Colorado HOA Board Elections

Section 1: Overview — How board elections are governed in Colorado

Colorado governs the election of common-interest-community boards under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, known as CCIOA. The state built the act on the 1982 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it took effect on July 1, 1992. Colorado does not sit quietly on this subject. It ranks among the busiest HOA-legislating states in the country, and lawmakers tracked as many as 22 community-association bills in the 2024 session alone.^1,2 CCIOA lives in the statute books at Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-101 et seq.¹ The act applies in full to communities created on or after July 1, 1992, but a defined set of its provisions reaches back to communities created before that date. So the date a community came into being decides which election and governance rules control it.³ Most Colorado associations also incorporate under the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-121-101 et seq., which fills the gaps on director elections, terms, vacancies, and removal whenever CCIOA and the governing documents stay silent.⁴ CCIOA goes further: it requires every association to adopt written responsible-governance policies, including one on how it conducts meetings — and that policy speaks directly to how boards and members run their meetings and the elections held there.⁵ Colorado is one of five states that adopted the 1982 version of UCIOA, but it stands apart for how often it amends the act and for a retroactivity rule that reaches certain older communities.⁶ What follows lays out the election framework, the working mechanics, and the recent record from the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. CCIOA board governance and declarant control

CCIOA's executive-board provision, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-303, makes the executive board the body that acts for the association, and it puts the choice of board members in the owners' hands, not the board's. The board cannot elect its own members or set their qualifications, powers, or terms, though it may fill a vacancy for the unexpired portion of a term.⁷ A declaration may carve out a period of declarant control, during which the declarant appoints and removes board members.⁷ That period has to end. It terminates no later than the earliest of three dates: 60 days after the declarant conveys 75 percent of the units that may be created to other owners, two years after the declarant's last conveyance in the ordinary course of business, or two years after anyone last exercised a right to add new units. Large planned communities run on a longer clock — 60 days after 75 percent of the maximum permitted units, six years after the last conveyance, or 20 years after recordation.⁷ Owners do not wait until the end to take seats. They gain them in phases: at least one member, and no less than 25 percent of the board, within 60 days after a quarter of the units are conveyed; and no less than 33 and one-third percent within 60 days after half are conveyed.⁷ When control finally ends, owners elect a board of at least three members, and a majority of them must be owners other than the declarant.⁷ CCIOA pins these transition thresholds and the three-member floor to the statute itself, but it leaves board size above three, terms, and qualifications to each community's declaration and bylaws.⁸ California's Davis-Stirling Act spells out detailed election machinery, and states that built on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act take their own path; Colorado's 1982-UCIOA design instead sets the default and transition rules and hands most of the election detail to the community's own documents.

2B. Retroactive applicability and responsible governance policies

CCIOA applies in full to communities created on or after July 1, 1992. For communities created before that date, only the sections that Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-117 spells out apply.³ That list reaches several provisions that matter for elections: the meetings provision (§ 38-33.3-308(1), among others) and the heart of the voting-and-proxies provision (§ 38-33.3-310(1) and (2)) both reach pre-1992 communities, as do limited parts of the executive-board provision — § 38-33.3-303(1)(b), (3)(b), and (4).³ The declarant-control termination triggers, the director-removal provision, and the default quorum tell a different story. They never made the § 117 list, so they apply only to communities created on or after July 1, 1992.³ The responsible-governance-policies provision, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-209.5, requires every association to adopt policies on how it conducts meetings and on other governance questions; one subparagraph reaches pre-1992 communities, and the conduct-of-meetings policy shapes how member and board meetings, elections included, actually run.⁵ To pin down which rules govern a given election, a manager works in order: find the community's formation date, confirm whether § 117 reaches the relevant section, then check whether the association is incorporated and can draw on Nonprofit Act gap-fillers.³

2C. Voting, proxies, corporate law, and the bylaws

CCIOA's voting-and-proxies provision, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-310, authorizes proxy voting, ends a proxy 11 months after its date unless the proxy says otherwise, and requires a secret ballot for contested executive-board seats.⁹ CCIOA carries no standalone electronic-voting provision of its own; incorporated associations draw their authority for electronic and written ballots from the Nonprofit Corporation Act.⁴ The order of precedence runs in a clear line: CCIOA's non-variable provisions come first, then CCIOA's default rules as the declaration and bylaws modify them, then the unmodified CCIOA defaults, then the Nonprofit Corporation Act gap-fillers for incorporated associations, and finally the rules and policies the board adopts. Where CCIOA conflicts with another statute, CCIOA wins.¹⁰ The Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-121-101 et seq., supplies the corporate scaffolding — director terms, qualifications, vacancies, and removal — whenever the documents say nothing.⁴ The practical takeaway: a manager has to read the community's bylaws and required governance policies against CCIOA, and confirm, for each contested mechanic, whether the controlling provision reaches a pre-1992 community or applies only to a post-1992 one.³

Section 3: Election mechanics

A. Eligibility and nominations

CCIOA does not lay down general eligibility rules for directors. The bylaws set the number, qualifications, powers, and terms of board members, and those documents govern every community.⁸ For an incorporated association, the Nonprofit Corporation Act says a director need not be a member or a Colorado resident unless the bylaws require it — a default the bylaws can change.¹³ CCIOA does add one qualification of its own: anyone appointed after August 15, 2009, to chair a committee must meet the same requirements that apply to board membership.⁷ As for how candidates get nominated, the statute says nothing; the declaration and bylaws set the method.⁸

