North Dakota HOA Records Inspection

Key Findings

• The Condominium Act is a short, traditional statute, and it carries no general books-and-records inspection section. Its one records-availability provision, § 47-04.1-07(3), simply tells the association to put its bylaws, rules, and regulations in writing and make them available to every owner.¹
• When an association incorporates as a nonprofit — and most do — § 10-33-80 supplies the inspection right that does the real work. It reaches the broad corporate categories the Condominium Act leaves out, including accounting records and minutes.²
• North Dakota's newest records-access measure is Senate Bill 2229 (2025), now codified at § 47-10-02.3. It is a pre-sale disclosure duty with a ten-day production clock that took effect August 1, 2025, and it stands apart from any general right of a member to inspect.^3,4
• No North Dakota Supreme Court opinion in the past 36 months interprets the condominium records provision, or applies the corporate-inspection right to an association.⁵

Details

Section 1: Overview

North Dakota splits its records rules in two. The traditional North Dakota Condominium Act (N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-04.1) places a limited records duty on condominiums. For planned communities the state writes no comprehensive HOA statute at all, so owners there rely on the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act (N.D. Cent. Code ch. 10-33) and their recorded covenants. Appeals run to the North Dakota Supreme Court, because the state's Court of Appeals rarely sits.⁶ The Condominium Act includes no general books-and-records section. Its lone records-availability provision, § 47-04.1-07(3), requires the association to reduce all bylaws, rules, and regulations to writing and make them available to every owner of any interest in the project.¹ When an association incorporates as a nonprofit — most do — the inspection right that matters is corporate. Section 10-33-80 lets a member or director, or that person's agent or attorney, inspect specified corporate records for a proper purpose at any reasonable time, and § 10-33-70 governs the members' list.^2,7 Neither source fixes a day-count for ordinary inspection. The condominium standard turns on availability, the corporate standard on reasonableness, and together they place North Dakota among the reasonableness-and-corporate-law states rather than the hard-clock states such as Florida and California. The appellate picture is distinctive too: a Court of Appeals exists by statute (ch. 27-02.1), but it convenes only when the Supreme Court assigns it cases, so the Supreme Court hears essentially every appeal.⁶ The table and the sections that follow lay out the governing provisions, the request mechanics, and the remedies.

Section 2: Quick-Reference: North Dakota HOA Records Inspection

Section 3: The records-inspection framework in detail

3A. Records subject to inspection

North Dakota splits the records right by community type, and the two sources reach different categories. For a condominium, the Condominium Act (ch. 47-04.1) is a traditional statute that never enumerates a list of inspectable books and records. Its single records-availability provision, § 47-04.1-07(3), requires the unit owners or the administrative body to reduce all bylaws, rules, and regulations to writing and make them available to every owner of any interest in the project.¹ The Act opens no general window onto financial books, accounting records, contracts, or minutes. A condominium owner who wants those categories has to look to the recorded declaration and bylaws, or to the corporate inspection right if the association is incorporated.

For a planned community, there is no North Dakota HOA statute at all. The inspectable categories come from two places: the recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions, and — where the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, which is the typical structure — the North Dakota Nonprofit Corporation Act. Section 10-33-80(1) directs the corporation to keep at its principal executive office correct and complete copies of its articles and bylaws, accounting records, voting agreements, and minutes of meetings of members, the board of directors, and board committees for the last six years.² Section 10-33-80(3) lets a member or director request a statement of the financial result of operations for the last annual accounting period and a balance sheet.² The members' list sits separately under § 10-33-70.⁷ Because this right is corporate rather than HOA-specific, it attaches to the association as a nonprofit corporation, not to the real estate, and it reaches the broad corporate categories the Condominium Act omits. The same § 10-33-80 right is also open to an incorporated condominium association, which is how most North Dakota condominium owners reach the financial records the Condominium Act itself never addresses.

3B. The request-and-response sequence

Standing and purpose differ sharply between the two regimes. Under the Condominium Act, every owner may obtain the written bylaws, rules, and regulations under § 47-04.1-07(3), and the Act imposes no proper-purpose test.¹ Under the Nonprofit Corporation Act, § 10-33-80(2) limits inspection to a member or a director, or the agent or attorney of a member or director, and conditions it on a proper purpose. The statute reads: "A member or a director, or the agent or attorney of a member or a director, may inspect all records referred to in subsection 1 or 3 for any proper purpose at any reasonable time. A proper purpose is one reasonably related to the interest of the person as a member or director of the corporation."²

The form of the request differs too. The Condominium Act spells out no written-demand procedure. Section 10-33-80 requires no written demand for general corporate records and instead allows inspection "at any reasonable time," but § 10-33-70 does require a written demand to inspect or copy the members' list.^2,7

