Maine HOA Board Elections

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

Maine splits its board-election rules along a clear line. Condominiums answer to the Maine Condominium Act, which the state built on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act. Everything else — the non-condominium planned communities — runs on its own recorded declarations, association bylaws, and the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, because Maine never passed a comprehensive planned-community statute.¹ The Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq. (Title 33, chapter 31), sets the binding rules for condominium executive-board elections: it governs board composition, declarant control, and owner voting.² Planned communities get no such statute. Their board elections rest on the recorded declaration, the association bylaws, and the corporate director-election defaults in the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, 13-B M.R.S. § 101 et seq.³ Maine adopted the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and skipped the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA), so the statute reaches condominiums and stops there.⁴ The court structure stands out, too: Maine has no intermediate appellate court, so appeals run straight from the Superior Court to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which sits as the Law Court when it decides them.⁵ That places Maine in a smaller group of states — those with a condominium statute but no comprehensive planned-community statute — set apart from the UCIOA states whose laws also govern planned communities.⁴ The sections that follow walk through the statutory and contractual machinery, the row-by-row election mechanics, and the latest moves in the legislature and the courts.

Section 2 — The election framework

2A. The Maine Condominium Act and condominium board elections

The Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-101 et seq., grew out of the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and governs condominiums created on or after January 1, 1983.⁴ The board provision is § 1603-103, and it is direct. No later than the end of any declarant-control period, the unit owners must elect an executive board of at least 3 people, and a majority of them must be unit owners, spouses of unit owners, or — for an entity owner — a designated agent.² The declaration may stagger the terms, and the board itself elects the officers. The board may also fill vacancies in its own ranks for the rest of a term. What it cannot do is elect its own members or set their qualifications, powers, duties, or terms; the owners hold those decisions.² Declarant control under § 1603-103(d) runs no longer than 7 years when the declarant reserved development rights, or 5 years otherwise, and it ends no later than 60 days after 75% of the units pass to owners other than the declarant.² The notice, quorum, and voting rules sit in the neighboring sections: § 1603-108 covers meetings and notice, § 1603-109 covers quorums, and § 1603-110 covers voting and proxies.⁶ This is a Uniform Condominium Act framework — narrower than UCIOA's combined condominium, cooperative, and planned-community code, and far less prescriptive than California's Davis-Stirling machinery. Maine requires no secret ballots, names no independent inspectors of election, and sets no fixed nomination or ballot-distribution timelines.⁶

2B. Planned communities: no statute, declarations and corporate law

For non-condominium HOAs, Maine offers no planned-community statute and no statutory election machinery at all. When a development is not a condominium created under the Act, its board-election rules live in the recorded declaration and the association bylaws.¹ If those documents go silent and the association is incorporated, the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, 13-B M.R.S. § 101 et seq., fills in the corporate defaults: § 701 (the board runs the corporation, and directors need not be members or residents unless the documents say so), § 702 (no fewer than 3 directors, a one-year term absent a contrary provision, and classified terms allowed), § 703 (vacancies), §§ 704 and 704-A (removal), and § 604 (member voting and proxies, with cumulative voting barred).⁷ But the Nonprofit Corporation Act is scaffolding, not an HOA election law. It supplies director defaults and nothing more — it says nothing about declarant control, owner budget ratification, or the other community-specific mechanics the Condominium Act spells out.⁷ Two questions decide which framework governs: Did someone create the community as a condominium under the Act, with a recorded declaration vesting common-element interests in the unit owners? And is the association incorporated as a Maine nonprofit?⁸ A condominium answers to § 1603-103. An unincorporated planned community answers almost entirely to its own declaration and bylaws, with common-law contract and property doctrine filling whatever is left.

2C. Bylaws, corporate law, and order of precedence

For planned communities, the bylaws carry the load: board size, term length, staggering, nominations, quorum, and balloting all sit there, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act steps in only where the corporation left a gap.⁷ The order of precedence stacks up. For condominiums, the Maine Condominium Act controls first, then the declaration and bylaws operate within the room the Act leaves them.² For planned communities, the recorded declaration controls first, then the bylaws, then the Nonprofit Corporation Act gap-fillers, then the association's own rules. Common-law contract and property doctrine handles the rest. For condominiums, 33 M.R.S. § 1601-108 puts this in writing: the principles of law and equity — including the law of corporations and unincorporated associations and the law of real property — supplement the Act except where they clash with it.⁹ The practical lesson is sequence. Before you quote any board-election rule, figure out whether the community is a condominium under the Act or a planned community governed by its declaration and bylaws — because the same question, whether board size, notice days, or quorum, has a statutory answer for one and a contractual answer for the other.

Section 3 — Election mechanics

A. Eligibility and nominations

For condominiums, the Act fixes just one eligibility rule: a majority of the board must be unit owners, spouses of unit owners, or a designated agent of an entity owner. That threshold, and any qualifications beyond it, the bylaws set.² For planned communities, eligibility turns contractual or corporate — directors need not be members or residents unless the articles or bylaws demand it.⁷ Neither statute addresses how candidates get nominated, so the declaration and bylaws control that for both community types.

