Indiana HOA Governing Statute
1. Overview — How HOAs are governed in Indiana
Indiana doesn't govern its community associations with one tidy code. It uses two. Planned communities — the neighborhoods of detached houses and townhomes — answer to the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act, found at Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1 and following, which took effect on July 1, 2009.1 Condominiums answer to something older and separate: the Indiana Condominium Law, which most people still call the Horizontal Property Law, at Ind. Code § 32-25-1-1 and following.2
The Homeowners Associations Act is the newcomer here. Before July 1, 2009, Indiana had no broad statute aimed at associations that weren't condominiums. Planned communities ran on their recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions — the CC&Rs — along with the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991 and ordinary common-law rules of contract and property.3 That history still shapes daily practice. The 2009 Act governs in full any HOA created after June 30, 2009. Associations formed before that date answer only to a handful of universally applicable provisions, unless their members vote to opt in.4
Indiana has not adopted UCIOA, the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Nine states have signed on to some version since it first appeared in 1982 — Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia under the 1982 text, and Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, and Washington under the 2008 revision. Indiana isn't one of them.5 So don't assume the features UCIOA brings — owner ratification of the budget, mandatory reserve studies, and the rest. In Indiana, compliance comes down to the specific words of Article 25 for condominiums, Article 25.5 for HOAs, the association's own recorded documents, and the nonprofit-corporation law that governs the entity.
2. The statutory framework
Start with the Homeowners Associations Act. The legislature added it to the Indiana Code through Public Law 167-2009, Section 2, and it took effect on July 1, 2009.1 Indiana drafted it on its own, not from the UCIOA template. The Act reaches two kinds of associations: any homeowners association created after June 30, 2009 that can impose mandatory dues, and any pre-2009 association whose members vote to bring themselves fully under it.4
Section 32-25.5-2-4 defines a "homeowners association" as a corporation or other entity organized and operated for the benefit of two or more people who each own a dwelling in fee simple, and that acquires, manages, maintains, repairs, or insures the land and improvements tied to those dwellings.6 Article 25.5 then runs through a series of chapters. Chapter 1 sets the Act's scope and its opt-in rules.4 Chapter 2 supplies the definitions — "board," "governing documents," "homeowners association," "real estate," and "subdivision."6 Chapter 3 carries the substance: the member roster, special meetings, the annual budget and records-inspection rights, contract approvals, borrowing, the required grievance procedure, suspension of voting rights, amendments to the governing documents, and proxies.7 Chapters 3.5 and 3.7 address restrictions on solar-energy systems and the regulation of beekeeping.8 Chapter 4 — once Section 32-25.5-3-8, added by Public Law 49-2011 — lets the Indiana Attorney General seek injunctive relief, restitution, removal of board members, and reimbursement against directors who misappropriate funds or commit fraud.9 Chapter 5, added by Public Law 141-2015, requires pre-litigation notice of a claim and a chance to meet before either side goes to court.10
Most of the records and meeting rules sit in Section 32-25.5-3-3. It requires an annual budget, a budget meeting, and member access to financial and corporate records — with a search fee capped at $200 in total and $35 an hour after the first hour — and it gives members the right to attend board meetings, except when the board takes up delinquent assessments or litigation.7 Section 32-25.5-3-2 makes the board call a special meeting whenever at least 10 percent of the members demand one in writing.11
The transition rules matter. Some provisions apply no matter when an association formed — among them the Attorney General's authority under Chapter 4 and the budget-meeting and records-inspection subsections at Section 32-25.5-3-3(g) through (m).4 The rest apply only to associations formed after June 30, 2009, or to older ones that opt in by member vote.4
Indiana's condominium statute is the older of the two. The legislature passed the Horizontal Property Act in 1963, revised it in 1977, and recodified it as Article 25 of Title 32 through Public Law 2-2002, Section 10.12 It governs real estate that has been "lawfully subjected to this article by the recordation of condominium instruments," where the undivided interests in the common areas belong to the unit owners, under Section 32-25-2-7.12 The people it covers include condominium unit owners, their tenants and employees, and anyone else using property submitted to the article, under Section 32-25-1-2.13
Article 25 breaks into nine substantive chapters: application of the law; definitions; classification of property; ownership interest in condominiums; conveyance procedures; liens and encumbrances; the declaration; administration of condominiums; grievance resolution at Chapter 8.5; and actions and proceedings.14 Chapter 7 controls the recorded declaration, including what it must contain under Section 32-25-7-1 and the supermajority needed to amend it under Section 32-25-7-7.15 Chapter 8 governs administration — bylaws, board meetings and co-owner attendance rights, structural alterations, common profits and expenses, separate tax parcels, records, insurance and casualty rules, and the expansion or removal of property.14 Chapter 8.5, added by Public Law 141-2015, sets a mandatory grievance process that mirrors the HOA Act's Chapter 5 for condominiums.16
The two statutes diverge in ways that trip people up. Article 25 builds in unit-ownership structures — undivided interests in common elements, separate tax parcels, casualty-reconstruction rules — that have no match under Article 25.5. The HOA Act, for its part, sets express member-vote thresholds for borrowing and for large new assessments under Sections 32-25.5-3-4 and -5, which Article 25 doesn't carry.7 Apply one statute's rules to the wrong kind of association, and you've created real liability exposure.
