Virginia HOA Board Elections

1. Overview: How board elections are governed in Virginia

Virginia runs community-association board elections through two separate statutes, both sitting in Title 55.1, and it backs them with a state regulator that licenses the managers many associations hire to run their elections. The Virginia Property Owners' Association Act, Va. Code § 55.1-1800 et seq. (Title 55.1, Chapter 18), covers planned-community property owners' associations.¹ The Virginia Condominium Act, Va. Code § 55.1-1900 et seq. (Title 55.1, Chapter 19), covers condominiums.² Lawmakers recodified both from the old Title 55 into Title 55.1, effective October 1, 2019 — so if you see a citation to a former Title 55 section, treat it as obsolete.³ The Common Interest Community Board, housed in the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, handles association registration and annual reporting, runs a complaint and dispute process, and licenses community association managers and their firms.⁴

Virginia has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Its two acts are home-grown, so UCIOA section numbers and defaults simply do not apply here. The appellate path has shifted, too. The Court of Appeals of Virginia took over civil appeals effective January 1, 2022, which means a post-2022 election dispute now moves from Circuit Court to the Court of Appeals of Virginia and then, by discretionary review, to the Supreme Court of Virginia; older association decisions came straight from the Supreme Court of Virginia.⁵ Put it all together and Virginia stands out as a comparatively regulated, two-statute, non-UCIOA state. The sections that follow lay out the framework, the day-to-day mechanics, and recent activity.

2. The election framework

2A. The Condominium Act and the Property Owners' Association Act (Title 55.1)

Which statute controls depends on the kind of community. The Virginia Condominium Act (Va. Code § 55.1-1900 et seq.) governs condominium unit owners' associations and their executive boards; the Property Owners' Association Act (Va. Code § 55.1-1800 et seq.) governs planned-community associations and their boards of directors. Both moved into Title 55.1 on October 1, 2019.³ Neither act sets a board size, a uniform director term, or a fixed election method. The Condominium Act instead tells the recorded bylaws to "provide whether or not the unit owners' association shall elect an executive board" and, if so, to "specify the powers and responsibilities of the board and the number and terms of its members" — leaving the mechanics to the governing documents.⁶ The Property Owners' Association Act takes the same tack: it confirms a lot owner's right "to serve on the board of directors if duly elected and a member in good standing of the association, unless the declaration provides otherwise," but hands board composition, terms, and election procedure to the declaration and bylaws.⁷

The two acts split most sharply over declarant control. The Condominium Act sets hard statutory ceilings on how long a declarant may keep control: the limit written into the condominium instruments cannot exceed five years for an expandable condominium, three years for one containing convertible land, or two years for any other condominium, each running from settlement of the first unit. Control also ends no later than the point when units representing three-fourths of the undivided interests in the common elements have been conveyed, and owners can extend the period only to a 15-year maximum, and only by a two-thirds vote of the non-declarant unit owners.⁸ The Property Owners' Association Act carries no comparable time limit. There, transition turns on the declaration, and the act mainly addresses the declarant's duty to hand over books and records once owners other than the declarant hold a board majority and the declarant no longer controls a majority of the votes.⁹ These are Virginia's own statutory schemes — not adaptations of UCIOA.

2B. The Common Interest Community Board and manager licensing

The Common Interest Community Board, which sits inside the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, supplies the regulatory overlay. Property owners', condominium unit owners', and cooperative associations all must register and file annual reports with the Board, and the Board keeps those registrations along with the related Common Interest Community Management Information Fund.⁴ The Board also runs a complaint process: every association must adopt a complaint procedure, and an owner unhappy with a final adverse decision may seek a determination from the Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, a separate office.¹⁰

What matters most for elections is licensing. Virginia licenses community association managers and management firms through the Board — a requirement created by House Bill 516 and its companion, Senate Bill 301, signed April 23, 2008 and effective July 1, 2008, which set up the Common Interest Community Board and a licensing scheme for management firms.¹¹ The Board regulates common interest community managers and certifies certain principal and supervisory employees of licensed firms under Va. Code § 54.1-2345 et seq. and its own regulations at 18VAC48-50.¹² That overlay touches elections in concrete ways. Managers routinely prepare meeting notices, mail and tabulate ballots, and certify proxies — and they do all of it as state-licensed professionals who answer to the Board for discipline. A declarant who wants to extend the condominium declarant-control period must give unit owners a disclosure statement on a form the Common Interest Community Board provides, and the Board also maintains a transition-of-control notice form for condominium declarants.¹³ The Board does not replace the election provisions of the two acts; it registers associations, oversees managers, and offers a complaint forum alongside them.

