Nevada HOA Board Elections

Section 1: How board elections are governed in Nevada

In Nevada, one statute runs the show. The state governs HOA board elections under the Common-Interest Ownership Act, NRS Chapter 116 — Nevada's version of the 1982 Uniform Common-Interest Ownership Act, which the Legislature has rewritten again and again, in most sessions.¹ Many states leave elections to the declaration and the bylaws. Nevada does not. It writes the core mechanics straight into the statute: NRS 116.31034 lays out secret-ballot elections, nomination procedures, director terms, and who may run, and NRS 116.31036 sets an owner-driven removal — what most people call a recall.^2,3 These are commands, not suggestions a board can work around.

A dedicated regulator sits on top of that statute. The Real Estate Division of the Department of Business and Industry, the Office of the Ombudsman for Owners in Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels, and the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels all administer NRS 116, and Nevada requires every community association manager to hold a certificate from the Division.^4,5 One more layer matters before anyone reaches a courtroom. Under NRS 38.310, an owner cannot file a civil action over the interpretation, application, or enforcement of the governing documents — or over assessment procedures — until the claim has gone through the Division's mediation or arbitration program under NRS 38.300 to 38.360.⁶ Put the prescriptive statute and the regulatory overlay together, and Nevada lands among the most prescriptive and most heavily regulated HOA states in the country, alongside California and Florida. The sections that follow lay out the framework and the working mechanics, with a citation to the controlling statute behind each rule.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. NRS Chapter 116 board governance and declarant control

The Nevada Common-Interest Ownership Act (NRS Chapter 116) governs the common-interest communities the state creates — condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives.¹ It draws on the 1982 UCIOA, but the Legislature has amended it so heavily that the current Nevada text, not a generic UCIOA template, controls; the source note on the election section (NRS 116.31034) traces amendments in 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2023.² NRS 116.31034 holds the central board-election rule: no later than the end of any period of declarant control, the unit owners elect an executive board of at least three members, all of whom must be unit owners, and the board then elects the officers.²

NRS 116.31032 governs declarant control. A declaration may give the declarant a period to appoint and remove officers and board members, but that period ends no later than the earliest of several triggers: in a community with fewer than 1,000 units, 60 days after 75 percent of the units that may be created are conveyed to owners other than the declarant; in a community of 1,000 units or more, 60 days after 90 percent are conveyed.⁷ The statute also forces staged owner representation before the full handoff: within 60 days after owners take 25 percent of the units, they elect at least one member and not less than 25 percent of the board, and within 60 days after they take 50 percent, they elect not less than 33 1/3 percent.⁷ Condominium hotels answer to a separate chapter, NRS Chapter 116B; the NRS 116 election provisions do not reach them, and the two chapters should not be cross-applied.⁸

2B. Prescribed election procedures and the regulatory and ADR overlay

NRS 116.31034 prescribes the election mechanics directly. The association must conduct the election of any board member by secret ballot, on paper or electronically; it must give each owner at least 15 days to return the ballot; it need not reach a quorum to elect; and it counts only the ballots owners return.² Not less than 30 days before it prepares a ballot, the association must notify each owner of the owner's eligibility to serve, and any qualified owner may place his or her name on the ballot alongside nominees the board or a nominating committee chooses.² Directors take office on election, a term may not exceed three years, and the governing documents must stagger the terms.² NRS 116.31036 sets removal: notwithstanding any contrary provision in the declaration or bylaws, owners may remove an owner-elected director with or without cause if, at a removal election, the votes cast in favor reach at least 35 percent of the total number of voting members and at least a majority of all votes cast.³

The regulatory overlay is the feature that defines Nevada. The Real Estate Division administers the chapter; the Ombudsman registers associations and helps owners; and the Commission for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels writes regulations and imposes discipline.⁵ No one may act as a community manager without a certificate from the Division, and managers answer to the standards of practice in NRS Chapter 116A.⁴ On top of that sits the alternative-dispute-resolution requirement of NRS 38.300 to 38.360: under NRS 38.310, an owner may not bring a civil action over the interpretation, application, or enforcement of the governing documents, or over assessment procedures, until the claim has gone to the Division's program, and a court must dismiss an action filed in violation of that rule.⁶ Whether a particular board-election dispute falls within NRS 38.310 turns on whether someone frames it as a governing-document claim, so check the covered-claims question case by case.

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

Most Nevada associations incorporate as nonprofit corporations under NRS Chapter 82, which supplies director gap-fillers wherever NRS 116 and the bylaws fall silent.⁹ NRS Chapter 82 is corporate scaffolding only; it is not the source of the prescribed election procedures, which live in NRS 116. The order of precedence runs like this: the mandatory provisions of NRS 116 control first, and no agreement can vary them; next come the NRS 116 default rules as the declaration and bylaws modify them where the statute allows; then the unmodified NRS 116 defaults; then the NRS Chapter 82 corporate gap-fillers; and finally the association's rules. NRS 116.1206 reinforces the hierarchy: any provision in a declaration, bylaw, or other governing document that violates the chapter is deemed to conform by operation of law and is superseded.¹⁰ So a manager or board should apply the NRS 116 election procedures and the Division's regulatory requirements first, read the bylaws against them, and treat any bylaw that conflicts with NRS 116.31034 or 116.31036 as overridden.

