Maryland HOA Records Inspection
Section 1: Overview
Maryland puts records-inspection duties on community associations through three separate statutes. And rather than set one hard deadline for general inspection, it runs on an availability standard: records stay open for examination during normal business hours, after reasonable notice. Only two specific delivery deadlines sit on top of that.1 Which provision you reach for depends on the kind of community. The Maryland Condominium Act, Md. Code, Real Property § 11-116, covers condominiums1; the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-112, covers homeowners associations2; and the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, Md. Code, Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-26, covers cooperative housing corporations.3 Each statute carries its own near-identical records provision, so the community type decides which one controls. Maryland also does something most states do not: Montgomery County and Prince George’s County each run a Commission on Common Ownership Communities — an administrative forum that can hear and resolve association disputes, records disputes included, and make its decisions stick.4 There is no statewide HOA regulator. Nationally, Maryland lands between the hard-clock states and the bare-bones ones. Florida makes a condominium produce records within 10 working days of a written request and sets damages at $50 per calendar day for up to 10 days,5 and California’s Davis-Stirling Act runs on tiered deadlines — 10 business days for current-fiscal-year records, 30 calendar days for the prior two years.6 Other states lean only on corporate-law inspection rights. Maryland’s general rule is reasonableness and availability, with fixed 21-day and 45-day clocks that kick in only when someone makes a written request for delivery of financial statements or meeting minutes.1 The table and the detail below walk through the mechanics statute by statute.
Section 2: Quick-Reference: Maryland HOA Records Inspection
| Field | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Governing provision(s) | Condos: Maryland Condominium Act, Real Property § 11-116.1 HOAs: Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Real Property § 11B-112.2 Cooperatives: Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-26.3 |
| Community types covered | All three regimes get their own statute: condominiums (§ 11-116), planned communities and HOAs (§ 11B-112), and cooperative housing corporations (§ 5-6B-26). The inspection right itself draws no general pre/post effective-date split.1 |
| Who may inspect | Condos: any unit owner, a unit owner’s mortgagee, or their authorized agents or attorneys (§ 11-116).1 HOAs: a lot owner, the lot owner’s mortgagee, or their agents or attorneys (§ 11B-112).2 Cooperatives: a member, a member’s mortgagee, or their agents or attorneys (§ 5-6B-26).3 |
| Proper-purpose requirement | None. No statute conditions inspection of books and records on a stated proper purpose.1 |
| Form of request | To examine records in person, you give reasonable notice; no statute prescribes a written-demand form for general inspection. You need a written request only to compel delivery of copies of financial statements or minutes, and that request can go by mail, electronic transmission, or personal delivery (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).1 |
| Response or production deadline | General books and records run on a reasonableness standard — available during normal business hours, after reasonable notice — with no fixed day-count. A written request for delivery of financial statements or minutes draws a clock: 21 days if the records were prepared within the preceding 3 years, or 45 days if they were prepared more than 3 years before the request (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).1 For new condominium or HOA owners, the association first makes records available not later than 15 business days after the developer or declarant conveys the unit (§ 11-116; § 11B-112).2 |
| Inspection method and location | Condos and cooperatives keep records available for examination or copying at a place the association designates, during normal business hours; a condominium has to maintain its records in Maryland or within 50 miles of its borders (§ 11-116; § 5-6B-26).1 HOAs make records available for examination or copying during normal business hours (§ 11B-112).2 All three allow electronic transmission for delivery of financial statements and minutes. |
| Copying and labor fees | An association may charge a reasonable amount for review, copying, or delivery, and a copying charge may not exceed the limits Title 7, Subtitle 2 of the Courts Article authorizes (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).7 For condos and HOAs, the association may not charge an owner to examine financial statements in person or to receive them by electronic transmission (§ 11-116; § 11B-112, as amended effective October 1, 2025).8 |
| Records expressly subject to inspection | All books and records — insurance policies included for condos and cooperatives — kept by or on behalf of the association; financial statements; minutes. Each statute also requires the association to keep its books and records on a consistent basis using good accounting practices (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).1 Reserve studies are inspectable as part of those books and records under the reserve-study provisions.9 |
