North Dakota HOA Director Qualifications

Section 1: Overview — Who can serve on an HOA or condominium board in North Dakota

Start with the big picture. North Dakota takes a light touch, and it puts the covenants first. Director qualifications come from the association's governing documents and, for incorporated associations, from the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33)¹ — not from a detailed property statute. Look at the state's condominium statute, Condominium Ownership of Real Property (N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1)². A project opts into that chapter by recording a declaration³, and the chapter says nothing about who may serve as a director. Non-condominium homeowners associations have no dedicated North Dakota statute at all. They run on recorded covenants, the Nonprofit Corporations Act, and common law. So here is the practical result: North Dakota requires no director certification or education, sets no term limit, and disqualifies no one automatically for unpaid assessments or a criminal record. That puts North Dakota a long way from heavy-touch states such as Florida and California, which legislate director certification, term limits, and automatic disqualifications outright. In North Dakota, a manager or attorney who vets a candidate — or challenges a sitting director — reads the declaration and bylaws first, then turns to the corporate statute under which the association is organized. The sections that follow point to where each rule comes from, what the corporate act supplies by default, and what North Dakota law simply leaves alone.

Section 2: Where director qualifications come from

2A. The condominium statute and the absence of an HOA statute

Condominium Ownership of Real Property (N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1) runs about sixteen sections — concise and traditional.² It is opt-in. A project becomes subject to the chapter only when the owner or owners sign and record a declaration with the county recorder, and the statute spells out what that declaration must contain.³ The chapter covers the declaration, the bylaws (which must be annexed to the recorded declaration)⁴, administration, assessments for common expenses and the liens that secure them⁵, and a set of owner rights that the Legislature recently expanded to protect political-sign displays and electric-vehicle charging stations.⁶ What the chapter leaves out tells you just as much: director eligibility, director qualifications, board composition, terms, and removal. Nothing in it requires a director to own a unit, sets a term limit, or disqualifies a delinquent or convicted owner. Non-condominium homeowners associations fall outside Chapter 47-04.1 entirely, and North Dakota has passed no separate planned-community or HOA act to govern them. Those associations answer to their recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, to the corporate statute under which they organized, and to common law. One more provision deserves a mention. The resale-disclosure section at N.D.C.C. § 47-10-02.3 requires a seller to hand association documents to a buyer on certain transfers⁷, but it governs disclosure, not who may sit on a board. Add it all up, and neither the condominium chapter nor the missing HOA statute imposes certification or education, a term limit, or an automatic delinquency or felony bar on directors.

2B. The corporate-law layer: the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act

Most North Dakota condominium and homeowners associations incorporate as nonprofit corporations under N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33¹, and because the property statutes are thin or missing, this chapter does the heavy lifting for director rules in both settings. Chapter 10-33 builds the corporate scaffolding. The board must seat three or more directors, with a narrow exception when the corporation has only one or two voting members⁸. Directors must be individuals⁹. Fixed terms may not run past ten years, and the term defaults to one year when the articles or bylaws say nothing¹⁰. The corporation may add its own director qualifications through its articles or bylaws⁹. Members who hold voting rights may remove and replace directors and fill vacancies¹¹. And the chapter sets a standard of conduct¹² and conflict-of-interest rules¹³ for directors. It also tells the corporation to keep core records — articles, bylaws, accounting records, and minutes — for the last six years, and to let members and directors inspect them for a proper purpose (§ 10-33-80).¹⁴ Some associations organize instead under the North Dakota Business Corporation Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 10-19.1)¹⁵ or the Nonprofit Limited Liability Company Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 10-36)¹⁶, each of which carries its own parallel director and governor provisions. Here is the key point for anyone vetting a director: Chapter 10-33 is corporate-governance law, not an HOA statute — yet it is the statute that actually answers most director-qualification questions in North Dakota.

2C. The declaration and bylaws

The declaration and bylaws are where candidate-eligibility screens actually live. The condominium statute directs that bylaws be adopted and annexed to the recorded declaration⁴, and the Nonprofit Corporations Act expressly lets the articles or bylaws add director qualifications.⁹ Any requirement that a director own a unit or be a member in good standing, any residency or age condition beyond the corporate baseline, and any treatment of co-owners, trustees, or entity representatives will turn up there — not in the property statute. The order of precedence runs like this: the condominium statute first (for a project that elected in, and only on the limited matters Chapter 47-04.1 addresses) or the recorded covenants (for a homeowners association); then the declaration and bylaws; then the Nonprofit Corporations Act defaults; then board-adopted rules. In practice, a manager reads the governing documents against Chapter 10-33 and, for a condominium, confirms that the project really did elect into Chapter 47-04.1 by recording a declaration — because the chapter does not touch a project that never recorded one.