Section 3: Election mechanics

The table below pairs each mechanic with the statute that controls it. Unless a row says otherwise, these rules cover all NRS 116 common-interest communities — condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives. Condominium hotels run on a separate chapter, NRS Chapter 116B.

A. Eligibility and nominations

A board candidate must own a unit, and officers need not be owners unless the governing documents require it.² NRS 116.31034 imposes eligibility restrictions that operate notwithstanding the bylaws: a person generally may not run if related within the third degree to a sitting director or officer, if the person stands to gain personal profit from a matter before the board, or if the person or a close relative performs the duties of the association's community manager — with an exception when the candidates do not outnumber the open seats.² When a person is ineligible, the association must keep the name off the ballot and must prohibit service.² Nomination runs from the owners up: at least 30 days before it prepares the ballot, the association notifies owners of their eligibility, and any qualified owner may self-nominate.² Within 90 days, each elected or appointed director must certify in writing, on a form the Division prescribes, that he or she has read and understands the governing documents and NRS 116.²

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Owners must meet at least once a year, and the association opens and counts the election ballots at that annual meeting.¹¹ It must give notice of any owners' meeting not less than 15 nor more than 60 days in advance, with the agenda.¹¹ The statute mandates these timelines, though the bylaws fix the specific annual-meeting date. Quorum trips people up most often: NRS 116.3109 sets a default 20 percent quorum for owner meetings (subject to the governing documents), but NRS 116.31034 expressly says no quorum is required to elect a board member, so a board election stands on the ballots owners return.^13,2

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

Owners elect board members by secret ballot, which the association may deliver and collect on paper or electronically; owners must have at least 15 days to return the ballot, and only returned ballots count.² Incumbents — including a director facing removal — may not reach or count the ballots before the association opens them at a meeting.³ Proxies mark the key limit: although NRS 116.311 allows proxy and absentee voting on many matters, it forbids casting a proxy vote to elect or remove a board member, with a narrow exception for time-share master associations that vote through delegates under NRS 116.31105.^12,15 Any electronic voting must run through an independent third party — an authority the Legislature added in 2023; the rule is statutory and supersedes contrary governing documents, but an owner may opt out and take a paper ballot.¹⁶

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

A director's term may not exceed three years, terms must stagger, and no statutory cap limits the number of terms unless the bylaws impose one.² The board fills mid-term vacancies, and it may do so notwithstanding any contrary provision in the governing documents, for the unexpired portion of the term or until the next regularly scheduled election, whichever comes first.¹⁴ What owners call a recall is a statutory removal election under NRS 116.31036: at least 10 percent of voting members (or a lower bylaw percentage) petition to call it, and removal succeeds only if the votes in favor reach at least 35 percent of all voting members and a majority of all votes cast. To put numbers on it, in a 100-member association at least 35 favorable votes must come in before a director can go, no matter the split among the ballots returned.³ Because the statute applies notwithstanding contrary bylaws, it supersedes older supermajority recall provisions buried in a declaration.³ A dispute over a contested election or removal that turns on the governing documents may run into the NRS 38.310 pre-suit ADR requirement, and any manager who runs the process must hold a Division certificate.^6,4

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Through late 2025, the Commission's task force and the Division kept discussing ways to clarify NRS 116 — including the eligibility and conflict-of-interest language in NRS 116.31034 and the reach of the actual-damages requirement — but no enacted 2025 measure amended the core board-election sections.²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Nevada ranks among the most prescriptive and most heavily regulated HOA states, in the same tier as California and Florida. It is a full UCIOA state — the 1982 model, extensively amended — which sets it apart from the CC&R-primary and bylaw-centric jurisdictions where the governing documents run elections.¹ For board elections in particular, the distinctive features are the detailed statutory procedures of NRS 116.31034 and 116.31036, a dedicated regulator (the Real Estate Division, the Ombudsman, and the Commission), mandatory community-manager licensing, and a mandatory pre-suit mediation and arbitration program.^5,6 For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is direct: in Nevada the election follows NRS 116 in detail, the manager running it must hold a Division certificate, and many disputes route through the Division's mediation or arbitration program before they reach a court.

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 reach Nevada associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 116, Common-Interest Ownership (Uniform Act) ↩
2. NRS 116.31034, Election of members of executive board and officers of association ↩
3. NRS 116.31036, Removal of member of executive board ↩
4. NRS 116A.400, Person prohibited from acting as community manager without certificate ↩
5. NRS 116.600 and 116.625, Commission and Office of the Ombudsman for Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels ↩
6. NRS 38.310, Limitations on commencement of certain civil actions (NRS 38.300 to 38.360) ↩
7. NRS 116.31032, Period of declarant's control of association ↩
8. Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 116B, Condominium Hotels ↩
9. Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 82, Nonprofit Corporations ↩
10. NRS 116.1206, Provisions of governing documents in violation of chapter deemed to conform by operation of law ↩
11. NRS 116.3108, Meetings of units' owners of association ↩
12. NRS 116.311, Voting by units' owners; use of absentee ballots and proxies ↩
13. NRS 116.3109, Quorum ↩
14. NRS 116.3103, Power of executive board to act on behalf of association ↩
15. NRS 116.31105, Voting by delegates or representatives ↩
16. Assembly Bill 309 (2023), 82nd Session, Chapter 172 ↩
17. Piazza v. Spring Mountain Ranch Master Association, No. 88493-COA (Nev. Ct. App. July 31, 2025) ↩