West Virginia HOA Budget Approval

Section 1: Overview — How HOA budgets are approved in West Virginia

West Virginia takes a clear approach to HOA budget approval. Under the West Virginia Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WVUCIOA), W. Va. Code Chapter 36B — built on the 1982 generation of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — the executive board adopts a proposed budget, and that budget stands unless a majority of all unit owners, or any larger percentage the declaration requires, vote to reject it.¹ Owners do not cast an affirmative vote to approve. WVUCIOA covers common interest communities created on or after July 1, 1986; condominiums formed before that date fall under the predecessor West Virginia Unit Property Act, W. Va. Code Chapter 36A, except for the WVUCIOA provisions that reach back to pre-1986 communities.² Because West Virginia adopted the 1982 generation rather than the 2008 revision, the Act carries no reserve study mandate — a point developed below.⁵ West Virginia belongs to a small group of full UCIOA states, and its budget rules follow the uniform negative-option model rather than the affirmative-vote or increase-cap models found elsewhere. This page lays out the mechanism, the budget-adjacent obligations, and recent legislative and judicial activity. The table and sequence below identify each parameter and show where statute fixes it versus where the recorded declaration does the work.

Section 2: The budget approval mechanism

The table reflects the West Virginia Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, W. Va. Code Chapter 36B. Condominiums created before July 1, 1986 follow the predecessor West Virginia Unit Property Act, W. Va. Code Chapter 36A.

2A. Quick-Reference Budget Mechanics Table

2B. The budget approval sequence under WVUCIOA

WVUCIOA runs the budget cycle in five steps. First, the executive board adopts a proposed budget for the common interest community; the association's power to adopt and amend budgets for revenues, expenditures, and reserves comes from Section 36B-3-102.⁶ Second, within 30 days after adoption, the board delivers a summary of the budget to all unit owners and sets a date for a meeting to consider ratification.¹ Third, that meeting takes place not less than 14 nor more than 30 days after the summary goes out — the window West Virginia's 1982-generation text specifies.¹ Fourth, the budget is ratified by default: unless a majority of all unit owners, or any larger vote the declaration requires, vote to reject it at that meeting, the budget passes regardless of whether a quorum is present.¹ This is negative-option ratification, not an affirmative member vote. Owners who do nothing, and meetings without a quorum, both produce a ratified budget. Fifth, if owners reject the proposed budget, the periodic budget they last ratified continues until they approve a new one the board proposes.¹

Ratifying the budget is a separate act from levying the assessment. Section 36B-3-115 governs assessments for common expenses: until the association levies its first common expense assessment the declarant pays all common expenses, and after that first assessment, the board must assess at least annually based on a budget it adopts at least annually.⁴ The association levies common expenses against all units according to the allocations the declaration sets. The budget ratified under Section 36B-3-103 becomes the financial basis on which the board levies the periodic assessment; the assessment-lien provision, Section 36B-3-116, ties each unit's obligation to the common expense assessments based on the periodic budget the association adopts.⁸ In practice, the board adopts and circulates the budget, the ratification window runs, and the resulting per-unit assessments flow out under the schedule in the declaration and bylaws. The statute requires no separate owner vote to set the dollar amount of the regular assessment once the budget is ratified. Boards should check the rejection threshold in their own declaration — it may require a larger vote than a simple majority.

2C. Older condominiums and variation

Two acts can govern an older West Virginia community. WVUCIOA applies to common interest communities created on or after July 1, 1986. Condominiums formed before that date fall under the predecessor West Virginia Unit Property Act, Chapter 36A, unless a WVUCIOA provision reaches back to them.³ To determine which act controls, check the date the declaration was recorded. For pre-1986 communities, Section 36B-1-204 lists the specific WVUCIOA provisions that apply to events occurring after the effective date, including the lien for assessments (Section 36B-3-116) and association records (Section 36B-3-118). The budget-ratification provision, Section 36B-3-103, does not appear on that list, so a pre-1986 community's budget process follows its own documents and the predecessor act unless the community amends its declaration to opt into WVUCIOA.²

Within WVUCIOA, the budget-ratification mechanism of Section 36B-3-103 is mandatory for covered communities; the declaration can raise the rejection threshold above a simple majority but cannot eliminate ratification.¹ The 1982-generation Act does not mandate reserves, so the declaration sets reserve funding levels, special assessment thresholds, and audit requirements. Most West Virginia associations also organize as nonprofit corporations under the West Virginia Nonprofit Corporation Act, Chapter 31E, which supplies corporate formalities such as meetings and recordkeeping but imposes no budget-approval threshold.⁹ That corporate overlay does not change the negative-option mechanic. West Virginia also has no dedicated state HOA regulator; enforcement of the budget process runs through the governing documents and the courts.

