Section 1: Overview, how board elections are governed in Ohio

In Ohio, the law that controls a board election depends first on what kind of community is voting. Two separate statutes do the work, and each one hands much of the operating detail to the community's own governing documents. The Ohio Condominium Property Act — Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 5311 — governs condominiums and the unit owners associations that run them.¹

The Ohio Planned Community Law — Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 5312, which the 128th General Assembly enacted as Senate Bill 187 and which took effect September 10, 2010 — governs planned communities, meaning the non-condominium homeowners associations.²

These are two distinct statutes, and they do not overlap. Chapter 5312 says plainly that a condominium property as defined in Chapter 5311 is not a planned community, so you match the chapter to the community type rather than apply both at once.² Each statute fixes a limited set of board-governance rules and then defers the rest — board size, nomination method, term length, quorum, and the owner voting method — to the declaration and bylaws.^1,3

Ohio never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Chapter 5311 is the state's own condominium statute, and Chapter 5312 is the 2010 Planned Community Law, so UCIOA section numbers and default mechanics simply do not apply here.² That makes Ohio a two-statute, non-UCIOA state, where the election framework splits by community type and the recorded documents fill in most of the detail. The sections that follow lay out the framework for each chapter, the corporate-law backstop, and the mechanics that property managers and boards reach for when an election is contested.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Condominium Property Act (Chapter 5311) and condominium board elections

The Ohio Condominium Property Act requires every condominium property to be administered by a unit owners association, and it places all power and authority in a board of directors that the unit owners elect from among the unit owners or their spouses.¹ When the owner is not an individual, that owner may nominate a principal, member, partner, director, officer, or employee to serve, and the board's majority may not come from the same unit unless the board first adopts a resolution permitting it.¹ The board elects a president, secretary, treasurer, and any other officers it wants.¹

The Act lays out a structured handoff from developer control to owner-elected boards. Under Ohio Rev. Code 5311.08(C)(2)(a), "Not later than sixty days after the developer has sold and conveyed condominium ownership interests appertaining to twenty-five per cent of the undivided interests in the common elements in a condominium development, the unit owners association shall meet, and the unit owners other than the developer shall elect not less than one-third of the members of the board of directors."¹ Developer control may run until sixty days after seventy-five per cent of the undivided interests have been conveyed — but no longer than five years after the association is established for an expandable condominium, or three years for a non-expandable one. Within sixty days after that control period ends, the association must meet and elect the full board.¹

The Act fixes director eligibility, the developer-control timeline, and a requirement that the bylaws stagger terms so that not less than one-fifth expire each year.¹ It leaves board size, the specific term length, the nomination method, the removal method, and officer election to the bylaws.¹ Because Chapter 5311 stands apart from the Planned Community Law and is not based on UCIOA, its provisions do not carry over to a planned community.²

1. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.08 (Condominium Property Act — unit owners association; board of directors) ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5312 (Ohio Planned Community Law) (added by S.B. 187, 128th Gen. Assemb., eff. Sept. 10, 2010) ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.03 (Planned Community Law — administration; owners association; board of directors) ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.04 (Planned Community Law — election of officers; powers; meetings) ↩
5. Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.28 (Nonprofit Corporation Law — term and classification of directors) ↩
6. Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.29 (Nonprofit Corporation Law — removal of directors and filling vacancies) ↩
7. Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.16 (Nonprofit Corporation Law — annual meeting) ↩
8. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.05 (Condominium declaration — electronic-notice authority, div. (E)(1)(f)) ↩
9. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.22 (Condominium Property Act — voting) ↩
10. Ohio Rev. Code § 1702.22 (Nonprofit Corporation Law — quorum of voting members) ↩
11. S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2022) (eff. Sept. 13, 2022) ↩
12. H.B. 226, 136th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio) (assessment-lien priority) ↩
13. Water Street Condominium Owners' Assn., Inc. v. Ferguson, 2024-Ohio-1592 (Ohio Ct. App. 8th Dist. Apr. 25, 2024) ↩
14. Ragouzis v. Madison House Condominium Owners Assn., Inc., 2025-Ohio-2797 (Ohio Ct. App. 1st Dist. Aug. 8, 2025) ↩
15. 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). ↩