Ohio HOA Reserve Studies

Section 1: Overview — Reserve study requirements in Ohio

Ohio tells its condominium and planned-community associations to fund reserves through the annual budget, and it lets owners waive that duty. What Ohio does not do is prescribe a reserve study, a study interval, a physical inspection, or any qualification for the person who estimates the numbers. The Ohio Condominium Property Act, Chapter 5311 of the Revised Code, directs each condominium unit owners association to adopt an annual estimated budget that includes reserves adequate to repair and replace major capital items without resorting to special assessments. That duty lives at § 5311.081.¹ The Ohio Planned Community Law, Chapter 5312, enacted in 2010, places the same reserve-funding duty on non-condominium associations at § 5312.06.² Under both statutes, owners holding at least a majority of the voting power may waive the reserve requirement in writing, and they must renew that waiver every year to keep it alive.^1,2 All of this puts Ohio in the middle of the national field: it mandates funding, which sets it apart from no-mandate states that leave reserves to the governing documents, and it stops short of the study-mandate states — California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington — that require a periodic reserve study with prescribed contents.⁹ The sections that follow lay out the funding mandate and the owner waiver, the reach of the two statutes, the corporate and fiduciary backdrop, the specific compliance duties, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

Section 2: The reserve framework under Ohio law

2A. The reserve-funding mandate and the owner waiver

For condominiums, § 5311.081(A)(1) requires the unit owners association, acting through its board, to adopt and amend an annual estimated budget for revenues and expenditures. That budget "shall include reserves in an amount adequate to repair and replace major capital items in the normal course of operations without the necessity of special assessments."¹ For planned communities, § 5312.06(A)(1) uses nearly identical language, requiring the owners association to adopt an annual estimated budget that "shall include reserves in an amount adequate to repair and replace major capital items in the normal course of operations without the necessity of special assessments."² The funding standard, then, reads the same for both community types: adequacy measured against the cost of major repairs and replacements, with the goal of steering clear of special assessments. Neither statute sets a fixed percentage. The old condominium rule that pegged reserves at no less than ten percent of the annual budget is gone — Senate Bill 61 of the 134th General Assembly repealed it effective September 13, 2022, and the open-ended "adequate" standard took its place.^1,5

The owner waiver is the central qualifier, and boards should treat it that way. Under both statutes, the reserve requirement falls away when owners holding at least a majority of the voting power waive it in writing each year.^1,2 Two features matter. First, the waiver must be written and must be renewed annually; last year's waiver does not carry forward, so a board that skips the vote in a later year is bound once again to budget reserves.^1,2 Second, the statutes fix the threshold — a majority of the voting power — and the form — written, annual — but they do not lay out separate meeting or notice procedures for the waiver vote itself; those follow the association's bylaws and general meeting rules. The condominium statute carries a second, structural exception that the planned-community statute lacks: the condominium reserve duty also does not apply where the declaration or bylaws limit the board's ability to raise assessments for common expenses without a vote of the unit owners.¹ Section 5312.06 has no such carve-out; there, the annual owner waiver stands as the only stated exception.² Neither statute calls for a reserve study, a physical inspection of the property, or any credential for whoever estimates reserve needs. The duty is to fund through the budget unless owners waive it; how a board decides what counts as "adequate" is left to its judgment.^1,2

2B. The two statutes and their scope

The Condominium Property Act, Chapter 5311, reaches only property that someone has submitted to its provisions by executing and recording a declaration that places the property under the condominium form of ownership.³ The Planned Community Law, Chapter 5312, reaches any planned community in Ohio — that is, a non-condominium development whose recorded declaration requires lot owners to belong to an owners association that holds or maintains common elements.^4,10 The two regimes exclude each other on their face: Chapter 5312 states that a condominium property as defined in Chapter 5311 is not a planned community.⁴ Which statute applies, then, turns on the form of ownership and the recorded instruments. If someone submitted the property to the condominium form under a Chapter 5311 declaration, the condominium statute and its § 5311.081 reserve duty govern; otherwise, a lot-and-common-area development with a mandatory association falls under Chapter 5312 and the § 5312.06 reserve duty.^3,4

On developer and transition questions, the Planned Community Law requires a declarant to establish the owners association no later than the first conveyance of a lot to a bona fide purchaser, and it required existing communities to record bylaws within set windows after the statute took effect in 2010.^10,11 For condominiums, the developer disclosure statute requires a developer to tell prospective purchasers whether a reserve fund exists or is required and to provide a two-year operating projection while the developer still controls the association.⁶ The reserve provisions of the two chapters run in parallel, but they remain separate enactments, sitting in different chapters and amended through the same omnibus bill in 2022. An analysis of one statute does not automatically settle the other, and the condominium-only assessment-limitation exception shows why each must be read on its own terms.^1,2

