Arizona HOA rules and regulations: which law applies and what to read before you buy

Arizona has two HOA laws, and which one applies depends on the kind of community you are in. A condominium is governed by the Arizona Condominium Act, Title 33, Chapter 9 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. A planned community of single-family homes, townhomes or patio homes that is not a condominium is governed by the Arizona Planned Communities Act, Title 33, Chapter 16.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Realty Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, and I'm the agent people call at every stage of their life. I'm not an attorney and nothing here is legal advice, so what follows is what the state law covers in general terms and what I look at before a client buys into a community with an HOA.

Both cover the same general ground: how board meetings are run, your right to see the association's records, how assessments and liens work, and what the association has to do before it can enforce a rule against you. Board meetings are generally open to members, with a short list of exceptions such as pending litigation, personnel matters and talks with the association's attorney.

The exact wording changes from time to time, so I would rather send you to the source than paraphrase a detail and get it wrong. The current text of both chapters is published free by the Arizona State Legislature at azleg.gov, and the Arizona Department of Real Estate publishes guidance alongside it.

The state law sets the floor, and your association's governing documents decide almost everything else. That includes minimum lease terms, restrictions on short-term letting, registration requirements, caps on how many homes can be rented at once and the approval process, and those differ from one community to the next. Some homes belong to a master association and nothing else, and others carry a master association plus a second one on top of it.

Homes in different parts of the same named community can belong to different associations, and each association has its own costs and rules, so I pull the current figures and the actual governing documents for the exact address before you offer.

Ask for the governing documents and the reserve study before you write an offer. The reserve study tells you more than the monthly dues figure, because it shows whether the association has the money for what is coming or whether a special assessment may be on the way. Find out whether the community has one association or two, and read the documents while you still have time to act on what they say, which is during the inspection period.

If you are buying a second home, read what the documents allow for rentals before you offer, not after you own it. Here's how buying works in Arizona, including what you sign before you tour a house.

Arizona has an administrative process through the Department of Real Estate for this. If you believe your association has violated the Planned Communities Act, the Condominium Act or its own governing documents, you can file a petition, and an administrative law judge hears it. It does not cover every kind of disagreement with a board, so check the Department of Real Estate's guidance first.

Send me the address or the community you are looking at and I'll tell you which association, or associations, govern it before you make an offer. Call me at (480) 203-6605 or get in touch.