Section 3: Director eligibility, disqualification, and tenure rules

3A. Eligibility to serve

North Dakota imposes no statutory requirement that a director own a unit or belong to the association. The Nonprofit Corporations Act asks only that directors be individuals, and it lets the corporation add qualifications through its articles or bylaws (§ 10-33-29).⁹ So an owner-only, member-in-good-standing, or residency requirement traces to the documents, not the statute. The corporate act sets no minimum age for directors — though officers must be at least eighteen¹ — so any age screen for directors is documentary too. There is no statutory good-standing test. The documents and the natural-person rule handle co-owners, spouses, trustees, and entity representatives; where a trust or entity owns a unit, the documents usually name the individual who may serve. Source layer: the Nonprofit Corporations Act supplies the natural-person baseline and the authority to add qualifications; the declaration, covenants, and bylaws supply the actual eligibility screens. Applicability: both condominiums and non-condominium HOAs organized as corporations.

3B. Disqualification and removal

N.D.C.C. § 10-33-36 governs member removal of directors, and it applies unless the articles or bylaws set a different method.¹¹ Under that section, the members who are eligible to elect a director may remove that director at any time, with or without cause, and they may elect a replacement at the same meeting. The section itself fixes no numeric percentage for member removal; the general member-vote standard in § 10-33-72 controls unless the documents demand more.¹⁷ A separate provision, § 10-33-37, lets a court remove a director by judicial proceeding in specified circumstances.¹⁸ The vote mechanics for the election-or-removal meeting itself — notice, quorum, ballots, proxies — belong to our Board Elections coverage. Delinquent assessments and a criminal record do not disqualify a candidate or a sitting director as a matter of North Dakota statute; any such bar has to come from the declaration or bylaws. Conflict-of-interest limits on a director's participation come from § 10-33-46 of the Nonprofit Corporations Act¹³ and from the documents — not from the property statute. Source layer: the Nonprofit Corporations Act for removal and conflicts; the documents for delinquency or criminal-history bars. Applicability: both contexts, for incorporated associations.

3C. Board composition and terms

The Nonprofit Corporations Act sets the default floor at three directors, with the exact number named in or fixed under the articles or bylaws, and a narrow exception that allows fewer than three only when the corporation has one or two voting members (§ 10-33-28).⁸ The act sets no statutory maximum; the documents do that. Director terms are fixed by the articles or bylaws and may not exceed ten years, with a one-year default when the documents are silent (§ 10-33-30); terms may be staggered if the documents allow it.¹⁰ North Dakota imposes no statutory term limit, so any cap on consecutive terms is documentary. The corporate act does limit board composition in one way that rarely binds a volunteer HOA board: no more than forty-nine percent of the individuals on a corporation's board may be financially interested individuals (§ 10-33-27), a defined term tied to compensation.¹⁹ Declarant or developer board seats, and the transition of control from a developer to owner-elected directors, live in the declaration and bylaws if they live anywhere; the condominium statute says nothing about declarant control, and no statute supplies default transition mechanics. Source layer: the Nonprofit Corporations Act for the floor, the term ceiling, and the composition limit; the documents for the maximum number, term length, staggering, term limits, and declarant transition.

3D. Onboarding and ongoing qualification duties

North Dakota requires no director certification or education of any kind. That stands in sharp contrast to Florida. There, under Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)5.b. (condominiums) and § 720.3033(1) (homeowners associations), a newly elected or appointed director must — within 90 days after election or appointment — file a written certification and/or a certificate showing completion of a state-approved four-hour course (existing directors had to comply by June 30, 2025), and a director who fails to file on time "is suspended from service on the board until he or she complies."²⁰ A North Dakota director, by contrast, takes office on election or appointment under the documents and the corporate act, with no state course, exam, or filing standing in the way. Conflict-of-interest disclosure expectations come from § 10-33-46 of the Nonprofit Corporations Act, which governs how the board may authorize a transaction in which a director holds a material interest¹³, and from any conflict policy the board adopts. The fiduciary baseline is statutory: under § 10-33-45, a director must discharge the duties of the office in good faith, in a manner the director reasonably believes serves the best interests of the corporation, and with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances — and the director may rely on competent officers, professional advisers, and board committees.¹² Common law fills in around that duty. Source layer: the Nonprofit Corporations Act and common law. Applicability: both contexts, for incorporated associations.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past twenty-four months amended the condominium statute (N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1) or the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33) in any way that changes association director qualifications, board composition, or removal. The one association-related measure to pass in the 2025 session, Senate Bill 2229 (69th Legislative Assembly), created a new resale-disclosure section in Chapter 47-10 that requires sellers to furnish association documents to buyers²¹; it says nothing about director eligibility, and our North Dakota HOA Compliance coverage handles it rather than this page. For this period, there is no qualifying director-qualification bill to report.

