Your 1990s Indiana HOA is not exempt from the 2026 reforms
Your 1990s Indiana HOA is not exempt from the 2026 reforms
2026-09-10 · Indiana · Legislation
What happened. Indiana's Homeowners Association Act has a threshold that catches people out constantly: it applies only to associations formed after 30 June 2009, unless an older association votes to be governed by it. Two 2025 appellate decisions turned on exactly that, and both went against the homeowner.
So when the 2026 General Assembly rewrote large parts of the article, the obvious conclusion for a board in a 1990s subdivision was that none of it applied to them. That conclusion is wrong, and the reason is a subsection most people never read.
The carve-out survives — exactly as it was
House Enrolled Act 1115 (Public Law 155-2026) amended IC 32-25.5-1-1. It did not touch subsection (a), which still reads:
“(a) Subject to subsection (b), this article applies to the following: (1) A homeowners association established after June 30, 2009, that is authorized to impose mandatory dues on the homeowners association's members. (2) A homeowners association established before July 1, 2009: (A) if a majority of the members of the homeowners association elect to be governed by this article…”
Note the first three words. “Subject to subsection (b).”
Subsection (b) is where the reforms live
Subsection (b) lists provisions that bind every Indiana homeowners association whether or not it ever elected in:
“(b) The following apply to all homeowners associations, including a homeowners association described in subsection (a)(2), regardless of whether the members of the homeowners association have elected… to be governed by this article: (1) IC 32-25.5-3-2(c). (2) IC 32-25.5-3-3(e) through IC 32-25.5-3-3(o). (3) IC 32-25.5-3-9. (4) IC 32-25.5-3-10. (5) IC 32-25.5-3-11. (6) IC 32-25.5-3-12. (7) IC 32-25.5-4. (8) IC 32-25.5-5.”
HEA 1115 expanded that list, and the expansion is the story. It added IC 32-25.5-3-2(c). It broadened the second item from a single subsection — the old text reached only IC 32-25.5-3-3(g) — to the whole run of 3-3(e) through 3-3(o). And it added IC 32-25.5-3-12, the brand-new fining section that the same act created.
The practical result: a pre-2009 Indiana association that never elected in is now bound by the four-day meeting-notice rule, the remote-attendance quorum rule, the restrictions on fees, the free account statement, the two-thirds ceiling on amendment thresholds, and the entire new fine-schedule regime.
The other route in: the new chapters police themselves
Subsection (b) is only half the mechanism. Several of the 2026 additions never rely on it, because they were drafted with their own applicability clauses — and those clauses are deliberately sweeping.
| Provision | Its own applicability language |
|---|---|
| IC 32-25.5-3.6 fuel-source neutrality | “This chapter applies to all governing documents established, adopted, enacted, or enforced before, on, or after July 1, 2026.” |
| IC 32-25.5-3.8 licence plate readers | “This chapter applies to a homeowners association established before, on, or after July 1, 2026.” |
| IC 32-21-13.5 flag display | Reaches every association governing document whether adopted before, on or after 1 July 2026. (Note this chapter sits in Article 21, outside the HOA article entirely.) |
| IC 32-25.5-3.4 amateur radio | “This chapter applies only to a homeowners association's adoption or amendment of governing documents after June 30, 2026.” |
| IC 32-25.5-3.9 home child care | Same structure as amateur radio — keyed to the date of the covenant, not the age of the association. |
Read the last two carefully, because they work differently from the first three. Amateur radio and child care are prospective as to documents: they restrain what an association adopts or amends after 30 June 2026, and leave older covenants alone. But note what that test is not — it is not the association's formation date. A 1994 association that amends its rules in 2027 is squarely inside both chapters.
What is genuinely still out of reach
Being accurate about the limits matters as much as the reach, and this is where a board could go wrong in the opposite direction.
The provisions of IC 32-25.5 that are not listed in subsection (b) and carry no independent applicability clause still do not bind a non-electing pre-2009 association. That includes the budget and assessment machinery in the earlier portions of IC 32-25.5-3-3 — which is precisely what Talley v. Cheswick was about, when a 2005-formed association was held not subject to the statutory ratification requirement for a large assessment increase.
So the correct summary is not “the carve-out is dead.” It is: the carve-out survives for the article's older core, and almost every 2026 addition was written to go around it.
The compliance question to answer this month
For an Indiana board that has been assuming exemption, work in this order:
- Establish your formation date. Articles of incorporation, searchable through the Secretary of State's business entity database. Post-June-2009 associations are covered by the whole article and can skip the rest of this analysis.
- Determine whether the association ever elected in. This is a recorded, deliberate act by a majority of members, or whatever number the governing documents specify. It does not happen by default or by conduct.
- If you are pre-2009 and never elected in, assume subsection (b) applies to you anyway. Then check each of the eight listed items against your practice.
- Do not fine anyone until you have adopted a schedule of fines. IC 32-25.5-3-12 is on the subsection (b) list, and the new statutory fining power is conditional on having published the schedule first. An association that assumed exemption and kept fining under its old covenant procedure is the single most exposed category we can identify in the new landscape.
- Fix the meeting-notice calendar. Four days' advance written notice with an agenda, under a provision now inside the 3-3(e)-(o) range that binds everyone.
Why the drafting was done this way
Worth understanding, because it predicts what the next reform will look like. Repealing the 2009 carve-out outright would sweep every older Indiana association into an article they have never been subject to, all at once — a large and politically difficult step. Adding items to subsection (b) achieves the same result provision by provision, at whatever pace the legislature chooses, without ever confronting the threshold question.
Subsection (b) has now grown in at least two separate sessions. It is the mechanism to watch, and it is invisible to anyone reading only the headline summaries of what each bill did.
What to watch
Whether the next Indiana session adds further items to IC 32-25.5-1-1(b). There is no interim study committee working on association law in 2026, so nothing is currently in development — but this is a one-line amendment that can ride on any bill touching the article.
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