Inside each framework, the recorded declaration and the bylaws do most of the work, sitting on top of the mandatory statutory floor. Section 32-25.5-3-9, for example, requires HOA governing documents to allow amendment at any time, and it bars an amendment threshold higher than 75 percent of the membership for owner consent, or higher than 75 percent of eligible first-mortgage holders for mortgagee consent.17 (House Bill 1115 of 2026 drops that ceiling to two-thirds for amendments adopted on or after July 1, 2026 — more on that in Section 4.) Where the statute says nothing, the declaration and bylaws control. Where the statute speaks, it overrides any conflicting document.
Most Indiana HOAs and condominium associations organize as nonprofit corporations under the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991, Ind. Code § 23-17-1-1 and following.18 That Act supplies the default rules for membership meetings, governance, board fiduciary duties, indemnification, and remedies, including court-ordered meetings under Section 23-17-10-3. In Sandoval v. Willow Lake Estates, the Indiana Court of Appeals confirmed that when an association fails to hold its annual meetings, the fix is a judicial petition to compel a meeting under Section 23-17-10-3 — not invalidation of the association's actions.19
Common-law contract and property doctrine fills whatever gaps remain. Indiana courts read recorded covenants and declarations as express contracts and apply the ordinary rules of contract interpretation when the language is clear.20
3. Compliance obligations created by the statutory framework
Governance obligations
For non-condominium HOAs, Section 32-25.5-3-1 requires the association to keep a current roster of members and their addresses. Section 32-25.5-3-2 requires a special meeting when 10 percent of members demand one. And Section 32-25.5-3-3 requires an annual budget meeting while giving members the right to attend board meetings and inspect records — a mandatory right the declaration can't take away.7 Section 32-25.5-3-7 allows a suspension of voting rights only when the governing documents authorize it and the member is at least six months behind on assessments.21 For condominiums, Section 32-25-8-1 requires bylaws to govern administration; Section 32-25-8-2.5 gives co-owners the right to attend board meetings; and Section 32-25-8-8 requires detailed records of receipts and expenditures, open to co-owners and beyond the reach of a waiver in the bylaws.14
Financial obligations
Under the HOA Act, Section 32-25.5-3-3 requires an annual budget showing estimated revenues, expenses, and any surplus or deficit, plus a budget meeting where a majority of the members in attendance approve it — a default the declaration can adjust within statutory limits.7 Section 32-25.5-3-4 conditions any contract that would create a new assessment, or raise an existing one by more than $500 per member a year, on two board meetings and a two-thirds member vote.7 Section 32-25.5-3-5 requires member approval before an HOA borrows, except for enforcement actions or emergencies.7 Indiana imposes no UCIOA-style reserve study and no owner ratification of the budget; reserve funding is whatever the declaration says it is. For condominiums, Section 32-25-8-6 splits common expenses by undivided interest, and Section 32-25-8-7 requires each unit to stand as its own tax parcel.14
Disclosure obligations
Indiana requires anyone selling residential real estate that's subject to HOA documents to hand the buyer a statement of unpaid assessments and related charges at closing, under Ind. Code § 32-21-5-8.5.22 The HOA Act's records-inspection rights at Section 32-25.5-3-3 give members on-demand access to financial statements, signed contracts, bank statements, and minutes for the prior two-year retention window.7 Condominium associations carry parallel record-keeping duties under Section 32-25-8-8.14 Indiana sets no state license for community association managers; the Indiana Real Estate Commission's broker-licensing reach doesn't extend to non-leasing HOA management.23
Dispute resolution obligations
Chapter 5 of Article 25.5, added in 2015, requires HOAs to write a grievance process into their governing documents and bars either side from going to court until a written notice of claim has been delivered and a chance to meet has been offered.10 Chapter 8.5 of Article 25 places the same duty on condominium associations.16 Both statutes keep certain claims exempt, including foreclosure of assessment liens and claims already governed by a separate ADR clause.10 Section 32-25.5-3-6 requires an HOA's governing documents to include grievance procedures that apply to members and to the board alike.7
4. Indiana's recent legislative and judicial activity
Recent bills
Indiana's legislature moved hard on homeowners associations this session, tightening how boards set budgets, what they can charge, and how they run their meetings.
