylaws, expenses, and assessments.1 Non-condominium planned-community associations look elsewhere — to recorded covenants, and, when they organize as Arkansas nonprofits, to corporate governance under the Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993, Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq.2
When disputes start, they typically land in Arkansas circuit courts, which serve as general-jurisdiction trial courts, and parties take appeals to the Arkansas Court of Appeals and the Arkansas Supreme Court.3 The state's official resources point to the Arkansas Real Estate Commission as the regulator for real estate licenses and to the Attorney General as a consumer complaint office, not to a state HOA ombudsman.4
Recent activity in Arkansas is limited, but it isn't dormant. The 2025 session produced one significant amendment to the Horizontal Property Act and several failed bills aimed at property owners associations and short-term rentals.5 Put it all together, and Arkansas sits on the lower-prescription end of the U.S. HOA regulatory spectrum, leaning harder on private covenants, nonprofit governance, and ordinary civil litigation than on specialized state HOA administration.6
2. Primary statute and key resources
- Planned-community HOA baseline, recorded covenants and Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq. Non-condominium HOAs that operate through nonprofit entities look to Arkansas nonprofit entity law, and they take their property restrictions from recorded declarations and covenants.7
- Arkansas Horizontal Property Act, Ark. Code § 18-13-101 et seq. This statute serves as the state's main condominium and horizontal property regime law.8
- Arkansas Judiciary. Circuit courts handle trials as general-jurisdiction courts, and the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court handle the appeals.9
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission. AREC regulates Arkansas real estate licensees and processes license-law complaints. It does not run a separate HOA ombudsman program.10
- Arkansas Attorney General, Consumer Complaint. The Attorney General runs a public consumer complaint intake channel for Arkansas residents.11
4. Arkansas's recent regulatory landscape
Recent Legislation
Arkansas's 2025 session produced one substantive rewrite of the Horizontal Property Act, a wastewater-permit fix, and two failed bills that hint at where the next round of debate may land.
SB323 · Act 516 · 2025 Regular Session
Here is what this law does. The governor approved Act 516 on April 10, 2025, and it overhauls core condominium concepts in the Horizontal Property Act — apartment units, common elements, declarant and development rights, master deed contents, association or council operations, expense allocations, and assessment obligations.[12] The act applies to horizontal property regimes organized on or after September 1, 2025, and it lets older regimes opt in by amending and filing their master deed documents.[13] For acts that don't carry their own effective date, Arkansas agency guidance points to August 5, 2025, as the general effective date for 2025 acts without an emergency clause or specific date.[14]
| Property managers | New condominium projects need updated intake checklists covering master deed language, declarant rights, expense allocation, and assessment setup. |
| HOA board members | Pre-2025 condominium regimes don't get automatic coverage; boards should weigh whether an opt-in amendment makes sense. |
| Community association attorneys | Drafting work should separate new-regime compliance from legacy-regime opt-in decisions. |
| Homeowners | Unit owners in new regimes can expect clearer recorded documents on common elements, assessments, and declarant rights. |
SB546 · Act 935 · 2025 Regular Session
The governor approved Act 935 on April 21, 2025. It amends Ark. Code § 8-4-203 for nonmunicipal domestic sewage treatment works, including the rules that affect permit coverage for property owners associations and homeowners associations, and the fee calculations for certain trust fund contributions.[15] The act preserves compliant pre-December 31, 2017 permit coverage for a property owners association or homeowners association, while the statute continues to limit new, renewed, or transferred coverage after January 1, 2018, except as provided.[16]
| Property managers | Associations holding legacy wastewater permits need a permit file that shows compliance and dates of coverage. |
| HOA board members | Boards that oversee private sewage infrastructure should treat permits, trust fund fees, and renewal status as budget issues. |
| Community association attorneys | Counsel should confirm whether an association falls inside the legacy-permit category before advising on transfers or facility changes. |
| Homeowners | Private wastewater obligations can affect assessments when an association owns or operates covered infrastructure. |
HB1660 · 2025 Regular Session
HB1660 died in House committee when the session adjourned sine die on May 5, 2025.[17] The bill would have defined a property owners association as an incorporated nonprofit organization with at least 1,000 members, automatic membership tied to lot ownership, automatic charges, and services such as roads, sewer, trash, and water.[18] It also proposed possible Arkansas Legislative Audit review for certain property owners associations that provide services traditionally performed by local government.[19]
| Property managers | No audit duty took effect, but large service-providing POAs remain a category to watch. |
| HOA board members | Large POA boards should expect recurring legislative attention to public-service functions and financial transparency. |
| Community association attorneys | Counsel should preserve the bill history as a signal for future drafts aimed at large nonprofit POAs. |
| Homeowners | The bill did not create a new inspection or audit right, but it shows legislative interest in large associations. |
HB1790 · 2025 Regular Session
HB1790 died on the House calendar after failing third reading in April 2025.[20] The engrossed bill would have limited certain local-government restrictions on short-term rentals, while expressly stating that the section would not supersede an agreement between a homeowners association and a homeowner, a valid deed restriction, or a covenant.[21]
| Property managers | No statewide short-term-rental rule took effect, so covenant enforcement still depends on existing documents and local law. |
| HOA board members | Boards weighing rental amendments should keep local ordinances and private covenant language on separate review tracks. |
| Community association attorneys | The failed bill tells us HOA carveout language will likely return in future short-term-rental proposals. |
| Homeowners | HB1790 did not change existing private rental limits, because the bill failed. |
Recent Court Rulings
Two recent Arkansas decisions sharpen the procedural edges: when an association can recover fees in an injunction case, and what a clean record looks like in a condominium insurance dispute.
