Kentucky HOA Board Elections

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

Three property statutes plus corporate law govern board elections in Kentucky, and which one controls depends on two things: the type of community and when it was created. A condominium created on or after January 1, 2011 falls under the Kentucky Condominium Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.9101 to 381.9207. That Act took effect on January 1, 2011, and lawmakers modeled it on the Uniform Condominium Act.^1,2 A condominium created before that date generally stays under the older Horizontal Property Law, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.805 to 381.910, except where the Condominium Act expressly reaches back.^3,4 Non-condominium planned communities answer to the Planned Community Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.785 to 381.801, which the legislature enacted as 2023 Senate Bill 120 and which took effect June 29, 2023; the recorded declaration and bylaws fill in the rest, and at the entity level the Kentucky Nonprofit Corporation Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 273, supplies the corporate defaults.^5,6 Kentucky adopted a condominium-only uniform act and a separate, non-uniform planned-community act. It has not adopted the comprehensive Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, which governs every common-interest community under a single code. That puts Kentucky among the states that run condominiums and planned communities on distinct statutes rather than one unified framework. The sections that follow lay out which body of law supplies each election mechanic, and which mechanics the governing documents control. A manager's first job is to pin down the community type and the creation date before quoting any election rule.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Kentucky Condominium Act and condominium board elections

The Kentucky Condominium Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.9101 to 381.9207, took effect on January 1, 2011. Lawmakers built it on the Uniform Condominium Act, departed from the uniform text in several places, and then refined it through House Bill 433 in 2012.² The Act organizes the unit owners' association under Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9165, places the executive board and officers in § 381.9169, governs meetings in § 381.9177, sets quorums in § 381.9179, and handles voting and proxies in § 381.9181.¹ By its own terms the Act applies to condominiums created after January 1, 2011, but § 381.9103(2) reaches a listed set of sections, the board-election section § 381.9169 among them, back to condominiums created before that date, though only for events or circumstances that arise after it and without disturbing existing declaration or bylaw provisions.³ The Act also sets up a declarant-control period. During that period the declarant appoints and removes board members, subject to a phased owner-elected minority under § 381.9169(5) and a hard outer limit: declarant control ends at the earliest of sixty days after seventy-five percent of the units that may be created are conveyed to non-declarant owners, two years after the declarant stops offering units in the ordinary course of business, two years after the last exercise of a development right, or seven years after the first unit is conveyed.⁷ No later than the end of declarant control, the owners elect an executive board of at least three members, a majority of them unit owners or owners of equity interests in units, and that board elects the officers.⁷ This is a condominium-only uniform act. It does not carry UCIOA's unified machinery, and it does not import California's prescriptive election procedures — the secret ballots, independent inspectors of election, and statutory timelines.

2B. Pre-2011 condominiums and planned communities

A condominium created before January 1, 2011 generally stays under the Horizontal Property Law, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.805 to 381.910, which dates to 1962 and runs the regime under bylaws that the council of co-owners adopts and amends by majority vote.⁴ The Condominium Act does not flip the other way and swallow these older regimes, but Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9103 confirms that the Horizontal Property Law no longer applies to post-2011 condominiums and that the listed Condominium Act sections reach the earlier regimes for post-2011 events; the practical move is to check the recording date of the declaration before you rely on either statute.³ Planned communities are no longer outside the statute. The Planned Community Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.785 to 381.801, applies to every planned community in the Commonwealth, subject to a savings clause for provisions already sitting in documents recorded before the June 29, 2023 effective date.⁸ It requires the association to organize as a nonprofit corporation under Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 273, or as an unincorporated nonprofit association under ch. 273A, and it sets a statutory floor on board composition, election, removal, meetings, and quorum.⁵ Where the documents and the Planned Community Act stay silent, the Nonprofit Corporation Act still supplies the corporate director defaults.⁶

2C. Corporate law, the bylaws, and order of precedence

For a condominium, the order of precedence runs from the applicable condominium statute to the declaration, then the bylaws, then the Nonprofit Corporation Act gap-fillers for incorporated associations, then the rules; the declaration beats the bylaws except where it clashes with the Condominium Act. For a planned community, the order runs from the Planned Community Act to the declaration, then the bylaws, then the corporate-law gap-fillers, then the rules. The Nonprofit Corporation Act, Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 273, is a corporate-governance statute, not an HOA election law, so it supplies director defaults and nothing more. Section 273.207 vests management in a board of directors who need not be residents or members unless the articles or bylaws say so; § 273.211 requires at least three directors, with the number, classes, and terms fixed by the articles or bylaws; and § 273.213 lets the remaining directors fill a vacancy by majority vote, even when they fall short of a quorum, for the unexpired term, unless the documents provide otherwise.^6,9,10 The Condominium Act, for its part, also fixes the standard that governs how a board member discharges his duties, and when monetary damages or injunctive relief may follow.¹¹ Common-law contract and property doctrine fill whatever gaps the statutes and documents leave. The operational point is simple: before you quote any Kentucky board-election rule, decide whether the community is a condominium, and which condominium statute applies by creation date, or a planned community.