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

An association must hold a member meeting at least once a year, and it must give notice of any member meeting no less than 10 and no more than 50 days ahead of time. This notice rule, in § 38-33.3-308(1), binds every community no matter when it was created, and it is mandatory.^14,3 The default quorum for a member meeting is 20 percent of the votes that may be cast for the board — 10 percent for associations with more than 1,000 unit owners — and the bylaws may set a different figure. But the quorum provision, § 38-33.3-309, reaches only post-1992 communities, so pre-1992 communities fall back on their bylaws and, if incorporated, the Nonprofit Act's default of 25 percent.^15,4

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

CCIOA authorizes proxy voting, and a proxy expires 11 months after its date unless it says otherwise. This provision, § 38-33.3-310(2), applies to every community, and the parties may add to it but cannot waive it by agreement.^9,3 Contested executive-board seats must go to a secret ballot, and the statute directs that a neutral third party — or a committee of volunteers who are neither board members nor candidates — count the ballots.⁹ CCIOA itself holds no standalone electronic-voting provision. Incorporated associations may use written or electronic ballots under the Nonprofit Corporation Act, a route open to them wherever the governing documents do not forbid it.⁴

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

CCIOA does not fix director term length, term limits, or staggered terms. The declaration and bylaws set those, and where the bylaws stay silent the Nonprofit Act supplies a one-year default term and the authority to stagger terms.^11,12 Owners may remove a board member, with or without cause, by a vote of 67 percent of all persons present and entitled to vote at a meeting where a quorum is present — the exceptions being a declarant-appointed member or one elected by class vote. This provision, § 38-33.3-303(8), cannot be waived and applies to post-1992 communities, while pre-1992 communities look to their bylaws and the Nonprofit Act.^7,16,3 When a seat opens mid-term, the board may fill it for the unexpired portion of the term, and for an incorporated association the Nonprofit Act lets the remaining directors fill the seat.^7,17

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

One recent measure bears directly on the moment a board changes hands.

B. Recent appellate rulings

A review of the published opinions of the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court turns up no precedential decision in the past 36 months that squarely interprets CCIOA's provisions on board elections, the declarant-control transition, director removal, or proxies and voting.¹⁹ Disputes in this area still get resolved against the statutory text and older controlling authority, not against fresh published case law. Trial-level election disputes move through the Colorado District Courts, with appeals to the Colorado Court of Appeals — the intermediate appellate court — and discretionary review by the Colorado Supreme Court.¹⁹

C. Active legislative debates

Lately the General Assembly has aimed its attention at collections, foreclosure, reserves, and records — not at the mechanics of board elections. The last substantive change to the voting-and-proxies provision came in Senate Bill 22-059 (2022), which Senator Chris Holbert and Representative Edie Hooton sponsored; it amended Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-310 to cap a proxy's life at 11 months.²⁰

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Colorado is one of five states that adopted the 1982 version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, alongside Alaska, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia. Other UCIOA states — Connecticut, Vermont, and Washington among them — adopted later versions of the uniform act.⁶ Within that group, Colorado stands out three ways: it amends its act at a high pace (lawmakers tracked as many as 22 community-association bills in the 2024 session), it has built up a body of Colorado-specific provisions, and it applies a retroactivity rule that reaches certain pre-1992 communities.^2,3 Where a 1982-anchored state such as Alaska amends its act less often, Colorado revises CCIOA in most sessions; and where California's Davis-Stirling Act dictates detailed statutory election machinery, Colorado fixes the transition and default rules and leaves most of the election detail to each community's documents.¹ Colorado's election framework also sits beside a collections-and-enforcement regime that the legislature overhauled in recent sessions.⁵ For a multi-state operator, the lesson is practical: Colorado's pace of reform, its responsible-governance-policy requirement, and its applicability rule mean you check both the statute and the community's required policies for every contested election question.³

HOA Weekly's Colorado Board Elections coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the courts act. Federal frameworks — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the OTARD rule — also reach Colorado associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-101, Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, short title and editor's note on UCIOA basis (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2024 CCIOA text) ↩
2. Orten Cavanagh Holmes & Hunt, LLC, Colorado Community-Association Legislative Trackers (2024–2025 Sessions) ↩
3. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-117, Applicability to Preexisting Common Interest Communities; see also Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services, Application of the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA) in HOA Communities (https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/application_of_the_colorado_common_interest_ownership_act_ccioa_in_hoa_communities_-_colorado_law_summary.pdf) ↩
4. Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-121-101 et seq. (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2025 text) ↩
5. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-209.5, Responsible Governance Policies ↩
6. Community Associations Institute, UCIOA Adoption (1982-version states: Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, West Virginia) ↩
7. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-303, Executive Board Members and Officers (declarant-control termination, subsections (5)–(7); director removal, subsection (8)) ↩
8. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-306, Bylaws (number, qualifications, powers, duties, and terms of board members) (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2024 CCIOA text) ↩
9. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-310, Voting — Proxies ↩
10. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-319, Other Applicable Statutes (CCIOA supremacy clause) (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2024 CCIOA text) ↩
11. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-128-105, Terms of Directors Generally ↩
12. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-128-106, Staggered Terms for Directors (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2025 text) ↩
13. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-128-102, Qualifications of Directors ↩
14. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-308, Meetings ↩
15. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-309, Quorums ↩
16. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-128-108, Removal of Directors (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2025 text) ↩
17. Colo. Rev. Stat. § 7-128-110, Vacancy on Board (Colorado Division of Real Estate, 2025 text) ↩
18. H.B. 26-1099, Protect Financial Condition of Common Interest Communities, Colo. Gen. Assemb. (2026) ↩
19. Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Judicial Branch (intermediate appellate court) ↩
20. S.B. 22-059, Homeowners' Association Voting Proxy Limitations, Colo. Gen. Assemb. (2022) ↩