2C. The declaration, corporate law, and fiduciary backstop

The statutory reserve-funding duty works alongside the association's recorded declaration and bylaws. Both statutes cast the budget and reserve obligations as duties of the association acting through its board, while leaving room for the governing documents to shape assessment authority. In the condominium context, declaration or bylaw limits on raising assessments without an owner vote can themselves switch off the statutory reserve floor.^1,2 Where the governing documents demand stricter reserve obligations than the statute, the documents win as a matter of contract, because Ohio courts read recorded declarations as binding contractual instruments. At the entity level, planned-community associations must organize as nonprofit corporations under Chapter 1702, and condominium associations commonly incorporate under the same chapter.^11,12 Chapter 1702 is general corporate law, not an HOA-specific statute; it supplies the corporate framework — board governance, officer duties, the standard of care for directors — within which reserve decisions get made. The result is a two-layer obligation: reserve funding is a statutory duty for both community types unless owners waive it, while the decision whether to commission a reserve study is a matter of board judgment, exercised under fiduciary and business-judgment standards rather than under a statutory command.^1,2,12

Section 3: Compliance obligations

A. Study and inspection obligations

No reserve study, physical inspection, or preparer qualification is required by either statute. Section 5311.081 (condominiums) and § 5312.06 (planned communities) speak only to budgeting adequate reserves; neither prescribes a study, an inspection cycle, or a credential.^1,2 A reserve study is therefore optional, and where a board uses one, it serves as a tool to support the board's judgment about adequacy rather than as a statutory deliverable.

B. Funding obligations

The core obligation is to adopt an annual estimated budget that includes reserves adequate to repair and replace major capital items without special assessments. That duty is mandatory for condominiums under § 5311.081 and for planned communities under § 5312.06, in each case subject to the owner waiver.^1,2 The funding standard is "adequate," with no statutory percentage left standing after the ten-percent condominium floor was repealed effective September 13, 2022.^1,5 The waiver, available under both statutes, requires a written vote of at least a majority of the voting power, renewed every year.^1,2

C. Disclosure obligations

Reserves get disclosed through the annually adopted budget under both statutes; neither chapter prescribes a standalone reserve disclosure form for members.^1,2 For condominiums, the developer disclosure statement under § 5311.26 must address whether a reserve fund exists or is required, but that applies to developer sales, not to owner-to-owner resales.⁶ Ohio prescribes no statutory resale reserve disclosure for existing-owner sales. Boards may, however, charge reasonable fees for preparing resale certificates and statements of unpaid assessments.^1,13

D. Account and governance obligations

Neither statute earmarks reserve funds in a segregated account or restricts their use by statute; reserve handling answers to the budget duty and to board fiduciary duty under nonprofit corporate law.^1,2,12 Both statutes require associations to carry fidelity, crime, or dishonesty coverage for anyone who controls or disburses association funds — a safeguard that protects reserve and operating money alike.^1,2 The board's general duty to adopt the budget, collect assessments, and maintain common elements is mandatory under each chapter, while the reserve component within that budget remains subject to the owner waiver.^1,2

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill introduced or enacted in the past 24 months amends or affects the reserve-funding provisions of ORC § 5311.081 or § 5312.06. The most recent substantive change is Senate Bill 61, reported below for context.

The "Latest Legislation" line on the codified text of both § 5311.081 and § 5312.06 still reads Senate Bill 61, which confirms that no later enactment has touched the reserve provisions.^1,2

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published Ohio appellate or Supreme Court of Ohio opinion from the past 36 months turns on reserve funding, the owner waiver, budget adequacy, or board fiduciary duty in the reserve context under Chapter 5311 or Chapter 5312.

