Chapter 5312 — Planned Community Law

The Ohio Planned Community Law, Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.01 et seq., governs communities of individual lots whose deed, common plan, or declaration requires membership in an owners association, association ownership or lease of common facilities, or owner support of shared property.³ It took effect September 10, 2010. Its typical subject is the detached-home subdivision — the lot-and-dwelling community that Chapter 5311 does not reach.³

The chapter is shorter than the condominium act and follows the same lifecycle framework. Section 5312.02 requires a recorded declaration and bylaws and specifies what those documents must address, including board elections, terms with not less than one-fifth expiring annually, amendment method, meetings, and common expenses.¹³ Section 5312.03 requires the owners association to organize as a nonprofit corporation under Chapter 1702 and provides for declarant control.¹⁴ Defined terms in section 5312.01 include "assessment," "common element," "common expense," "declarant," "declaration," "dwelling unit," "lot," "owner," and "owners association."³

The chapter applies to pre-2010 planned communities going forward, but with a saving clause: nothing in the chapter invalidates a provision that a governing document recorded before September 10, 2010 contained.¹³ Associations in existence on that date had to record their existing bylaws within 180 days and may not pursue civil actions on bylaw provisions until those bylaws are recorded.¹³ After a declarant's development period expires, the declaration's own amendment provision governs and the declarant's signature is not required: in Alum Cliff Industries, L.L.C. v. Hickory Woods Home Owners' Assn., 2026-Ohio-2756, ¶ 38, a 2012 amendment executed "well after the Development Period expired in 2001… need only have been executed by the President and Secretary of the HOA."¹⁵

The most consequential distinguishing feature appears in section 5312.15: the chapter supplements existing governing documents. An express governing-document provision controls over a conflicting statutory provision, and the statute controls only where the document is silent.⁵ That document-first rule of construction is more explicit than anything in Chapter 5311.

CC&Rs, corporate law, and common law

In both frameworks, the recorded declaration, the bylaws, and the board-adopted rules are the primary operating documents. Owners, tenants, and the association must comply with them.¹⁶

Order of precedence differs by chapter. Under Chapter 5311, many provisions apply "unless otherwise provided in the declaration or the bylaws," so the statute supplies default rules that recorded documents can vary within statutory limits.⁸ Under Chapter 5312, section 5312.15 makes the hierarchy explicit: declaration and bylaws come first where they expressly conflict with the statute, and the statute steps in only where the documents are silent.⁵

Ohio associations organize as nonprofit corporations, so the Ohio Nonprofit Corporation Law, Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 1702, supplies background rules on corporate existence, membership, meetings, and officer authority. Section 5312.03 requires nonprofit incorporation for planned communities, and the law authorizes condominium associations to incorporate as well.¹⁴ That incorporation step also settles a federal question many boards still ask about: because an Ohio nonprofit corporation comes into existence by filing with the Secretary of State, it is a "domestic entity" under the current federal beneficial-ownership reporting rule and owes no BOI report to FinCEN, a status HOA Weekly's federal Corporate Transparency Act coverage tracks in detail.¹⁷ Corporate existence itself became easier to lose in 2024: S.B. 98 (135th General Assembly), effective October 24, 2024, amended R.C. 1702.06 and 1702.59 so that after a failure to maintain a statutory agent, certified-mail notice and thirty days, "the articles of the corporation shall be canceled without further notice or action by the secretary of state"; a missed five-year statement of continued existence produces the same cancellation, and reinstatement is available only "within two years of the cancellation."^18,19

Above all of this sits common law: Ohio appellate courts interpret recorded covenants under ordinary contract and property doctrine, treating declarations and reciprocal easement agreements as binding contracts among owners and the association.²⁰

3. Compliance obligations created by the statutory framework

Governance obligations

Both chapters require an owners association governed by an elected board. Under Chapter 5311, a unit owners association administers every condominium — the owners elect the board. Developer-control transition triggers at twenty-five percent of interests, when owners elect at least one-third of the board. It ends no later than three years after the association establishes for non-expandable property, or five years for expandable property.²¹ Under Chapter 5312, the declaration and bylaws must provide for board elections, with terms staggered so that not less than one-fifth expire annually.¹³

Both chapters now bar a board majority from the same unit or lot absent a board resolution — a change Senate Bill 61 introduced.²¹

Record-keeping is mandatory. Chapter 5311 associations must keep accounts, minutes, and owner rosters under section 5311.09, and Chapter 5312 associations must keep equivalent records under section 5312.06(C).^{22, 23} These record duties are mandatory. The declaration and bylaws govern meeting mechanics.

Financial obligations

Each chapter requires an annually adopted budget that includes reserves adequate to repair and replace major capital items without special assessments, unless the owners waive the reserve requirement in writing annually (and, for condominiums, unless the declaration limits assessment increases).^{8, 23} This is the Ohio reserve rule — it is not a UCIOA-style mechanism.