The response deadline is the highest-value point on this page, and North Dakota runs no hard clock for ordinary inspection. The condominium standard is an availability standard: the association must make its bylaws, rules, and regulations available under § 47-04.1-07(3), with no day-count stated.¹ The corporate standard is a reasonableness standard: inspection happens "at any reasonable time" under § 10-33-80(2).² North Dakota law prescribes no fixed number of business or calendar days for either ordinary inspection. The one fixed clock in this area is the separate pre-sale disclosure statute, § 47-10-02.3, which makes the association furnish the listed documents within ten days of a seller's request — a transactional disclosure duty tied to a sale, not a general member-inspection deadline.³

Inspection of corporate records happens at the corporation's principal executive office, where § 10-33-80(1) requires the records to be kept.² The members' list becomes available, on written demand, beginning two business days after the meeting notice goes out and continuing through the meeting, at the principal executive office or a reasonable place named in the meeting notice in the city where the meeting will be held (§ 10-33-70(2)).⁷ On charges, § 10-33-80(5) lets the corporation charge the requesting party a reasonable fee to cover the expense of copies, and § 10-33-70 makes members'-list copying available at the member's expense.^2,7 The Condominium Act says nothing about copy charges.

3C. Withholding, confidentiality, and the membership or owner list

Neither the Condominium Act nor the Nonprofit Corporation Act lists records an association may withhold or redact. Neither Act carves out attorney-client privileged materials, pending-litigation files, personnel records, or individual-owner files; general North Dakota law and the rules of civil procedure, not a records-inspection statute, govern how a records demand interacts with privilege or active litigation. The practical limit on the corporate right is the proper-purpose condition in § 10-33-80(2) and the use restriction in § 10-33-80(4), which bars a member or director who has gained access from using or furnishing a corporate record for any purpose other than a proper purpose and lets the corporation seek a protective order.²

The membership or owner list gets the clearest statutory treatment, and it lives in the corporate (planned-community) context. Section 10-33-70 makes the list available for inspection by a voting member, agent, or attorney on written demand in connection with a members' meeting.⁷ Section 10-33-70(5) provides that a person who gains access to the membership list may not use it, or hand it to another for use, for any purpose other than a proper purpose, and the district court may issue a protective order or other relief on the corporation's application.⁷ The Condominium Act says nothing about the membership list. North Dakota's general open-records law does not fill the gap, because it reaches public entities rather than private associations.

3D. Remedies and enforcement for noncompliance

The remedy depends on which source supplies the right. Under the Condominium Act, there is no records-specific remedy; an aggrieved owner falls back on the Act's general enforcement provision, § 47-04.1-08, which allows an action to recover damages, for injunctive relief, or for other relief a court of proper jurisdiction may provide when someone fails to comply with the bylaws and administrative provisions.⁸ Under the Nonprofit Corporation Act, the remedy is express and stronger: § 10-33-80(7) lets a member or director who is wrongfully denied access to or copies of records bring an action for injunctive relief, damages, and costs and reasonable attorney's fees.² For the members' list, § 10-33-70(3) lets the district court, on a member's application, order inspection or copying at the corporation's expense, postpone the meeting, or order the corporation to pay the member's costs and reasonable attorney's fees.⁷ Section 10-33-81 adds a broader equitable remedy for chapter violations through an action by a defined minimum of members or the attorney general.⁹ Neither Act imposes a per-day penalty for delay.

Enforcement is judicial, not administrative. North Dakota has no dedicated HOA regulator and no agency records-complaint pathway, so a records dispute proceeds in District Court, and an appeal goes to the North Dakota Supreme Court. The North Dakota Court of Appeals exists by statute (ch. 27-02.1), but it is a temporary court that convenes only when the Supreme Court assigns it cases; since its creation in 1987 it has written opinions disposing of 90 cases, and in some years the Supreme Court assigns it none. An operator should expect a District Court action followed, if necessary, by a Supreme Court appeal.⁶

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Senate Bill 2229 is the records-access measure North Dakota enacted most recently. It runs through real-property transfer law rather than the inspection statutes, and it sets a transactional disclosure duty for sales — not a general right for members to inspect.

B. Recent rulings

A search of North Dakota Supreme Court opinions turns up no decision in the past 36 months that interprets the condominium records provision, applies the corporate-inspection right under § 10-33-80 or § 10-33-70 to an association, or resolves a records dispute in a North Dakota common-interest community.⁵ So there is no qualifying ruling to report. Treat the statutory text as the controlling authority, because North Dakota's appellate courts have not yet construed these inspection provisions in the association setting.