| Records exempt or withholdable | The same six categories may be withheld from public inspection (except by the person who is the subject of the record): personnel records, but not individual salaries, wages, or bonuses; an individual’s medical records; an individual’s personal financial records; records on business transactions currently in negotiation; the written advice of legal counsel; and minutes of a closed meeting, unless the board unseals them (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).1 |
| Membership or owner list | The records statutes do not address it. Section 11-116, § 11B-112, and § 5-6B-26 set no commercial-use restriction and no opt-out for an owner or member list.2 |
| Records-retention requirement | None set by statute. No fixed retention period exists, though the 21/45-day delivery rule assumes records older than 3 years may still be around.1 |
| Electronic records | Yes. All three statutes authorize delivery of financial statements and minutes by electronic transmission, and condos and HOAs may not charge owners to receive financial statements electronically (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26).8 |
| Remedies for noncompliance | The three records provisions carry no statutory damages, no per-day penalty, and no fee-shifting; the remedy is a civil action for injunctive relief, specific performance, or mandamus (§ 11-116; § 11B-112; § 5-6B-26; 100 Harborview Drive Condo. Council of Unit Owners v. Clark).10 |
| Enforcement forum and process | The Circuit Court, with appeal to the Appellate Court of Maryland and discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Maryland. In Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, the Commission on Common Ownership Communities adds an administrative dispute-resolution forum.4 |
Section 3: The records-inspection framework in detail
3A. Records subject to inspection
Maryland hands each community type its own inspection right, and the three provisions look nearly identical. Under the Maryland Condominium Act, § 11-116 tells the council of unit owners to keep books and records using good accounting practices on a consistent basis, and to make all books and records, insurance policies included, available for examination or copying.1 Under the Maryland Homeowners Association Act, § 11B-112 puts the same duty on a homeowners association for all books and records it keeps or has kept on its behalf.2 Under the Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, § 5-6B-26 puts the same duty on a cooperative housing corporation.3 In practice, all three statutes open the same categories: financial records (budgets, financial statements, audits), meeting minutes, contracts, insurance policies, and the governing documents. Reserve studies come in as part of the association’s books and records under each act’s separate reserve-study provisions.9
Two things set condominiums and cooperatives apart from HOAs. First, § 11-116 requires a condominium to keep its records in Maryland or within 50 miles of its borders and to make them available at a place the council of unit owners designates; § 5-6B-26 likewise points to availability at the corporation’s location, while § 11B-112 calls for availability during normal business hours without the express 50-mile rule.1 Second, when a condominium or HOA has newly conveyed units, it has to make books and records available to a new owner not later than 15 business days after the developer or declarant conveys the unit or lot; that 15-business-day rule lives in § 11-116 and § 11B-112.2 The HOA Act also runs a separate public depository system under § 11B-112(c), where associations deposit recorded disclosures.2 Because these are private associations, the Maryland Public Information Act does not reach them; the right to records rests on these three statutes and on the association’s declaration and bylaws, which can add procedures that do not conflict.11
3B. The request-and-response sequence
Standing to inspect is broad, and you do not have to state a purpose. Each statute extends the right to the owner or member, the owner’s or member’s mortgagee, and their duly authorized agents or attorneys.1 None of the three conditions inspection on a proper-purpose showing — which separates Maryland from states that make members certify a purpose reasonably related to membership.
For general inspection, availability governs, not a fixed clock: records have to be available for examination or copying during normal business hours and after reasonable notice.2 There is no statutory day-count for producing general books and records in person. A precise clock applies only when an owner or member submits a written request for copies of two specific record types — financial statements or meeting minutes. Then the association has to compile and send the records by mail, electronic transmission, or personal delivery within 21 days of receipt if they were prepared within the preceding 3 years, or within 45 days if they were prepared more than 3 years before the request. That 21/45-day structure reads the same across § 11-116, § 11B-112, and § 5-6B-26.3
Inspection happens at the association’s designated location during business hours, with copies on request and electronic delivery available for the two delivery-eligible categories. On charges, each statute lets the association charge a reasonable amount to anyone who reviews, copies, or requests delivery of records, and caps a copying charge at the limits Title 7, Subtitle 2 of the Courts Article allows.7 Effective October 1, 2025, an amendment bars condominiums and HOAs from charging an owner to examine financial statements in person where they are kept, or to receive financial statements by electronic transmission.8 The cooperative statute permits a reasonable charge subject to the same copying cap.3
