2026-08-04 · Delaware · Regulation

Delaware has no register of its common interest communities. Its own Common Interest Community Ombudsperson estimates there are more than 3,000 of them, and reports that the office cannot identify which of roughly 1.5 million Delaware corporations they are — because the Division of Corporations stores Annual Franchise Tax Reports as unsearchable image files.

The finding, and the statutory duty it frustrates, are in the office's 2024 annual report, dated December 18, 2025.¹

The duty and the obstacle

Registration is a statutory charge, not an aspiration. The office is directed to it under 29 Del. C. § 2546(f)(1)(d).²

The obstacle is a records-format problem. Delaware corporations file an Annual Franchise Tax Report. If those reports were machine-readable, the state could identify community associations among its corporate population by querying them. They are images, so it cannot.

What the office drafted

This is further along than most recommendations. The Ombudsperson drafted an actual bill in 2024 and presented it to the Advisory Council's Legislation Committee. Its mechanism is deliberately light: use the Annual Franchise Tax Report itself as the registration vehicle, via a supplemental form, plus a required email address.

The Community Associations Institute's Government Affairs office asked the Ombudsperson to present the bill for comment.

It has never been introduced. No sponsor filed it in the 153rd General Assembly, and the legislature's database shows zero bills of any kind pre-filed for the 154th, which convenes in January 2027.

1. Delaware DOJ, Common Interest Community Ombudsperson, 2024 Annual Report, Dec. 18, 2025 — CIC registration, the 3,000+ estimate, and the unsearchable-image-file finding ↩
2. 29 Del. C. ch. 25, subch. IV — § 2546(f)(1)(d), the registration charge ↩
3. Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Authority, board meeting minutes, Dec. 11, 2025 — HOA listing compliance policy ↩