2C. Corporate law, the bylaws, and order of precedence

Most Virginia associations incorporate as nonstock corporations, so the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act, Va. Code § 13.1-801 et seq., fills the director gaps wherever the applicable act and the governing documents go silent. It sets a default one-year director term unless a contrary provision says otherwise, authorizes staggered terms, lets members remove directors with or without cause unless the articles require cause, and allows the remaining directors to fill a vacancy.¹⁴ The Act also bends to accommodate associations: under § 13.1-814.1, several director provisions need not appear in the articles of incorporation and take effect if the bylaws set them out.¹⁵

For any election question, the order of precedence runs like this: the applicable act first (the Condominium Act for condominiums, the Property Owners' Association Act for planned communities), then the recorded declaration or condominium instruments, then the bylaws, then the Nonstock Corporation Act gap-fillers, then board-adopted rules. The Nonstock Corporation Act is corporate scaffolding. It is not the source of the statutory governance rules, and it yields to the two community-association acts and the governing documents. The practical takeaway: the controlling election rule depends first on whether the community is a condominium or a planned community, with the Common Interest Community Board's manager-licensing and registration obligations layered on top.

3. Election mechanics

Quick-Reference Election Mechanics Table

A. Eligibility and nominations

In planned communities, the Property Owners' Association Act guarantees a lot owner the right to serve on the board if duly elected and a member in good standing, unless the declaration provides otherwise — a statutory floor the declaration may narrow.⁷ In condominiums, the Condominium Act does not set general director eligibility, but § 55.1-1954 provides that where the instruments require an officer to be a unit owner, disposing of all units disqualifies that person.¹⁶ Neither act defines "good standing" or prescribes a nomination method, so both the eligibility detail and the nominations are bylaw-set. Where a licensed manager runs the nomination and candidate-certification process, it does so under Common Interest Community Board oversight.

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Both acts require at least one association meeting a year. The Property Owners' Association Act calls for at least 14 days' notice of an annual or regularly scheduled meeting and at least 7 days for other meetings, and if an annual meeting at which directors are elected is canceled, the 7-day notice of the rescheduled election meeting must state that purpose.¹⁷ The Condominium Act calls for at least 21 days' notice of an annual or regularly scheduled meeting and at least 7 days for other meetings, with the same election-purpose statement on a rescheduled meeting.¹⁸ Those notice periods are mandatory statutory minimums. On quorum, the Condominium Act supplies a default of more than one-third of the votes, which the instruments may raise or lower to no less than 10 percent; the Property Owners' Association Act sets no statutory quorum, leaving it to the declaration and bylaws.²⁰ For condominiums, § 55.1-1952(C) lets a court order an election meeting where three successive annual meetings have failed for lack of a quorum.²⁰

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

Both acts let an owner vote in person, by proxy, or by absentee ballot unless the governing documents expressly prohibit it, and both allow electronic voting once the board adopts guidelines; owners voting by proxy or absentee ballot count as present.^17,19 The Condominium Act adds detailed proxy rules in § 55.1-1953 — a proxy is void if undated and terminates after the first meeting held on or after its date — and it bars voting by secret or written ballot in an open meeting except for the election of officers.^18,19 The vote threshold to elect, whether plurality or majority, and cumulative voting are not set by either act; they are bylaw-set. Manager licensing matters here because licensed managers so often distribute and tabulate the ballots and proxies.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

Neither act fixes director term length; the governing documents set it, with the Nonstock Corporation Act supplying a one-year default only where the articles fix no term, and staggered terms permitted.¹⁴ A mid-term vacancy in a condominium is filled by a majority of the remaining executive board members, even if fewer than a quorum, unless the instruments provide otherwise, and the appointee serves until owners elect a successor at the next annual meeting; in planned communities, vacancy-filling is bylaw-set, backed by the corporate default.^6,22 Removal and recall run primarily through the Nonstock Corporation Act for incorporated associations: members may remove a director with or without cause unless the articles require cause, only at a meeting called for that purpose, and, absent cumulative voting or a higher articles threshold, by a majority of the votes entitled to be cast.²¹ Contested-election and removal disputes are litigated in Circuit Court, where the Nonstock Corporation Act's judicial-review-of-elections provision, § 13.1-861, supplies a summary procedure.²³

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No decision from the Court of Appeals of Virginia or the Supreme Court of Virginia in the past 36 months turns specifically on an HOA or condominium board election, a contested election, a director removal, or a proxy dispute. Those fights usually play out in Circuit Court under the Nonstock Corporation Act's judicial-review-of-elections provision, and they rarely produce a published appellate opinion. The closest recent appellate decision construing board authority under the two acts is below.