HEA 1152 · Public Law 53-2026 · 2026 Regular Session
HEA 1152, written by Rep. Ethan Lawson and passed by the Indiana House 87–1, amends Section 32-25.5-3-3. It lets a board adopt an annual budget without a quorum — up to 110 percent of the last approved budget during the developer's first five years of sales, and after that up to the lesser of 105 percent or the prior year's Midwest housing CPI. It bars HOAs and management companies from charging owners extra for services the regular assessment already covers. And it adds two new chapters: one on amateur-radio antennas (IC 32-25.5-3.4) and one on Class I child-care homes in single-family residences (IC 32-25.5-3.9). Gov. Mike Braun signed it on March 3, 2026.[24]
| Property managers | You'll need updated budget-meeting templates and revised fee schedules by July 1, 2026; you can charge for optional services only under a board-approved schedule sent to members each year. |
| HOA board members | The new chapters limit your covenants on amateur-radio antennas and Class I child-care homes; review any older provisions that conflict with counsel. |
| Community association attorneys | Run declaration audits against the quorum-exception and fee-prohibition language at § 32-25.5-3-3(n), and reconcile fine schedules with the HB 1115 changes. |
| Homeowners | In communities still under developer control, your budget can rise up to 10 percent without a quorum vote; amateur radio antennas and home-based licensed child care now gain statutory protection. |
HB 1115 · 2026 Regular Session
HB 1115 caps the fee for an HOA resale or payoff statement at $50 under amended Section 32-21-5-8.5, down from $250. It requires four days' written notice of board meetings, with an agenda. It counts remote attendance as in-person for a quorum. It lowers the maximum amendment-consent threshold in governing documents from 75 percent to two-thirds. And it gives HOAs statewide fining authority under a new Section 32-25.5-3-12, so long as the board adopts a written fine schedule and gives individual notice of each violation. Gov. Mike Braun signed it on March 12, 2026.[25]
| Property managers | Drop resale-letter pricing to $50 and rebuild your meeting-notice process to include a written agenda at least four days out. |
| HOA board members | You can fine without prior governing-document authority once you adopt a written fine schedule; amendment thresholds above two-thirds no longer hold. |
| Community association attorneys | Re-paper declarations for the two-thirds amendment ceiling and the new fine procedures, and watch how the HEA 1152 fee ban interacts with this fee cap. |
| Homeowners | Expect lower resale-letter costs and clearer meeting notices; two-thirds of members can now amend the governing documents even if the declaration demands more. |
Recent court rulings
Indiana's appellate courts have been clarifying how associations collect what they're owed — and what happens when an association ignores its own procedures.
Sandoval v. Willow Lake Estates Home Owners Association, Inc.
The Court of Appeals held that an HOA's failure to hold annual meetings, run elections, or prepare a formal budget does not wipe out assessments the association validly imposed. When an association falls out of step with the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act, the remedy is a court petition to compel a meeting under Section 23-17-10-3 — not refusing to pay.[19] It was the first time an appellate court applied Section 23-17-10-3 in the HOA setting.[26]
| Property managers | Keep collecting assessments even while the association cleans up its meeting and budget lapses; Indiana law backs you, so don't pause collection. |
| HOA board members | Procedural defaults don't strip your assessment authority, but they expose individual directors to derivative remedies; document your fixes. |
| Community association attorneys | Sandoval builds on Feather Trace Homeowners Ass'n v. Luster and gives lien-foreclosure plaintiffs solid ground against governance-based defenses. |
| Homeowners | Withholding assessments to protest governance lapses isn't a recognized remedy; use Chapter 5 grievance resolution or a § 23-17-10-3 petition instead. |
Treyburn Lakes Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Scott
The Court of Appeals reversed a trial court that had cut previously awarded attorney's fees out of a foreclosure judgment and slashed the fee award without a hearing. The court held that attorney-fee judgments secured by a recorded HOA lien stay enforceable in a later foreclosure action.[27]
| Property managers | Recording liens that include earlier attorney-fee judgments preserves those amounts for foreclosure; document releases and partial satisfactions carefully. |
| HOA board members | Cumulative fee awards from serial collection actions stay collectible at foreclosure when the lien properly references the prior judgments. |
| Community association attorneys | A trial court can't quietly reduce already-adjudicated fees on foreclosure without a hearing; preserve the record by demanding fee evidence on remand. |
| Homeowners | Earlier unpaid attorney-fee judgments roll into the foreclosure recovery if the HOA's lien references them. |
Active legislative debates
The fight isn't over. Industry groups are pushing back on the new budget limits and looking ahead to the next session for changes.
