Section 1: Overview — How board elections are governed in New Jersey

New Jersey does not leave board elections to each community's bylaws. It writes the rules into statute and regulation, and it builds the framework in three layers. The New Jersey Condominium Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq., governs how a condominium comes into being and how it operates, the association and its board included.¹

The Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act — PREDFDA, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq. — reaches developer-offered planned developments and carries the prescriptive governance rules.² And the New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.J.S.A. 15A:1-1 et seq., fills the corporate gaps.

The election procedures themselves trace to the 2017 Radburn amendments to PREDFDA (P.L. 2017, c. 106), which guarantee open nomination rights and election by secret, anonymous ballot,³ and to the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) regulations adopted to carry them out at N.J.A.C. 5:26-8.9.⁴ DCA readopted N.J.A.C. 5:26 without change effective March 3, 2025 (notice of readoption at 57 N.J.R. 4(1), April 7, 2025), carrying all eleven subchapters, including the election subchapter 8, to a new expiration date of March 3, 2032.⁵ The readoption did not remove the provisions the Appellate Division reversed in February 2024 (No. A-2241-21), and DCA's rule index shows nothing proposed or adopted since, so the printed rules still contain text that no longer governs.^6,7 The older meetings rule, N.J.A.C. 5:20, was repealed effective May 18, 2020 (R.2020 d.056), its text carried into N.J.A.C. 5:26-8.12, "Open meetings," although DCA's Association Regulation Initiative page still lists "NJAC 5:20."^8,9

The DCA runs PREDFDA registration and these governance rules; it does not license community association managers. New Jersey has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so UCIOA section numbers and features do not apply here. All of this places New Jersey among the prescriptive-procedure states — with California, Florida, and Nevada — where statute and regulation, not the bylaws, set the election machinery. The sections that follow lay out the framework, the order of precedence among these sources, and how a New Jersey board election actually runs.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Condominium Act and the PREDFDA framework

The New Jersey Condominium Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq., governs how a condominium is created and how it runs, including the association and its governing board.¹ Two provisions matter for elections. Section 46:8B-13 requires the bylaws, recorded with the master deed, to set the form of administration and to spell out "the powers, duties and manner of selection, removal and compensation, if any, of officers and board members."¹⁰ Section 46:8B-12.1 governs the developer-controlled board and the initial transition election: the association must call an owners' meeting to elect board members within 30 days after owners become entitled to elect them, on no less than 20 and no more than 30 days' notice.¹¹ What the Condominium Act does not supply is the open-nomination and anonymous-ballot machinery. That comes from PREDFDA.

PREDFDA, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq., is the developer-disclosure and association-governance statute.² Its governance provisions reach planned real estate developments a developer offers under a common promotional plan — a definition that expressly takes in property subject to the Condominium Act, homeowners' associations, and housing cooperatives.² The DCA administers PREDFDA, from developer registration to the association-governance rules in N.J.A.C. Title 5.⁴ This framework — the Condominium Act plus PREDFDA — is not UCIOA, which New Jersey has never enacted; a New Jersey election analysis should not borrow UCIOA section numbers or default rules.

1. New Jersey Condominium Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq. (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled text) ↩
2. Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act, N.J.S.A. 45:22A-21 et seq. (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled text) ↩
3. P.L. 2017, c. 106 (the Radburn law), New Jersey Legislature ↩
4. N.J.A.C. 5:26-8.9, Executive board elections (N.J. Department of Community Affairs regulations) ↩
5. N.J. Dep't of Cmty. Affairs, Notice of Readoption without change, N.J.A.C. 5:26, 57 N.J.R. 4(1) (Apr. 7, 2025) (effective Mar. 3, 2025; expires Mar. 3, 2032) ↩
6. In re Challenge of the Community Associations Institute, New Jersey Chapter, Inc., No. A-2241-21 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Feb. 23, 2024) ↩
7. N.J. Dep't of Cmty. Affairs, Division of Codes and Standards, rule proposals and adoptions index ↩
8. N.J. Dep't of Cmty. Affairs, Rule Proposal PRN 2019-065, 51 N.J.R. 795 (June 3, 2019) (repeal of N.J.A.C. 5:20; text incorporated at N.J.A.C. 5:26-8.12) ↩
9. N.J. Dep't of Cmty. Affairs, Association Regulation Initiative (page still listing "NJAC 5:20") ↩
10. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-13, Bylaws (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled Condominium Act text) ↩
11. N.J.S.A. 46:8B-12.1, Members of governing board; elections; control by board (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled Condominium Act text) ↩
12. N.J.S.A. 45:22A-45.2, Executive board elections (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled PREDFDA text) ↩
13. N.J.S.A. 45:22A-47, Surrender of control to owners (N.J. Department of Community Affairs compiled PREDFDA text) ↩
14. New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.J.S.A. 15A:6-2, 15A:6-4, 15A:6-5, and 15A:6-6 (New Jersey Legislature statutes database) ↩
15. Assembly Bill No. 1138, 222nd Legislature (2026), New Jersey Legislature ↩
16. Assembly Bill No. 1367, 221st Legislature (2024-2025), New Jersey Legislature ↩
17. In re Challenge of the CAI-NJ to Amendments to N.J.A.C. 5:26, Docket No. A-2241-21 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Feb. 23, 2024) ↩
18. 31 C.F.R. § 1010.380, Reports of beneficial ownership information (current text on eCFR) (ecfr.gov) (domestic-entity exemption for entities created by filing with a U.S. secretary of state or similar office). ↩