Recent condominium opinions within the window address governance and procedure — board-election and class-certification disputes — rather than reserves. Appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas go to Ohio's twelve district courts of appeals, with final review by the Supreme Court of Ohio.¹⁵

C. Active legislative debates

Following the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people, the Community Associations Institute convened a task force that produced a condominium-safety public policy report on reserve studies and funding. States across the country now use that report as a model for legislation. In Ohio, though, no measure mandating reserve studies under Chapter 5311 or Chapter 5312 has advanced in the General Assembly. Ohio also has no dedicated HOA regulator, and no Ohio statute requires community association managers to hold a license, though real estate brokerage is licensed under Chapter 4735.¹⁶

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Ohio is a funding-mandate state. It requires condominium and planned-community associations to fund reserves through the budget, subject to an annual owner waiver, but it does not require a reserve study. That places Ohio between the no-mandate states, which leave reserves to the governing documents, and the study-mandate states such as California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. California, for example, requires under Civil Code § 5550(a) that "at least once every three years, the board shall cause to be conducted a reasonably competent and diligent visual inspection of the accessible areas of the major components that the association is obligated to repair, replace, restore, or maintain as part of a study of the reserve account requirements" — a level of prescription Ohio has not adopted.⁹ Ohio's structure stands out in another way: it splits across two bespoke statutes, Chapter 5311 for condominiums and Chapter 5312 for planned communities, neither drawn from the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, with the owner waiver available under both. For a multi-state operator, the practical takeaway is straightforward. An Ohio condominium or planned-community portfolio must budget reserves to an open-ended adequacy standard and document annual waiver votes wherever boards choose to waive, rather than commissioning and filing the periodic studies that study-mandate states require.

HOA Weekly's Ohio Reserve Studies coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Ohio appellate courts act. Federal frameworks — including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD — also apply to Ohio associations regardless of the state framework.

Recommendations

• Every Ohio condominium and planned-community board, right now: Confirm that the current-year budget either includes reserves "adequate to repair and replace major capital items" or rests on a written waiver adopted by a majority of the voting power for that year. Calendar the waiver vote every year, because a prior-year waiver does not carry forward.
• Condominium boards specifically: Check whether the declaration or bylaws limit the board's authority to raise assessments without an owner vote. If they do, § 5311.081(A)(2)(a) switches off the statutory reserve floor independent of any waiver vote, which changes the compliance posture.
• Attorneys and multi-state operators: Treat "adequate" as a fact-specific, defensible-judgment standard now that the ten-percent floor is gone. A reserve study is not required, but it is the most practical evidence that a board met its fiduciary duty in setting reserves, and lenders and FHA approval often expect one.
• Benchmarks that would change this guidance: any new bill amending § 5311.081 or § 5312.06 (watch the "Latest Legislation" line on the codified sections, currently SB 61); any published appellate or Supreme Court of Ohio opinion construing the adequacy standard or the waiver; or any Ohio adoption of a Surfside-style structural-integrity or mandatory-study requirement. None of these has happened as of June 22, 2026.

Caveats

• "Adequate" is undefined by statute and untested in recent case law, so reasonable boards can land on different reserve figures. This page states no numeric target because none exists in the Ohio Revised Code after September 13, 2022.
• The absence of recent qualifying bills and cases reflects a search of legislature.ohio.gov and the Supreme Court of Ohio reported-decisions database as of June 22, 2026. The Court's opinion search is a dynamic interface; readers checking the negative result should run "reserve" with "5311.081" and "5312.06," filtered to decisions from 2023 forward.
• Olentangy v. Lusk (2010) and Attar v. Marine Towers East (2018) appear only for context; both predate the 36-month window, and neither reflects the post-SB 61 statutory text.
• Corporate-governance points rest on Chapter 1702, which is general nonprofit law, not an HOA-specific statute; its director standard of care applies to associations as it does to any Ohio nonprofit.

1. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.081 (board of directors; estimated budget and reserves) ↩
2. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.06 (owners association; estimated budget and reserves) ↩
3. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5311 (Condominium Property Act) ↩
4. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 5312 (Ohio Planned Community Law) ↩
5. Ohio S.B. 61, 134th Gen. Assemb. (2022) ↩
6. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.26 (disclosure statement to prospective purchaser) ↩
7. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.23 (liability for noncompliance; declaratory judgments and injunctions) ↩
8. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.13 (compliance with covenants; action for damages) ↩
9. Cal. Civ. Code § 5550 (reserve study requirements) ↩
10. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.02 (applicability; establishment of planned community) ↩
11. Ohio Rev. Code § 5312.03 (administration; owners association; board of directors) ↩
12. Ohio Rev. Code ch. 1702 (Nonprofit Corporation Law) ↩
13. Ohio Rev. Code § 5311.18 (lien for unpaid common expenses) ↩
14. Olentangy Condo. Ass'n v. Lusk, 2010-Ohio-1023 (10th Dist.) ↩
15. Supreme Court of Ohio, Ohio Courts of Appeals (twelve appellate districts) ↩
16. Ohio Rev. Code § 4735.01 (real estate broker definitions) ↩