HOA Elections Rules for Homeowners in Texas

HOA elections in Texas must, like all HOAs, follow federal regulations, state laws, and any bylaws specific to their organization. Most of these laws govern voter eligibility, notice requirements, and voting methods, aiming to ensure a fair and transparent process. 

Because of the importance and complexity of these overlapping legal requirements, many organizations seek the services of election specialists to help with HOA election ballot services.

Basic Requirements

Texas law provides baseline regulations for HOA meetings and elections. Some basic requirements include:

•  Eligibility: Texas law states that financial status cannot determine whether or not a property owner can vote. This is counter to some places, as there are HOAs in other parts of the country that can prevent members who are late paying their dues from voting. Not so in Texas.
• Notification: Members of HOAs in Texas must be notified of meetings and votes no less than ten days and no more than sixty days in advance. For electronic and absentee voting, the minimum time of notification is twenty days.
• Ballot regulation: In Texas, absentee ballots must be made available to HOA members for every election. According to state law, proxy votes are legal, but this can be outlawed by bylaws. Texas law also states that electronic votes are legally equivalent to paper ballots.
• Quorum: In order for HOAs to conduct business, they must meet a quorum. HOA legal quorum standards in Texas require that members responsible for at least 20% of votes be present. Because Texas does not stipulate that members each get one vote or are granted a vote for each property they hold, 20% of votes does not necessarily mean 20% of members. HOAs can adjust the required quorum, but not below 10%. The minimum quorum for board meetings is persons entitled to cast at least 50% of the votes.
• Open meetings: In Texas, with the exception of specific confidential topics, all board meetings must be open to all members. Some topics must legally only be handled in open meetings.

These are the simplest versions of these regulations, and corner cases and specific caveats exist. HOAS should always check state statutes or hire an expert to help when conducting official business.

HOA Elections in Texas: Key Rules and Requirements

 The Role of Homeowners

Homeowners in HOAs are responsible for a handful of actions. The simplest are:

• Pay HOA dues
• Follow HOA bylaws (often this includes maintaining the exterior appearance of the owner’s property)
• Attend meetings
• Vote in elections

The largest lift for homeowners is most often found in the requirements established by the HOA itself.

Working Together

HOAs have to balance a stack of overlapping regulations, and they must do it while caring for their members and providing a safe, transparent governing process. Thankfully, all the obligations required of HOAs are easier to manage by partnering with ElectionBuddy. 

Our staff of experts can ensure an HOA is adhering to federal laws, state laws, and internal bylaws. Check out our most recent blog of homeowner association Texas election law updates.

Having specialists on hand to help provide easy, accessible, secure online votes can save HOAs time and prevent the risk of invalidated elections!