C. Active legislative debates

The 2026 passage of the Nonstock Corporation Act revision (HB 439 / SB 246), effective July 1, 2027, opens a one-year window. The Community Associations Institute's Virginia Legislative Action Committee — which already won amendments preserving the superiority of association covenants over inconsistent corporate documents — is expected to push for further clarifying changes on director removal, meetings, and electronic voting before the new Act takes effect.²⁸

5. National positioning and related coverage

Virginia is a comparatively regulated, two-statute, non-UCIOA jurisdiction. Board elections run on the Property Owners' Association Act for planned communities and the Condominium Act for condominiums, both recodified into Title 55.1 effective October 1, 2019 — which sets Virginia apart from CC&R-primary states that lean almost entirely on recorded covenants, and from the UCIOA states that adopted the uniform act. Its defining features here are a dedicated Common Interest Community Board, mandatory licensing of community association managers and firms, the October 1, 2019 Title 55.1 recodification, and the Court of Appeals of Virginia's expanded civil jurisdiction effective January 1, 2022. For a multi-state operator, the practical move is to cite current Title 55.1 sections, decide at the outset whether a community is a condominium or a planned community, account for manager licensing and association registration with the Board, and route any post-2022 civil appeal through the Circuit Court, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and then the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Federal frameworks reach Virginia associations no matter what the state framework says — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply regardless of the state scheme.

1. Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 18, Property Owners' Association Act (§ 55.1-1800 et seq.) ↩
2. Code of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 19, Virginia Condominium Act (§ 55.1-1900 et seq.) ↩
3. Va. Code § 55.1-1800 (definitions; historical citation noting 2019, c. 712 recodification effective October 1, 2019) ↩
4. Common Interest Community Board, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation ↩
5. Va. Code § 17.1-405 (appeals of right to the Court of Appeals of Virginia; civil jurisdiction expanded effective January 1, 2022) ↩
6. Va. Code § 55.1-1940(B) (bylaws specify whether an executive board is elected and the number and terms of its members; vacancy filling) ↩
7. Va. Code § 55.1-1807(5) (right to serve on the board if duly elected and a member in good standing, unless the declaration provides otherwise) ↩
8. Va. Code § 55.1-1943(A), (B) (control of condominium by declarant; statutory time limits and extension) ↩
9. Va. Code § 55.1-1804 (documents to be provided by declarant upon transfer of control) ↩
10. Office of the Common Interest Community Ombudsman, Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation ↩
11. Code of Virginia, Title 54.1, Chapter 23.3, Common Interest Communities (2008, cc. 851, 871, establishing the Common Interest Community Board and manager licensing, effective July 1, 2008) ↩
12. 18VAC48-50, Common Interest Community Manager Regulations, Virginia Administrative Code ↩
13. Va. Code § 55.1-1943(B) (disclosure statement on a form provided by the Common Interest Community Board for extension of declarant control) ↩
14. Va. Code § 13.1-857 (terms of directors generally; one-year default) and § 13.1-858 (staggered terms) ↩
15. Va. Code § 13.1-814.1 (special provisions for community associations; §§ 13.1-857, 13.1-858, 13.1-862 effective if set forth in the bylaws) ↩
16. Va. Code § 55.1-1954 (officers; disqualification on disposing of all units where the instruments require an officer to be a unit owner) ↩
17. Va. Code § 55.1-1815(G), (H) (annual meeting; 14-day and 7-day notice; voting in person, by proxy, or by absentee ballot) ↩
18. Va. Code § 55.1-1949(A), (B) (annual meeting; 21-day and 7-day notice; open meetings; secret ballot prohibited except for election of officers) ↩
19. Va. Code § 55.1-1953(D), (E) (voting by unit owners; proxies; absentee and electronic voting) ↩
20. Va. Code § 55.1-1952(A), (C) (quorum default of more than one-third, not below 10 percent; court-ordered election meeting) ↩
21. Va. Code § 13.1-860 (removal of directors with or without cause; meeting called for that purpose; majority threshold) ↩
22. Va. Code § 13.1-862 (vacancy on board of directors; filling by remaining directors) ↩
23. Va. Code § 13.1-861 (judicial review of elections), Article 8, Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act ↩
24. HB 439, 2026 Acts of Assembly Chapter 393, Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act (delayed effective date July 1, 2027) ↩
25. HB 2750, 2025 Acts of Assembly Chapter 105, common interest communities; termination of certain management contracts ↩
26. Va. Code § 55.1-1940.1 (termination of management contract on not less than 60 days' notice; condominium version) ↩
27. Telegraph Square II v. 7205 Telegraph Square, LLC, 77 Va. App. 375, 886 S.E.2d 269 (2023) (Record No. 0222-22-4) ↩
28. Community Associations Institute, 2026 Virginia End of Legislative Session Report (VALAC amendments to HB 439 / SB 246) ↩