CAI Indiana Chapter — opposition to HEA 1152
The Community Associations Institute's Indiana Chapter formally opposed HEA 1152 during the 2026 session. In its legislative bulletin, the chapter argued the bill, "as currently written, would strip community associations of their ability to set and adjust budgets in accordance with their own governing documents," and it is still seeking narrowing amendments for 2027.[28] Meanwhile, no Indiana Supreme Court opinion in the past three years has taken up Article 25 or Article 25.5 in any substantive way.[29]
| Property managers | Bring budget-meeting and fee practices in line with HEA 1152 now, but watch for narrowing amendments that could shift the rules again. |
| HOA board members | If your community leans on flexible budgeting under its declaration, follow the 2027 session closely. |
| Community association attorneys | Track proposed amendments to § 32-25.5-3-3 so you can advise boards before the next budget cycle locks in. |
| Homeowners | The budget protections in HEA 1152 are settled for now, but advocacy groups are pressing to loosen them. |
5. National positioning and related coverage
Indiana belongs to a small group of states that regulate non-condominium HOAs and condominiums through two separate, homegrown statutes, rather than through UCIOA or a single common-interest code. The Homeowners Associations Act, passed in 2009, is one of the more recent state HOA statutes in the country. The Horizontal Property Act, first adopted in 1963, was revised in 1977, recodified as Article 25 of Title 32 in 2002, and amended again by Public Law 141-2015.
For a property-management firm operating across state lines, that means Indiana needs its own playbooks: an HOA Act checklist for non-condo communities and a separate Horizontal Property Law checklist for condominiums — and neither one inherits UCIOA's defaults.
6. Closing note
HOA Weekly refreshes its Indiana Governing Statute coverage every quarter, as the legislature passes new public laws and the appellate courts interpret Articles 25 and 25.5. Federal frameworks apply to every Indiana association too — the Fair Housing Act, the FCC's Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule, the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, and the Corporate Transparency Act. We cover those at /federal/.
Footnotes
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1 (added by Pub. L. No. 167-2009, § 2, eff. July 1, 2009). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25-1-1 et seq. (recodified by Pub. L. No. 2-2002, § 10). ↩
- Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991, Ind. Code § 23-17-1-1 et seq. ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-1-1 (applicability). ↩
- Cmty. Ass'ns Inst., Advocacy (listing 1982-version UCIOA adopters Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada & West Virginia, and 2008-version adopters Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont & Washington). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-2-4 ("Homeowners association"); § 32-25.5-2-5 ("Subdivision"). ↩
- Ind. Code §§ 32-25.5-3-1 to -12. ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3.5 (solar energy systems); § 32-25.5-3.7 (beekeeping). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-4 (Attorney General actions) (added by Pub. L. No. 49-2011). ↩
- Ind. Code §§ 32-25.5-5-1 to -17 (added by Pub. L. No. 141-2015, § 14). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3-2 (special meetings). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25-2-7 ("Condominium") (Horizontal Property Act enacted 1963, revised 1977, recodified 2002). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25-1-2 (persons subject to law). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25, chs. 1–9. ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25-7-1 (recording declaration; contents); § 32-25-7-7 (amending declaration). ↩
- Ind. Code §§ 32-25-8.5-1 to -16 (added by Pub. L. No. 141-2015, § 5). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3-9 (amending governing documents; consents required). ↩
- Ind. Code § 23-17-1-1 et seq. (Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1991). ↩
- Sandoval v. Willow Lake Estates Home Owners Ass'n, Inc., No. 24A-MF-309 (Ind. Ct. App. Mar. 12, 2025). ↩
- Villas West II of Willowridge Homeowners Ass'n v. McGlothin, 885 N.E.2d 1274 (Ind. 2008); Williams v. Ind. R.R. Co., 33 N.E.3d 1043, 1052 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-25.5-3-7 (suspension of voting rights). ↩
- Ind. Code § 32-21-5-8.5 (seller disclosure of unpaid assessments). ↩
- Ind. Prof'l Licensing Agency, Real Estate Commission (scope of broker licensure). ↩
- House Enrolled Act 1152, Pub. L. No. 53-2026 (Ind. 2026) (signed Mar. 3, 2026). ↩
- House Bill 1115 (Ind. 2026) (signed Mar. 12, 2026). ↩
- Plews Shadley Racher & Braun LLP, "Indiana Court of Appeals: Association's Noncompliance with Nonprofit Corporation Act and Its Own Rules Does Not Invalidate Assessments" (Mar. 2025). ↩
- Treyburn Lakes Homeowners Ass'n, Inc. v. Scott, No. 25A-CC-646 (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 31, 2025). ↩
- Cmty. Ass'ns Inst. Ind. Chapter, Legislation bulletin (2026 session). ↩
- Ind. Sup. Ct., Appellate Decisions database (May 2023–May 2026 search; no opinions interpreting Article 25 or Article 25.5 located). ↩