3C. Withholding, confidentiality, and the membership or owner list
All three statutes carry an identical list of six categories an association may withhold from public inspection, with one override. An association may withhold records to the extent they concern: personnel records (but not individual salaries, wages, bonuses, and other compensation); an individual’s medical records; an individual’s personal financial records; records on business transactions currently in negotiation; the written advice of legal counsel; and minutes of a closed meeting, unless a majority of a quorum of the governing body votes to unseal them.1 The override matters: each statute lets these categories be withheld “except for inspection by the person who is the subject of the record,” or that person’s designee or guardian, so an owner can generally see records about themselves even when those records fall inside a protected category.2
When a records demand runs into attorney-client privilege, 100 Harborview Drive Condominium Council of Unit Owners v. Clark controls. There, the Court of Special Appeals (now the Appellate Court of Maryland) held that § 11-116 does not abrogate the common-law attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine, so an association may withhold privileged legal advice even from the owner it concerns, while non-privileged legal billing records about that owner stay inspectable.10 Because the withholding language in § 11B-112 and § 5-6B-26 mirrors § 11-116, the same analysis carries over to HOAs and cooperatives. On the membership or owner list, none of the three records statutes creates a protected owner roster, a commercial-use restriction, or an opt-out; the statutes stay silent, and any limits would come from the governing documents or other law.2
3D. Remedies and enforcement for noncompliance
None of the three records provisions sets a statutory damages amount, a per-day penalty, or a fee-shifting rule specific to a records violation.1 When an association does not comply, the owner’s or member’s remedy is a civil action for equitable relief: an injunction or order of specific performance compelling production, or mandamus-type relief. That was the posture in 100 Harborview Drive Condominium Council of Unit Owners v. Clark, where the owner sought a permanent injunction, specific performance, and damages, and the courts granted injunctive relief as to non-privileged records.10 The enforcement forum is the Circuit Court for the county where the association sits, with appeal to the Appellate Court of Maryland and discretionary further review by the Supreme Court of Maryland.
Maryland adds a county-level administrative path most states lack. In Montgomery County, the Commission on Common Ownership Communities, created under Chapter 10B of the County Code, can hear and resolve certain disputes between owners or residents and their associations, records disputes included, and its decisions bind the parties.4 In Prince George’s County, the Common Ownership Communities program — set up by CB-015-2007, with the Commission added by CB-49-2015 and alternative dispute resolution authority by CB-58-2015 — provides education and dispute-resolution services.12 These commissions are county-specific, not statewide. The City of Gaithersburg, for instance, states that “starting July 1, 2025, City-based COCs will no longer be required by the City to register with or participate in the Montgomery County CCOC,” which lifts Chapter 10B inside the city.13 Outside these counties, the courts are the forum.
Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity
A. Recent bills
Maryland keeps tinkering with its records rules rather than rewriting them. The most recent move trimmed back what an association can charge owners to see the books.
SB 758 / HB 1534 · Chapter 512 · 2025 Regular Session
The Governor signed Senate Bill 758 and its cross-filed House Bill 1534 on May 13, 2025 as Chapter 512. The act repeals and reenacts § 11-116 and § 11B-112, among other sections. On the records side, it bars a condominium or HOA from charging unit owners or lot owners to examine the association’s financial statements in person where they are kept, or to receive financial statements by electronic transmission — narrowing the situations where a review-or-copy charge can apply.[8][14]
| Property managers | Update fee schedules so owners are not billed for in-person review or electronic delivery of financial statements, effective October 1, 2025. |
| HOA board members | Confirm the association’s records-charge policy matches the narrowed fee rules, and that election procedures meet the new independent-party requirements in the same act. |
| Community association attorneys | Tell clients that § 11-116 and § 11B-112 changed in 2025, so prior fee practices for financial-statement review may now be noncompliant. |
| Homeowners | You can examine financial statements in person or ask for them electronically at no charge. |
B. Recent rulings
Nothing new has come down from the top. No reported decision of the Appellate Court of Maryland or the Supreme Court of Maryland in the past 36 months — June 2023 through June 2026 — interprets the records-inspection provisions of § 11-116, § 11B-112, or § 5-6B-26. The controlling authority is still a 2015 case.