Section 3: Election mechanics

Quick-Reference Election Mechanics Table

A. Eligibility and nominations

For post-2011 condominiums, once declarant control ends a majority of the board must be unit owners or owners of equity interests in units, and the documents may add further qualifications (§ 381.9169(6)); this section also reaches pre-2011 condominiums for post-2011 events.⁷ For planned communities, the Planned Community Act requires directors to be elected from among the owners and lets a representative of a non-natural-person owner serve (§ 381.787) — a statutory command, not just a contractual one.¹² No Kentucky statute addresses nomination procedures for either community type, so the bylaws set them.

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Condominiums must meet at least once a year, on notice of not less than 10 nor more than 60 days, with a default quorum of 10 percent of the votes unless the bylaws say otherwise (§§ 381.9177, 381.9179); owners holding 20 percent of the votes may call a special meeting.^13,16 Planned communities must hold an annual meeting at least once a year, on notice of not less than 10 nor more than 30 days, with a 10 percent quorum of lot owners, and the statute also opens board meetings and fixes standards of conduct for the directors (§§ 381.792, 381.793); these are statutory rules, not contractual ones.^14,17

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

For condominiums, the declaration allocates the votes per unit, owners may cast them in person or by proxy, and cumulative voting is barred; a proxy is void if undated and dies one year after its date unless it names a shorter term (§§ 381.9181, 381.9137).^15,18 For planned communities, each lot carries one vote, cumulative voting is not allowed, proxies expire after one year, and the documents may authorize electronic or mail voting (§ 381.792(4)).¹⁴ Kentucky imposes no statutory secret-ballot mandate and no independent inspector of election for either community type; the bylaws supply those, if a community adopts them at all.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

Statute fixes neither director terms nor term limits for either community type, so the bylaws set them, with the corporate default in § 273.211 allowing classes and staggered terms.⁹ Condominium directors may be removed by a two-thirds vote of the owners present and entitled to vote at a meeting with a quorum, with or without cause, except for declarant-appointed members, and the board fills vacancies for the unexpired term (§ 381.9169).⁷ Planned-community directors may be removed by a majority vote of the owners present in person or by proxy, except declarant-appointed members, unless the documents demand more (§ 381.787(6)); the bylaws set the vacancy procedure, with the corporate default in § 273.213 as the gap-filler.^12,10 Mind the threshold gap: two-thirds for condominiums, a simple majority of those present for planned communities.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past two years rewrote the board-election mechanics of the Condominium Act, the Horizontal Property Law, or the 2023 Planned Community Act. The most consequential recent measure, House Bill 472 from the 2024 Regular Session, created a new section of Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 381, codified at § 381.803, that lets a city petition a court to appoint a receiver for a planned community that fails to maintain its infrastructure, common areas, stormwater facilities, or other legally obligated facilities, and to recover what it spends bringing the violations up to code.¹⁹ The bill does not touch board-election mechanics head-on; its bearing on elections is indirect, because a receivership pulls control of the affected facilities away from the elected board.

B. Recent appellate rulings

The Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for an association enforcing recorded covenants against a homeowner, holding that the developer who subdivided the parcel had authority to create restrictions binding on later purchasers.²⁰ The holding turns on covenant enforcement, not board elections; it appears here because it is the most recent verified Kentucky appellate decision involving a community association, and it confirms that contested-election precedent remains thin. A search of Kentucky Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Kentucky decisions over the past 36 months turned up no published opinion squarely deciding a contested HOA or condominium board election, a director removal, a declarant-control transition, or a proxy dispute. Disputes of that kind run through the Kentucky Circuit Courts, with appeal to the Kentucky Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.²¹

C. Active legislative debates

The General Assembly amended the planned-community political-yard-sign rule in 2025 through House Bill 27, which revised Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.800, and as of June 22, 2026 no pending proposal verified on legislature.ky.gov would rewrite the Condominium Act's board-election provisions, modernize the Horizontal Property Law, or replace the 2023 Planned Community Act with a UCIOA-style unified code.²²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Kentucky sits between the minimal-statute states and the comprehensive uniform-code states. It keeps a condominium-only uniform act, the Kentucky Condominium Act built on the Uniform Condominium Act, and, since 2023, a separate non-uniform planned-community statute, rather than the single unified code that UCIOA states use. Kentucky has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, which in states such as Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, and Washington — and, under earlier versions, Alaska and Colorado — governs condominiums and planned communities alike under one chapter. It also stands apart from prescriptive-procedure regimes such as California's Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act (Civil Code section 4000 et seq.), which mandates secret ballots, inspectors of election, and fixed timelines that Kentucky does not impose. For a multi-state operator moving into Kentucky, the practical implication is direct: confirm whether a community is a condominium, and which condominium statute applies by creation date, or a planned community under the 2023 Act, and read the recorded declaration and bylaws, before you lean on any statutory election rule.

