Section 1: Overview — How board elections are governed in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania runs board elections through three separate uniform acts. Each one tracks a different form of common ownership, and each carries its own chapter within Title 68 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes.¹ The Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act (UCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101-3414, draws on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and governs condominiums.² The Uniform Planned Community Act (UPCA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 5101-5414, draws on the planned-community provisions of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and governs planned communities — the form most Pennsylvania HOAs take.³ The Uniform Real Estate Cooperative Act (URECA), 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 4101-4418, governs cooperatives.⁴

The three acts use parallel internal numbering, so the executive-board provision lands at § 3303 for condominiums, § 5303 for planned communities, and § 4303 for cooperatives. They track one another closely, but they are separate statutes, and their provisions do not swap in for one another — so you have to cite the act that matches the form of ownership. Condominiums created before the UCA took effect may still answer in part to the older Unit Property Act, 68 P.S. § 700.101 et seq.⁵

Pennsylvania never adopted the unified Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act as a single statute; it enacted the three component acts separately. That makes Pennsylvania a uniform-act-derived, multi-statute state rather than a single-framework jurisdiction. The sections that follow lay out the condominium framework, the planned-community and cooperative frameworks, the corporate backstop and order of precedence, and the operational election mechanics.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Uniform Condominium Act (Chapter 31) and condominium board elections

The Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act, 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3101-3414, draws on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and applies to condominiums created on or after its effective date — 120 days after July 2, 1980 — with certain provisions reaching back to older condominiums under § 3102(a).²

The executive-board provision is § 3303, which sits in Chapter 33 (Management of the Condominium). Under § 3303(e), no later than the end of any period of declarant control, the unit owners must elect an executive board of at least three members, a majority of them unit owners, except that a two-unit condominium may run a two-member board of unit owners.⁶ Section 3303(a) holds board members and officers to a fiduciary standard.

Section 3303(c) sets the period of declarant control: it starts at the first conveyance of a unit to a non-declarant owner, and it may not exceed seven years for a flexible condominium that contains convertible real estate or can add real estate, or five years for any other condominium. In every case it ends no later than 180 days after 75% of the units have been conveyed to non-declarant owners.⁶ Section 3303(d) requires staged minority representation before turnover: non-declarant owners elect at least 25% of the board within 60 days of 25% conveyance, and at least 33⅓% within 60 days of 50% conveyance. The voting and meeting rules live at §§ 3308 (meetings), 3309 (quorums), and 3310 (voting; proxies).⁷

Condominiums created under the older Unit Property Act (1963) run under a "council" and a "code of regulations"; to figure out which statute governs, check the recording date of the declaration and any later election to adopt the UCA.⁵ Chapter 31 governs condominiums only — it is not a single-act UCIOA framework, and the planned-community and cooperative rules live in separate acts.

1. 68 Pa.C.S. (Title 68, Real and Personal Property), table of contents listing Subpart B (Condominiums), Subpart C (Cooperatives), and Subpart D (Planned Communities), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
2. Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act, 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 33 (Management of the Condominium); see also § 3102(a) (applicability), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
3. Uniform Planned Community Act, 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 51 (General Provisions), including § 5109 (short title) and applicability, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
4. Real Estate Cooperative Act, 68 Pa.C.S. Ch. 41 et seq. (Act of Dec. 18, 1992, P.L. 1426, No. 176), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
5. Unit Property Act, Act of July 3, 1963, P.L. 196, No. 117 (68 P.S. § 700.101 et seq.), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
6. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3303 (Executive board members and officers), subsections (a)-(g), including declarant control, staged election, board composition, vacancy-filling, and removal, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
7. 68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3308 (Meetings), 3309 (Quorums), 3310 (Voting; proxies), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
8. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5303 (Executive board members and officers), subsections (a)-(f); §§ 5308-5310, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
9. 68 Pa.C.S. § 4303 (Executive board members and officers), subsections (b)-(g), and §§ 4308-4310, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
10. Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988, 15 Pa.C.S. § 5101 et seq. (incl. § 5756, quorum), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
11. Act 115 of 2022 (House Bill 1795), Omnibus Amendments to 68 Pa.C.S. (electronic voting, removal, pre-election sessions, acclamation, independent reviewer, 51% bylaw amendment), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
12. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3306 (Bylaws), incl. § 3306(a)(3) (qualifications, terms of office, manner of electing and removing board members), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
13. 68 Pa.C.S. § 5308 (Meetings), timing, 10-to-60-day notice, and electronic notice; parallel to § 3308 and § 4308, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
14. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3210 (Allocation of common element interests, votes and common expense liabilities), cumulative voting only if the declaration expressly provides and only for electing the executive board, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
15. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3103 (Definitions), defining "unit owner in good standing" (Act of May 4, 2018, P.L. 96, No. 17); parallel definitions at §§ 5103 and 4103, Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
16. 68 Pa.C.S. § 3310 (voting; proxies), with amendment note ↩
17. H.B. 1174, 2025-2026 Sess. (Pa.), bill history ↩
18. H.B. 1174, Printer's No. 1311 (Pa. 2025-2026) (68 Pa.C.S. §§ 3308, 4308, 5308) ↩
19. Chan v. Association of Property Owners of The Hideout, Inc., Nos. 70 & 71 C.D. 2023 (Pa. Cmwlth. Aug. 20, 2024), allowance of appeal denied (Pa. Feb. 12, 2025) (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania) ↩
20. R.P. Cooley v. Lofts at 1234 Condominium Association, No. 580 C.D. 2021 (Pa. Cmwlth. Aug. 20, 2024), published opinion, Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania ↩
21. 42 Pa.C.S. § 762(a)(5)(ii) (Commonwealth Court exclusive jurisdiction over appeals involving the corporate affairs of not-for-profit corporations subject to Title 15), Pennsylvania General Assembly ↩
22. 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). ↩