4B. Recent appellate rulings

No North Dakota Supreme Court opinion in the relevant period addresses director eligibility, removal, board composition, or the standard of care for association directors. The North Dakota Court of Appeals is a temporary court that hears only the cases the Supreme Court assigns to it — and in some years it hears none^{22, 23} — so any association appellate decision would come from the North Dakota Supreme Court, and we located none on this topic. For this period, there is no qualifying ruling to report.

4C. Active legislative debates

In the 2025 session the Legislature took up Senate Bill 2394, which would have created a new Title 47 chapter setting bylaw requirements and board-of-directors duties for community associations — including a minimum of three board members and quarterly meetings. It was the closest North Dakota has come to a dedicated HOA statute with board provisions. The Senate Industry and Business Committee recommended Do Not Pass, and the measure did not become law.²⁴ No proposal now pending would impose director certification, a term limit, or automatic disqualification.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Step back to the national map. North Dakota is a light-touch, covenant-primary state when it comes to director qualifications. A thin, opt-in condominium statute says nothing about eligibility, no dedicated HOA statute exists, and eligibility, terms, and disqualification rest on the governing documents and the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporations Act. Florida sits at the other end of the spectrum. Its Condominium Act imposes an eight-consecutive-year term limit on directors under Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)2 (added in 2017 and amended in 2018, with only post-July 1, 2018 service counting, so the first directors term out in mid-2026) unless at least two-thirds of the votes cast re-elect them²⁵, and under Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(p) a director or officer more than 90 days delinquent on a monetary obligation to the association "shall be deemed to have abandoned the office, creating a vacancy," while a director charged by information or indictment with specified crimes must be removed.²⁶ Nebraska lands in the middle. Its Nebraska Condominium Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-825 to 76-894), at § 76-861, provides that "the executive board may act in all instances on behalf of the association" and that officers and board members "are required to exercise ordinary and reasonable care."²⁷ For a multi-state operator, the takeaway is straightforward: North Dakota statute imposes almost nothing on director eligibility, so each association's recorded documents and corporate form control, and a single national policy will usually meet or exceed North Dakota law. One research note: North Dakota's intermediate Court of Appeals rarely sits, so appellate research on these questions runs through the North Dakota Supreme Court.

HOA Weekly updates its North Dakota Director Qualifications coverage each quarter as the Legislature and the North Dakota Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks rarely dictate director qualifications, but North Dakota associations still answer to federal law — the Fair Housing Act, the ADA, the FDCPA, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC OTARD rule — across their broader operations.

Footnotes

1. N.D.C.C. ch. 10-33, Nonprofit Corporations (official North Dakota Century Code) ↩
2. N.D.C.C. ch. 47-04.1, Condominium Ownership of Real Property (official North Dakota Century Code) ↩
3. N.D.C.C. §§ 47-04.1-02, 47-04.1-03 (recording of declaration; contents of declaration) ↩
4. N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-07 (administration; bylaws annexed to declaration) ↩
5. N.D.C.C. § 47-04.1-11 (liens against units for common expenses) ↩
6. N.D.C.C. §§ 47-04.1-14, 47-04.1-16 (political-sign display; electric vehicle charging station installation) ↩
7. N.D.C.C. § 47-10-02.3 (required HOA/condominium resale disclosures) ↩
8. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-28 (number of directors; minimum of three) ↩
9. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-29 (directors must be individuals; additional qualifications via articles or bylaws) ↩
10. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-30 (terms of directors; maximum ten years; one-year default) ↩
11. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-36 (nonjudicial removal of directors) ↩
12. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-45 (standard of conduct for directors) ↩
13. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-46 (director conflicts of interest) ↩
14. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-80 (books and records; financial statement) ↩
15. N.D.C.C. ch. 10-19.1, North Dakota Business Corporation Act ↩
16. N.D.C.C. ch. 10-36, Nonprofit Limited Liability Company Act ↩
17. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-72 (act of the members; member-vote standard) ↩
18. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-37 (removal of directors by judicial proceeding) ↩
19. N.D.C.C. § 10-33-27 (board; limit on financially interested individuals) ↩
20. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)5.b. (condominium director certification/education); see also Fla. Stat. § 720.3033(1) (HOA director certification) ↩
21. ND SB 2229, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), creating a new section to ch. 47-10 on resale disclosures ↩
22. N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 27, Court of Appeals (temporary court; judges assigned case-by-case) ↩
23. North Dakota Court System, Court of Appeals (cases heard only when assigned; in some years none) ↩
24. ND SB 2394, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), association bylaws and board of directors (Do Not Pass) ↩
25. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)2 (eight-consecutive-year term limit for condominium directors) ↩
26. Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(p) (abandonment of office for delinquency; removal of director charged with specified crimes) ↩
27. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-861 (Nebraska Condominium Act; executive board authority and standard of care) ↩