C. Active legislative debates

During the 2025 session the Legislature looked at, but did not pass, a separate measure — Senate Bill 2394 — aimed at condominium reserve studies and financial management. Opponents called it "a restrictive one-size-fits-all response" that would leave "the state... determining how to run each HOA in North Dakota," and no proposal to bolt a fixed records-response deadline, a copy-fee cap, electronic-records rules, or per-day penalties onto the Condominium Act moved forward.¹¹ North Dakota's Legislative Assembly meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years, so the next opening for a measure like that is the 2027 session.

Recommendations

• Stage 1 (now). Treat the statute as the controlling authority. For condominiums, rely on § 47-04.1-07(3) for bylaws and rules, and route financial-records demands through the incorporated association's § 10-33-80 right; for planned communities, work the § 10-33-80 corporate right plus the recorded covenants. Do not promise or demand a fixed number of days for ordinary inspection, because none exists — frame timing around the statutory "reasonable time" standard.^1,2
• Stage 2 (transactions). Stand up a ten-day resale-disclosure workflow under § 47-10-02.3 with a pre-disclosed reasonable fee, and keep the four financial items — current assessments, approved special assessments, reserve and capital funds, and current budgets and year-to-date financials — always producible, because none of them counts as excusably unavailable.³
• Stage 3 (disputes). When an association wrongfully denies inspection, an incorporated association's member or director should pursue the § 10-33-80(7) remedy (injunction, damages, costs, and attorney's fees) or the § 10-33-70(3) members'-list remedy in District Court; condominium-only claims fall back on the general remedy in § 47-04.1-08.^2,7,8
• Benchmarks that would change this guidance. A 2027-session bill that adds a fixed records-response deadline, a copy-fee cap, or per-day penalties to the Condominium Act, or a first North Dakota Supreme Court opinion construing § 10-33-80 or § 10-33-70 in the association context, would supersede the reasonableness framing and should trigger a rewrite of Sections 2 and 3.

Caveats

• The August 1, 2025 effective date for § 47-10-02.3 follows from North Dakota's default rule that 2025 regular-session legislation without an emergency clause or a stated effective date becomes effective August 1, and contemporaneous reporting confirms it; the bill text itself states no separate effective date.^4,10
• The absence of an interpreting North Dakota Supreme Court opinion is a negative finding drawn from the court's published-opinions database and standard legal indices; it means there is no controlling appellate gloss, not that disputes have never happened.⁵
• Whether the corporate inspection right under ch. 10-33 reaches a particular association depends on that association being incorporated as a nonprofit corporation; an unincorporated association, or one organized under a different chapter, would present a different analysis.²

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

North Dakota is a covenant-primary, split-regime state. Condominium records rest on a thin, traditional Condominium Act whose only records provision is an availability standard limited to bylaws and rules. Planned-community records rest on corporate law — the Nonprofit Corporation Act — plus the recorded covenants, with no comprehensive HOA records statute and no fixed statutory response deadline for ordinary inspection. That puts North Dakota at the opposite end of the spectrum from hard-clock comprehensive states such as Florida and California, which enumerate official records, impose day-count deadlines, and cap copy fees. The appellate structure sharpens the point for anyone tracking developments: the Court of Appeals rarely convenes, so the Supreme Court hears essentially all appeals, and a single Supreme Court opinion would set statewide precedent. Momentum toward a comprehensive planned-community statute stays low, with recent activity confined to pre-sale disclosure and a failed reserve-study proposal rather than a records-inspection overhaul.

HOA Weekly's North Dakota Records Inspection coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the North Dakota 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 OTARD rule — also apply to North Dakota associations no matter what the state framework says, and that federal coverage is coming as a separate section.

Footnotes

1. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-07(3) (Condominium Ownership of Real Property), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
2. N.D. Cent. Code § 10-33-80 (Nonprofit Corporations — Books and Records; Financial Statement), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
3. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-10-02.3 (Real Property Transfers — Required Disclosures Before Sale of a Condominium Unit or Property Subject to a Homeowners' Association), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
4. North Dakota Legislative Branch, S.B. 2229 Bill Overview, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025) (sponsors, votes, signed Mar. 18, 2025) ↩
5. North Dakota Supreme Court Opinions (searchable database; no qualifying records-inspection opinion located, 2022–2026) ↩
6. North Dakota Court System, Court of Appeals (established 1987; sits only on Supreme Court assignment) ↩
7. N.D. Cent. Code § 10-33-70 (Nonprofit Corporations — Members' List for Meeting), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
8. N.D. Cent. Code § 47-04.1-08 (Compliance With Covenants, Bylaws, and Administrative Provisions), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
9. N.D. Cent. Code § 10-33-81 (Nonprofit Corporations — Equitable Remedies), North Dakota Legislative Branch ↩
10. Community Living Associations in ND Will See Increased Disclosure Requirements Starting Aug. 1, InForum ↩
11. North Dakota Legislative Branch, Senate Industry and Business Committee, S.B. 2394 Testimony Record (2025) ↩