Section 3: Budget-adjacent obligations

A. Reserves in the budget

WVUCIOA, built on the 1982 UCIOA, contains no reserve-study mandate and no mandatory reserve-funding level. The association can adopt and amend budgets for reserves under Section 36B-3-102, and a declarant's public offering statement must disclose the amount set aside for repairs and replacement — or state that no such amount exists — under Section 36B-4-103, but neither provision requires a study or a minimum balance.⁷ Reserve practice is therefore variable, set by the declaration and board policy.

B. Special assessments

WVUCIOA does not separately define or set a threshold for special assessments. Section 36B-3-115 frames assessments as flowing from the annually adopted budget, and the budget-ratification mechanism of Section 36B-3-103 applies to any proposed budget.⁴ Whether a mid-year or special assessment requires its own ratification or owner vote comes down to the declaration and bylaws.

C. Assessment increase limits

West Virginia sets no statutory percentage cap on assessment increases in WVUCIOA. The Act limits interest on past-due assessments to a rate the association sets, not to exceed 18 percent per year under Section 36B-3-115, but it places no ceiling on the size of a regular assessment increase.⁴ Any cap on increases is a matter for the recorded declaration, not state law. This stands in sharp contrast to California, where Civil Code § 5605(b) of the Davis-Stirling Act bars a board from imposing a regular assessment more than 20 percent greater than the prior fiscal year's, or special assessments aggregating more than 5 percent of budgeted gross expenses, without member approval.¹⁴

D. Financial review, audit, and disclosure tied to the budget cycle

WVUCIOA requires the association to keep financial records detailed enough to satisfy the resale-certificate provision (Section 4-109), and all financial and other records must be reasonably available for examination by any unit owner and authorized agents under Section 36B-3-118.¹⁰ The Act does not require an annual audit or independent financial review tied to the budget cycle; if that obligation exists, it comes from the declaration.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill enacted in the past 24 months has amended WVUCIOA's budget, assessment, or reserve provisions. The most recent legislative activity targeting Chapter 36B was a study resolution introduced in the 2023 Regular Session, followed by two consecutive "Mountain Homes Act" bills in 2024 and 2025 — neither of which touched Chapter 36B.

B. Recent rulings

No decision from the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia or the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals in the past 36 months interprets WVUCIOA's budget-ratification or assessment provisions. The closest recent matter challenged a board's plan to finance a large amenity purchase but was resolved on standing grounds without reaching Chapter 36B's budget or assessment sections. The leading published WVUCIOA assessment case remains a 2015 decision in which the Supreme Court of Appeals held that an association can assert a consensual common-law lien for unpaid assessments and that the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act applies to HOA assessment collection. Both points concern assessment collection, not budget ratification.

C. Active legislative debates

The active debate in West Virginia centers on whether the state should narrow or replace WVUCIOA to ease development — the theme driving the 2023 study resolution and related applicability bills — not on any proposal to change the budget-ratification mechanism. No pending measure targets Section 36B-3-103.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

West Virginia belongs to a small group of full UCIOA states that approve association budgets through the uniform negative-option mechanism: the board adopts the budget and it stands unless a majority of owners vote to reject it. The Community Associations Institute groups the UCIOA states by generation, placing West Virginia with the 1982-version states — Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, and Nevada — and distinguishing the 2008-version states — Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, and Washington.¹⁵ Because West Virginia adopted the 1982 generation, it does not mandate a reserve study, unlike 2008-base Washington, whose RCW 64.90.545 requires associations to conduct a reserve study at least once every three years, and unlike California, whose Civil Code § 5605(b) caps regular assessment increases at 20 percent without member approval.¹⁴ For a multi-state property management firm entering West Virginia, the key point is this: the negative-option budget mechanism governs across condominiums, planned communities, and cooperatives, and the recorded declaration — not a state agency — supplies the variable terms.

1. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-103, Executive board members and officers (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
2. W. Va. Code § 36B-1-204, Applicability to preexisting common interest communities (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
3. W. Va. Code Chapter 36A, Condominiums and Unit Property (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
4. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-115, Assessments for common expenses (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
5. W. Va. Code Chapter 36B, Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
6. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-102, Powers of unit owners' association (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
7. W. Va. Code § 36B-4-103, Public offering statement; general provisions (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
8. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116, Lien for assessments (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
9. W. Va. Code Chapter 31E, West Virginia Nonprofit Corporation Act (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
10. W. Va. Code § 36B-3-118, Association records (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
11. S.C.R. 25, 2023 Regular Session (West Virginia Legislature) ↩
12. Lindemuth v. The Woods Homeowners Ass'n, No. 23-ICA-379 (W. Va. Intermediate Ct. App. Oct. 1, 2024) ↩
13. Fleet v. Webber Springs Owners Ass'n, 235 W. Va. 184, 772 S.E.2d 369 (2015), No. 14-0637 ↩
14. Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b), Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act (California Legislative Information) ↩
15. RCW 64.90.545, Reserve study — Reserve account (Washington State Legislature) ↩