Virginia Condo Board Roles & Responsibilities
What each board position actually does, how many people you need, and how to keep a volunteer board functioning as members rotate out year after year — including where board composition is actually set by state law versus your own bylaws.
Virginia at a Glance
Most HOA boards have three to five members, elected by the membership for terms set in the bylaws — often one to two years, frequently staggered so the entire board doesn't turn over at once. Your specific bylaws define much of the exact structure, but in some states, part of that structure — minimum board size, owner-eligibility, or officer requirements — is actually set by statute, not left to the association to decide.
⚠ Common mistake: Assuming state law sets a minimum board size. In Virginia, no statute does for condominium associations, so your bylaws decide.
Dillo's TakeHere's the short version…
Virginia's condo law covers every condo in the state, including older ones. Your bylaws decide whether you have a board at all, and if so, how big it is and how long members serve.
President
Runs board meetings, is usually the primary point of contact with homeowners and outside parties (attorneys, vendors, the county), and typically has authority to sign on the association's behalf for routine matters. The president does not unilaterally make board decisions — actions still require a board vote — but does set the agenda and keep meetings moving.
Secretary
Keeps official records: meeting minutes, the membership roll, and official correspondence. In a self-managed HOA, the secretary is often the person who ends up being the institutional memory of the association — the one who can answer "wait, when did we actually vote on that?" This role matters more than it sounds like it should, because undocumented decisions are one of the most common sources of later disputes.
Treasurer
Handles dues collection, financial reporting, and the annual budget process. Many associations require some form of annual budget, and increasingly a reserve study projecting future major expenses. The treasurer role is also the one most commonly outsourced even in an otherwise self-managed association — hiring an accountant or bookkeeper for the mechanics while the treasurer sets policy and reviews the numbers is common and often worth the cost.
Virginia — Officer RequirementsGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, the board may elect individuals to fill one or more offices.
Minimum board size and who can serve
Whether your association has a statutory floor on board size, and whether some or all of the directors must be owners, depends on your state. Where a rule exists, it usually comes from one of two places: a law written specifically for homeowners or condominium associations, or general nonprofit corporation law, which applies only because the association is incorporated as a nonprofit. The badge on each rule below shows which one applies in Virginia.
Virginia — Minimum Board SizeBylaws/documents
The Condominium Act leaves it to the bylaws whether there is a board and how many members it has. If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, at least 1 director.
Virginia — Owner/Member RequirementBylaws/documents
The Condominium Act does not require board members to be unit owners. The bylaws may set qualifications.
Virginia — Other Eligibility Rules
The Condominium Act's bylaws section sets no director eligibility rules. Unless the condominium documents say otherwise, the board fills a vacancy, and the person chosen serves until the next annual meeting, when the owners elect a successor.
The Dillo-DownOkay, minus the legalese…
When a board seat opens up mid-term, the board fills it, but only until the next annual meeting, when the owners vote on a replacement.
Term limits
Some states cap how long a single director term can run. A cap on one term is different from a limit on how many terms in a row someone can serve: a term cap alone doesn't stop a director from being re-elected. That takes a separate consecutive-term limit. Check both rows in the reference below for Virginia.
Virginia — Term Limits
No statutory maximum was found. If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation and the articles of incorporation do not fix a term, a director's term is one year.
Conflict-of-interest disclosure
If a board member stands to personally benefit from a contract or decision the board is voting on, several states require a specific disclosure process before that vote can happen — not just a general "act in good faith" expectation. Some states wrote this rule directly into their HOA or condominium statute; others expressly import the state's general nonprofit corporation conflict-of-interest rules instead of creating a separate one.
Virginia — Conflict-of-Interest RuleGeneral corporate law
If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, a transaction in which a director has an interest is not voidable for that reason alone if the material facts and the director's interest were disclosed to or known by the board and the board approved it.
⚠ Common mistake: Treating a conflict of interest casually because "everyone already knows" a board member has a stake in a vendor contract. In states with a statutory disclosure requirement, informal awareness isn't the same as a documented disclosure — skipping the formal step can make the contract itself challengeable later, regardless of whether the board's decision was actually reasonable.
Additional roles on larger boards
Associations with five or more board members sometimes add a vice president (covers for the president, sometimes chairs a specific committee like ARC) and an at-large member with no fixed portfolio, available to take on whatever the board needs — chairing a violations committee, leading a specific project, or simply providing another vote and perspective.