John McKisick v. Discovery Bay Colony Property Owners Association
Here's what the Court of Appeals did. It affirmed costs but reversed an attorney-fee award to a condominium property owners association, because the association sought injunctive relief only, and Arkansas law does not authorize attorney fees in injunction cases absent a separate basis.[22] The dispute started after a unit owner built a carport without board approval, and the governing documents treated carports as common elements that needed prior board approval.[23] The practical implication: covenant or bylaw enforcement framed as injunction-only litigation may not support fee recovery under Ark. Code § 16-22-308.[24]
| Property managers | Enforcement files should separate the remedy requested from the fee provision the association plans to use. |
| HOA board members | Boards should not assume a successful injunction automatically produces attorney-fee recovery. |
| Community association attorneys | Pleadings and governing-document claims call for early fee analysis before counsel chooses an injunction-only strategy. |
| Homeowners | Owners defending architectural enforcement claims should review both the remedy requested and the fee authority cited. |
Robert F. Boerner et al. v. Celina Richard et al.
The Court of Appeals affirmed an order granting reconsideration, a new trial, and vacatur in a horizontal property regime insurance-proceeds dispute, because the appellants did not challenge all the independent grounds supporting the circuit court's ruling.[25] The dispute involved Stonybrook Chateau Horizontal Property Regime, a fire loss to one condominium building, insurance proceeds, master deed percentages, bylaws, common elements, dues, and unresolved factual issues.[26] The practical implication is procedural: condominium insurance disputes need a record that cleanly supports allocation, ownership, assessment, and post-loss status positions before a final judgment lands.[27]
| Property managers | Insurance-loss files should preserve master deed allocations, bylaw provisions, meeting records, and assessment balances. |
| HOA board members | Boards should not decide major insurance allocations without clear minutes and document support. |
| Community association attorneys | Post-trial briefing should not introduce disputed facts that the parties never stipulated to or admitted into evidence. |
| Homeowners | Owners affected by casualty losses should track whether insurance proceeds tie to unit value, building loss, or regime-wide claims. |
Regulatory Developments
Arkansas's regulatory signal this cycle comes from the Real Estate Commission, which flagged the complaint categories driving its license-law docket through the end of 2025.
Arkansas Real Estate Commission
AREC's December 2025 newsletter flagged property conditions, lack of broker supervision, property management, and contract issues as the dominant complaint categories for licensees.[28] AREC also urged licensees who face complaint matters to work things out with complainants before the dispute reaches a hearing.[29]
| Property managers | Licensed managers should keep supervision, contract, and property-condition documentation organized before a complaint arrives. |
| HOA board members | Boards that hire licensed real estate professionals should confirm who supervises management activity and complaint response. |
| Community association attorneys | Counsel should separate AREC license issues from private covenant disputes when triaging complaints. |
| Homeowners | Complaints about licensed real estate conduct may fit AREC channels, while covenant disputes may need private remedies. |
Active Policy Debates
The clearest Arkansas policy signals from the 2025 session came from failed proposals — one on audit exposure for large property owners associations, and one on state limits for local short-term-rental regulation that would have preserved private HOA agreements and covenants.30,31 Those bills did not create current duties, but they remain practical items to monitor over the next 12 to 24 months.
5. Closing note
HOA Weekly's Arkansas coverage will grow as new bills, rulings, and agency materials produce verifiable state-law changes.32 Federal frameworks also reach into Arkansas associations — including the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the OTARD rule. Readers should use /federal/ once we build that section.33,34,35,36,37
Footnotes
- Arkansas General Assembly, Arkansas Code access, Ark. Code § 18-13-101 et seq. ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Arkansas Code access, Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq. ↩
- Arkansas Judiciary, Circuit Courts and appellate court resources ↩
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission, official site ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, SB323 bill detail, 2025 Regular Session ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Arkansas Code access, Title 18 and Title 4 ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Arkansas Code access, Ark. Code Title 4, Chapter 33 ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Arkansas Code access, Ark. Code Title 18, Chapter 13 ↩
- Arkansas Judiciary, Circuit Courts ↩
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission, 2024 Commission Regulations ↩
- Arkansas Attorney General, Consumer Complaint ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Act 516 of 2025, SB323 ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Act 516 of 2025, applicability section ↩
- Arkansas Insurance Department, Bulletin No. 9-2025 ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Act 935 of 2025, SB546 ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, Act 935 of 2025, permit coverage provisions ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1660 bill detail, 2025 Regular Session ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1660 bill text, property owners association definition ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1660 bill text, proposed audit review language ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1790 bill detail, 2025 Regular Session ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1790 engrossed bill text, short-term rental HOA carveout ↩
- John McKisick v. Discovery Bay Colony Property Owners Association, 2026 Ark. App. 223 ↩
- John McKisick v. Discovery Bay Colony Property Owners Association, facts and governing documents ↩
- John McKisick v. Discovery Bay Colony Property Owners Association, attorney-fee holding ↩
- Robert F. Boerner et al. v. Celina Richard et al., 2025 Ark. App. 217 ↩
- Robert F. Boerner et al. v. Celina Richard et al., Stonybrook Chateau Horizontal Property Regime facts ↩
- Robert F. Boerner et al. v. Celina Richard et al., procedural holding ↩
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission, December 2025 Newsletter ↩
- Arkansas Real Estate Commission, December 2025 Newsletter, complaint guidance ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1660 bill detail ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, HB1790 bill detail ↩
- Arkansas General Assembly, 2025 Regular Session bill search ↩
- HUD, Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act ↩
- ADA.gov, Americans with Disabilities Act official site ↩
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Debt Collection ↩
- U.S. Department of Justice, Guide to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act ↩
- Federal Communications Commission, Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule ↩