100 Harborview Drive Condominium Council of Unit Owners v. Clark
The Court of Special Appeals — now the Appellate Court of Maryland — held that the condominium records statute grants a broad inspection right but does not override the attorney-client privilege or the work-product doctrine. Privileged legal advice can stay out of an owner’s hands; non-privileged legal invoices concerning that owner cannot.[10]
| Property managers | You can withhold privileged legal advice from a records request, but generally not non-privileged legal invoices concerning the requesting owner. |
| HOA board members | Protect genuinely privileged communications, but know that a blanket “legal records” withholding label will not survive review. |
| Community association attorneys | The Harborview holding reaches HOAs and cooperatives through parallel statutory language, so privilege analysis governs withholding across all three regimes. |
| Homeowners | You can compel non-privileged financial and billing records about yourself, but not the association’s privileged legal advice. |
C. Active legislative debates
Maryland has stayed busy on reserve studies and reserve funding. HB 292 / SB 63, “Cooperative Housing Corporations, Condominiums, and Homeowners Associations – Funding of Reserve Accounts and Preparation of Funding Plans,” signed May 13, 2025 and effective October 1, 2025, requires budgets to fund reserves in line with the reserve study and a board-developed funding plan — which, in turn, expands the documentation an association has to keep and make available as books and records.9 No pending proposal would put a single fixed response deadline, a dollar-figure copy-fee cap, or a per-day penalty on the core records-inspection provisions.
Section 5: National positioning and related coverage
Maryland is a comprehensive-statute state. It codifies separate condominium, homeowners association, and cooperative records provisions — § 11-116, § 11B-112, and § 5-6B-26 — instead of leaning on corporate-law inspection rights alone, and it stands out for the county-level Commissions on Common Ownership Communities in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, an administrative option most states do not offer.4 For general books and records, Maryland runs on an availability standard — normal business hours, reasonable notice — rather than the hard clocks of Florida (10 working days, with $50-per-day damages)5 and California (10 business days for current-year records, 30 calendar days for the prior two years),6 with fixed 21-day and 45-day deadlines that apply only to written requests for delivery of financial statements and minutes. For a multi-state operator, the practical lesson is this: apply the right statute by community type, expect that a dispute in two named counties can run through an administrative commission as well as the courts, and use the current appellate-court names in filings and briefs — Appellate Court of Maryland, Supreme Court of Maryland. Recent legislation has changed the records provisions only modestly, chiefly the 2025 fee amendment barring charges for in-person or electronic access to financial statements, while leaving the availability standard and the withholding categories intact.
HOA Weekly updates its Maryland records-inspection coverage each quarter, as the General Assembly and the Maryland courts act. Federal frameworks — 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 — also apply to Maryland associations no matter what the state framework says.
Footnotes
- Md. Code, Real Property § 11-116 (Maryland Condominium Act, Books and Records), Maryland General Assembly statute text ↩
- Md. Code, Real Property § 11B-112 (Maryland Homeowners Association Act, Books and Records), Maryland General Assembly statute text ↩
- Md. Code, Corporations and Associations § 5-6B-26 (Maryland Cooperative Housing Corporation Act, Examination and Copying of Books and Records), 2025 Maryland Code ↩
- Montgomery County Commission on Common Ownership Communities, Department of Housing and Community Affairs (Chapter 10B, Montgomery County Code) ↩
- Fla. Stat. § 718.111(12) (Florida Condominium Act, official records; 10-working-day availability and $50-per-day damages), Florida Senate ↩
- Cal. Civ. Code § 5210 (Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, time to produce association records), California Legislative Information ↩
- Md. Code, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 7-202 (Title 7, Subtitle 2, Circuit Court fees), Maryland General Assembly statute text ↩
- 2025 Laws of Maryland, Chapter 512 (Senate Bill 758), Condominiums and Homeowners Associations - Elections, Financial Statements, and Enforcement, approved by the Governor May 13, 2025 ↩
- House Bill 292 / Senate Bill 63 (2025 RS), Cooperative Housing Corporations, Condominiums, and Homeowners Associations - Funding of Reserve Accounts and Preparation of Funding Plans, Maryland General Assembly ↩
- 100 Harborview Drive Condominium Council of Unit Owners v. Clark, 224 Md. App. 13, 119 A.3d 87 (2015), Court of Special Appeals of Maryland slip opinion (mdcourts.gov) ↩
- Maryland Public Information Act Manual (19th ed., Dec. 2024), Office of the Attorney General (private associations not subject to the PIA; records governed by §§ 11-116, 11B-112) ↩
- Prince George’s County, Common Ownership Communities Legislation (CB-015-2007, CB-49-2015, CB-58-2015) ↩
- City of Gaithersburg, Commission on Common Ownership Communities (ordinance effective April 27, 2025; participation requirement removed July 1, 2025) ↩
- House Bill 1534 (2025 RS) legislation page (cross-filed with SB 758; effective October 1, 2025; amends § 11-116 and § 11B-112), Maryland General Assembly ↩