Can one person hold two roles?
It depends mostly on your bylaws, and in some states on the statute itself. Very small associations sometimes explicitly allow combining roles out of necessity. Others prohibit certain combinations — most commonly, keeping treasurer separate from any role with check-signing authority, as a basic financial control. Check your specific bylaws, and the state reference below, before assuming either way.
The real challenge: surviving turnover
The hardest part of running a self-managed board usually isn't any single role — it's what happens when the person who understood how everything worked rotates off the board and nobody wrote it down. A self-managed HOA has no institutional memory beyond what the current board happens to remember or document. The associations that handle this well share one habit: they write things down as they happen, not from memory afterward — meeting minutes the same day, a violation logged when it's observed, a decision recorded the moment it's made.
State-by-State Quick Reference
Select your state below for its actual board-composition rules. Every field is tagged with where the rule comes from — a statute written for HOAs or condominiums, general nonprofit corporate law that happens to apply, or your own governing documents — because those aren't the same thing, even when the resulting number looks identical.
| Scope / governing statute | Virginia's Condominium Act (Code of Virginia Title 55.1, Chapter 19) applies to all condominiums, including horizontal property regimes created under the older Horizontal Property Act before July 1, 1974. It lets the bylaws decide whether the unit owners' association has an executive board and, if it does, requires them to set its number and terms. The association may be incorporated; if it is, the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act also applies. |
| Minimum board size Bylaws/documents | The Condominium Act leaves it to the bylaws whether there is a board and how many members it has. If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, at least 1 director. |
| Owner/member requirement Bylaws/documents | The Condominium Act does not require board members to be unit owners. The bylaws may set qualifications. |
| Other eligibility rules | The Condominium Act's bylaws section sets no director eligibility rules. Unless the condominium documents say otherwise, the board fills a vacancy, and the person chosen serves until the next annual meeting, when the owners elect a successor. |
| Officer requirements General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, the board may elect individuals to fill one or more offices. |
| Max individual term | No statutory maximum was found. If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation and the articles of incorporation do not fix a term, a director's term is one year. |
| Consecutive-term limit | The nonstock corporation act's director sections do not limit consecutive terms. |
| Conflict-of-interest disclosure General corporate law | If the association is incorporated as a nonstock corporation, a transaction in which a director has an interest is not voidable for that reason alone if the material facts and the director's interest were disclosed to or known by the board and the board approved it. |
| Citation | Va. Code §§ 55.1-1940; 13.1-855; 13.1-857; 13.1-871; 13.1-872; 55.1-1901 |
Read the law
What Virginia's law actually says about board composition, in its own words, with links to the full text where available:
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Va. Code § 55.1-1940
- Governing Statute / Scope: “The unit owners' association may be incorporated.”
- Minimum Board Size: “the bylaws shall specify the powers and responsibilities of the board and the number and terms of its members.”
- Owner/Member Eligibility Requirement: “the bylaws shall specify the powers and responsibilities of the board and the number and terms of its members”
- Additional Eligibility Rules: “Each person so elected shall serve until the next annual meeting of the unit owners' association at which time a successor shall be elected by a vote of the unit owners.”
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Va. Code § 55.1-1901(A)
- Governing Statute / Scope: “This chapter applies to all condominiums and to all horizontal property regimes or condominium projects.”
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Va. Code § 13.1-855
- Minimum Board Size: “A board of directors shall consist of one or more individuals, with the number specified in or fixed in accordance with the bylaws”
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Va. Code § 13.1-872
- Required Officer Positions: “The board of directors may elect individuals to fill one or more offices of the corporation.”
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Va. Code § 13.1-857
- Maximum Individual Term: “In the absence of a provision in the articles of incorporation fixing a term of office, the term of office for a director shall be one year.”
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Va. Code § 13.1-871
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “The material facts of the transaction and the director's interest were disclosed or known to the board of directors or a committee of the board of directors and the board of directors or committee authorized, approved or ratified the transaction.”
Making the transition easier
Formtabulous keeps your association's records — elections, violations, ARC requests, homeowner communication — in one place that survives board turnover, instead of scattered across whoever's personal inbox happened to handle it.
See how it works →Virginia — Common Questions
This article is general information about how HOA boards typically operate and is not legal advice. The specific roles, terms, and requirements for your association are set by your bylaws and, in some states, statute — consult the governing documents and, where needed, a qualified attorney for your specific situation.