Federal frameworks reach Kentucky associations regardless of the state framework. The Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply no matter which state statute governs the community.

Footnotes

1. Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 381 (statute index for the Kentucky Condominium Act, §§ 381.9101 to 381.9207, including §§ 381.9165, 381.9169, 381.9177, 381.9179, 381.9181) ↩
2. Stites & Harbison PLLC, New Law Brings Changes to Kentucky's Condominium Laws (Act modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act, effective January 1, 2011; refined by 2012 House Bill 433) ↩
3. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9103, Application and construction of §§ 381.9101 to 381.9207 (applies to condominiums created after January 1, 2011; listed sections, including § 381.9169, reach pre-2011 condominiums for post-2011 events; Horizontal Property Law inapplicable to post-2011 condominiums) ↩
4. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.810, Definitions for §§ 381.805 to 381.910 (Horizontal Property Law; 1962 Ky. Acts ch. 205) ↩
5. 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23 (SB 120), the Planned Community Act (board of at least three directors elected from owners; declarant control period; removal by majority of persons present in person or by proxy; annual meeting, 10–30 day notice, 10% quorum, one vote per lot, no cumulative voting, one-year proxy term; organization as nonprofit corporation under Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 273 or 273A; signed March 20, 2023), codified at Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 381.785 to 381.801 ↩
6. Ky. Rev. Stat. ch. 273, Nonprofit Corporation Act (statute index, including §§ 273.207, 273.211, 273.213, 273.215) ↩
7. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9169, Executive board members and officers (declarant-control termination at the earliest of 60 days after 75% conveyance, two years after the declarant ceases offering, two years after the last development right, or seven years after first conveyance; phased owner-elected minority; board of at least three with owner majority; removal by two-thirds vote; board fills vacancies for the unexpired term) ↩
8. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.786, Planned communities subject to §§ 381.785 to 381.801 — Filing of declaration (effective June 29, 2023; 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 23) ↩
9. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 273.211, Number and election or appointment of directors — Classes — Terms — Removal (board of at least three directors; number fixed by articles or bylaws) ↩
10. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 273.213, Vacancies (filled by a majority of remaining directors though less than a quorum, unless the documents provide otherwise; successor serves the unexpired term) ↩
11. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9170, Discharge of board member's duties — Standards for monetary damages and injunctive relief (condominiums) ↩
12. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.787, Establishment and organization of planned community — Board of directors — Declaration or bylaws — Removal of board member ↩
13. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9177, Meetings of the association (condominiums: meeting at least once each year; special meetings by 20% of votes; notice not less than 10 nor more than 60 days) ↩
14. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.792, Required provisions in declaration or bylaws — Meetings — Notice — Quorum (planned communities: annual meeting; 10% quorum; special meetings by 20% of owners; notice 10–30 days; one vote per lot; no cumulative voting; optional electronic or mail voting) ↩
15. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9181, Voting — Proxies (condominiums: votes cast in person or by proxy; proxy void if undated, terminates one year unless shorter) ↩
16. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9179, Quorums (condominiums: 10% of votes for board election present in person or by proxy, unless the bylaws provide otherwise) ↩
17. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.793, Quorum — Open board meetings — Standards for board directors (planned communities) ↩
18. Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.9137, Allocation of common element interests, votes, and common expense liabilities (condominiums: votes allocated by declaration; cumulative voting prohibited) ↩
19. 2024 Ky. HB 472, An Act relating to residential planned communities (city-initiated receivership for failure to maintain infrastructure or common areas), codified at Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.803 ↩
20. Panaretos v. Villas at Claymont Springs Community Ass'n, Inc., No. 2024-CA-1229-MR (Ky. Ct. App. Dec. 5, 2025) (opinion affirming; not to be published), Court of Appeals minutes ↩
21. Kentucky Court of Justice, Court of Appeals (intermediate appellate court between the Circuit Courts and the Supreme Court of Kentucky) ↩
22. 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 32 (HB 27), amending Ky. Rev. Stat. § 381.800 (planned-community political yard signs) ↩