Assessment authority is mandatory, but the declaration bounds it. Under section 5312.10, a planned community board may not increase assessments where the declaration caps them unless owners amend the declaration; section 5312.07 governs baseline assessments for planned communities, and Chapter 5311 contains parallel limits.^{24, 25}

Collection tools include a statutory lien for unpaid common expenses in condominiums under section 5311.18 — now a continuing lien — and a lien for unpaid assessments in planned communities under section 5312.12.^{26, 27} Neither lien is a true super-priority lien. Each is prior to subsequently arising liens but remains subordinate to real-estate taxes and to first mortgages recorded before the association lien.^{26, 27}

Ohio does not require independent audits by statute. The governing documents control audit practice.

Disclosure obligations

Condominium disclosure is the more developed regime. Sections 5311.25 through 5311.27 require developers to furnish a disclosure statement and warranties. They also create purchaser rescission remedies and Attorney General enforcement authority for developer sales.²⁸ The board's authority to impose reasonable fees for preparing resale certificates or statements of unpaid assessments addresses resale-related charges.⁸

The Planned Community Law is lighter. It requires recording of the declaration and bylaws as constructive notice and authorizes charges for resale certificates and unpaid-assessment statements, but it does not impose the developer disclosure-statement regime found in Chapter 5311.²³ Recording obligations are mandatory in both chapters.

Dispute resolution obligations

Senate Bill 61 added matching pre-charge due-process steps in both chapters. Before imposing an enforcement assessment or damage charge, a condominium board must give written notice describing the violation and the proposed charge, state the owner's right to a hearing, and hold any requested hearing before levying the charge. The planned community equivalent appears in section 5312.11.^{8, 29} These hearing rights are mandatory, and they apply before the board levies any charge.

Both chapters authorize civil actions to enforce covenants, with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees available — under section 5311.19 for condominiums and section 5312.13 for planned communities.^{16, 30}

Ohio does not mandate pre-suit arbitration or a state administrative dispute process, and the state does not require community association manager (CAM) licensing. The courts of appeals have split on the forum for R.C. 5311.19(A) claims, with no Supreme Court guidance: the First District holds a unit owner has a constitutional jury-trial right on the damages claim because a declaration "assumes some of the attributes of a covenant running with the land" (Porter v. Hammond N. Condominium Assn., 2025-Ohio-2210, ¶ 60); the Ninth District keeps fee entitlement with the judge (Rosen v. Cobblestone Lane Condominium Assn., 2026-Ohio-1755, ¶ 26); and the Tenth District enforces a mandatory arbitration clause in the bylaws, because "nothing in the language of the statute either requires resolution through civil litigation or precludes arbitration" (Leveque 41, L.L.C. v. Leveque Tower Condominium Assn., 2025-Ohio-2055, ¶ 34).^31,32,33

4. Ohio's recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

Ohio's 136th General Assembly has one HOA bill in play, on flag-display rights; the assessment-lien-priority proposal last appeared in the 131st General Assembly.

No bill amending Chapter 5311 or Chapter 5312 has become law in the past twenty-four months. Senate Bill 61, effective September 13, 2022, remains the last enacted overhaul of either chapter.¹² The only 2026 enactment that names associations is S.B. 101, signed March 17, 2026 and effective June 16, 2026, which enacts R.C. 5301.75 to 5301.78: "unfair service agreements" recorded against homes are void, county recorders "shall not accept" them, and a violation carries mandatory actual damages, costs and attorney's fees, but R.C. 5301.76(C)(4)-(5) expressly excepts "A declaration created in the formation of a planned community… or a condominium development… or any amendment to such a declaration" and "A maintenance or repair agreement entered by an owners association… or a unit owners association."^34,35 Two bills described below are the most discussed association measures.

Recent court rulings

Two 2025 appellate decisions have sharpened the rules on covenant enforcement and class-action certification under Ohio's HOA chapters.

Active legislative debates

Two recurring policy discussions — reserve-study mandates and political yard-sign protections — have not yet reached a floor vote.

Beyond the pending bills, Ohio observers are tracking two recurring discussions that have not yet become law. Interest in mandatory reserve studies follows the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people. Advocates are also pushing for protections covering political yard signs in planned communities. Neither topic has advanced to enacted law.⁴¹

5. National positioning and related coverage

Ohio sits among the states with complete, statute-based association regimes, alongside California's Davis-Stirling Act, Florida's Chapters 718 and 720, the Texas Property Code, and Arizona's Title 33. What distinguishes Ohio is the pairing of two bespoke, non-UCIOA chapters: an older condominium framework from 1963 that House Bill 135 substantially reformed in 2004, and a separate planned community statute enacted only in 2010. The two chapters are parallel but not identical — they do not mirror each other provision by provision.

Multi-state operators must triage an Ohio portfolio by community type first. A single compliance checklist drawn from the condominium act will misstate the duties owed in a planned community, and a UCIOA template will misstate both.

6. Closing note

HOA Weekly updates its Ohio Governing Statute coverage quarterly to reflect new General Assembly action and appellate decisions. Federal frameworks — including fair housing, debt-collection, and flag-display law — also apply to Ohio associations and are tracked separately in HOA Weekly's federal coverage.