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Condominiums must meet at least once a year, and the notice has to go out not less than 10 nor more than 60 days ahead, stating the time, place, and agenda.⁶ Incorporated planned communities follow the corporate default: an annual meeting at the time the articles or bylaws set, with notice not less than 10 nor more than 50 days out.¹⁰ On quorum, condominiums need 20% of the votes for board election unless the bylaws change it — though never below 10% — while planned communities run on the bylaws, falling back to 1/10 of the votes under the Nonprofit Corporation Act.⁶

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

In a condominium, owners vote in person or by proxy, and any other method — mail or electronic — depends on the bylaws.⁶ In an incorporated planned community, members also vote in person or by proxy, but a proxy goes void after 11 months, and the bylaws may open the door to director elections by mail or electronic transmission. Cumulative voting is another matter: the statute bans it outright, and any provision that tries to allow it is void.¹¹ Maine requires no secret ballot and no independent inspector for either type, so if an association wants those safeguards, it writes them into its own documents.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

No statute fixes director term length or term limits for either type. For condominiums, the declaration may stagger the terms; for incorporated planned communities, the corporate default is a one-year term, with classified terms allowed.^2,7 A mid-term vacancy on a condominium board goes to the board, which fills it for the unexpired term; on a planned-community board, a majority of the remaining directors fills it unless the governing documents say otherwise.¹³ Removal splits by type. For condominiums it stays contractual — the Act sets no owner-removal threshold, though the meeting notice must flag any removal proposal. For any incorporated association, condominium or planned community alike, the Nonprofit Corporation Act lets members remove directors by a 2/3 vote at a special meeting, and the Superior Court can remove a director by judicial proceeding.¹²

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling

C. Active legislative debates

The open question is whether Maine will trade its condominium-only framework for a comprehensive statute. If it gets funding, the LD 760 study commission reports by December 1, 2026, and its recommendation could put a UCIOA-based bill — one that would finally govern planned-community board elections — before the 133rd Legislature in 2027.¹⁴

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

Maine belongs to a particular group: states that adopted a Uniform Condominium Act statute — here, the Maine Condominium Act — but never passed a comprehensive planned-community statute. That sets it apart from comprehensive-statute states like California, Florida, and Texas, and from the UCIOA states.⁴ The UCIOA states — among them Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Vermont, and Washington — run statutes that also govern planned-community board elections. Maine's planned communities lean instead on declarations, bylaws, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act.⁴ The state's single-tier appellate structure sharpens the contrast: no intermediate appellate court, and the Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court for every appeal.⁵ So if you operate across several states and move into Maine, start with one question — is this community a condominium under the Act, or a planned community living by its own declaration and bylaws? — and remember that any appeal heads straight to the Supreme Judicial Court.

Federal frameworks reach Maine associations too, whichever state track applies. 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 bear on how these associations operate.

1. Maine Condominium Act, 33 M.R.S. ch. 31 (Maine Legislature, official statutes) ↩
2. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-103, Executive board members and officers; declarant control (Maine Legislature) ↩
3. Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, 13-B M.R.S. ch. 1 et seq. (Maine Legislature) ↩
4. Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and Uniform Condominium Act adoption (CAI Advocacy) — Maine listed as a Uniform Condominium Act state; UCIOA states listed as Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Nevada, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia ↩
5. State of Maine Judicial Branch, Courts — Supreme Judicial Court sits as the Law Court on appeal; District and Superior Courts are the trial courts ↩
6. 33 M.R.S. § 1603-108 (Meetings; notice not less than 10 nor more than 60 days), § 1603-109 (Quorums; 20%, bylaws not below 10%), and § 1603-110 (Voting; proxies) (Maine Legislature) ↩
7. 13-B M.R.S. § 702, Number and election of directors (not fewer than 3; one-year default term; classes permitted), and § 701, Board of directors (residency/membership not required unless governing documents require) (Maine Legislature) ↩
8. 33 M.R.S. § 1601-103, Definitions ("condominium" requires undivided common-element interests vested in unit owners; "executive board") (Maine Legislature) ↩
9. Maples v. Compass Harbor Village Condo. Ass'n, 2025 ME 19 (quoting 33 M.R.S. § 1601-108, principles of law and equity supplement the Act) (Maine Judicial Branch) ↩
10. 13-B M.R.S. § 602, Meetings of members (annual meeting), and § 603 notice not less than 10 nor more than 50 days (Maine Legislature) ↩
11. 13-B M.R.S. § 604, Voting (in person or proxy; proxy void after 11 months; mail or electronic if bylaws allow; cumulative voting prohibited); § 605 quorum default 1/10 (Maine Legislature) ↩
12. 13-B M.R.S. § 704, Removal of directors (2/3 of members at a special meeting), and § 704-A, Removal by judicial proceeding in Superior Court (Maine Legislature) ↩
13. 13-B M.R.S. § 703, Vacancies (majority of remaining directors; successor serves unexpired term) (Maine Legislature) ↩
14. 132nd Legislature, Second Regular Session, Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development, disposition and summaries — LD 760, Resolve 2025, ch. 167; 12-member commission; report due Dec. 1, 2026 if funded; legislation possible to 133rd Legislature in 2027 (Maine Legislature, OPLA) ↩
15. LD 1133 / S.P. 457, bill status, 132nd Legislature, First Special Session — enacted as Public Law 2025, ch. 280; approved by Governor June 12, 2025 (Maine Legislature) ↩
16. LD 1133 enacting 33 M.R.S. § 576-A; effective Jan. 1, 2026; executive-board duties to acknowledge applications within 30 days and decide within 60 days (reporting summary of enacted law) ↩
17. Maples v. Contorakes, Order Following Bench Trial, Business and Consumer Court (declarant owns more than fifty percent of units, declarant control period not ended, citing 33 M.R.S. § 1603-103(d)(1); award totaling $241,701) (Maine Judicial Branch) ↩
18. Maples v. Compass Harbor Village Condo. Ass'n, 2025 ME 19, decided Feb. 25, 2025 (enforcement of § 1603-117 lien requires District Court disclosure proceeding; dismissal affirmed) (Maine Judicial Branch) ↩