HOA Governing Documents Explained

Every HOA operates under a small stack of documents that, together, define what the association can require of homeowners and how the board itself is supposed to run. They are not interchangeable — each one has a different legal weight and a different process for changing it. Understanding the hierarchy matters, because it tells you what the board can decide on its own versus what requires a vote of the membership — but the hierarchy itself isn't quite as simple as "CC&Rs are supreme" in every state, which is the part most guides skip.

The hierarchy, from strongest to weakest — usually

1. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) — the top of the stack, in most states.
2. Bylaws — governs the association's internal operations.
3. Rules & Regulations — board-adopted, must stay within what the CC&Rs and bylaws already allow.
4. Board resolutions / policies — the most specific and easiest to change, still bound by everything above.

A document lower on this list can never override one higher on the list — that part is universal. What's not universal is the assumption that the CC&Rs themselves are untouchable. In a meaningful number of states, statute sits above the CC&Rs on specific topics: some states cap what a declaration can require to amend itself (Colorado can't exceed 67%; Washington can't exceed 90%), some states set a floor a declaration can't go below, and a few states — Texas, Maryland, New Hampshire among them — have statutes that say outright the law controls over a conflicting governing document.

CC&Rs — the actual rulebook

The Declaration of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions is the primary legal document for the community. It is recorded with the county against the land itself, which means it binds every current owner and every future buyer automatically — you don't sign it when you buy the house, it simply applies because the property is subject to it.

CC&Rs typically cover: architectural standards, permitted and prohibited uses of the property, maintenance obligations, the association's authority to levy assessments and enforce violations, and — critically — the process required to amend the document itself. Whether that process is entirely up to the CC&Rs, or partly constrained by state statute, is exactly what varies by state.

Because CC&Rs are recorded, they are public record. If your association doesn't have a copy on hand, your county recorder or clerk's office almost always has one on file, often searchable online by the property address or the original declarant's name.

Amending the declaration

This is one of the areas where state law varies the most, and where a wrong assumption can matter — if your board is planning an amendment vote, the actual required threshold might not be what the CC&Rs say.

Broadly, states fall into a few patterns: some set a percentage that only applies if the declaration is silent (a "default"); some set a floor the declaration can exceed but not go below; a smaller number set an absolute ceiling the declaration cannot exceed no matter what it says; and a few states have a genuine override provision that operates "notwithstanding" the governing documents. Several states — including some of the largest, like New York and Massachusetts — only regulate this for condominiums, leaving ordinary planned-community HOAs to the declaration alone.

Bylaws — how the board operates

Bylaws are a separate document governing the association's internal structure: how many board members there are, what officer positions exist and what each one does, how and when elections happen, quorum requirements for meetings, and how the bylaws themselves can be amended.

Unlike CC&Rs, bylaws are generally not recorded against the property in most states — they're an internal corporate governance document. But this isn't universal: a handful of states, including Delaware, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, and a few others, actually require the bylaws to be recorded, sometimes as a condition of the community being validly established at all.

Resale disclosure — what a buyer is entitled to

When a home in your community sells, many states require the association to provide specific information to the buyer, sometimes on a tight deadline and for a capped fee. This is one of the most commonly requested — and misunderstood — items self-managed boards handle, and it comes in genuinely different shapes depending on the state: a comprehensive document-and-financial packet, a narrower unpaid-assessment statement, an estoppel certificate, or in some states, nothing required by statute at all.

Rules & Regulations — the board's own additions

Rules & Regulations are usually the easiest document to work with, and the easiest to get wrong. Boards can typically adopt or amend rules on their own, without putting it to a membership vote — but only within whatever authority the CC&Rs already grant. A board cannot use a "rule" to create an entirely new restriction the CC&Rs never contemplated; it can only add detail and specificity to what's already there.

Common examples: specific parking restrictions, pool or amenity hours, trash collection logistics, or a detailed fine schedule. These are the kinds of things a board reasonably needs to adjust more often than a CC&R amendment vote would allow.

If your community has been amended over the years

Many older associations have one or more recorded amendments to their original CC&Rs — sometimes titled things like "First Amendment to Declaration." When this happens, the amendment and the original document need to be read together; the amendment only changes the specific sections it addresses. Keep a record of exactly which version of each document is currently in effect, and note the effective date — this matters if a violation or dispute ever hinges on which version of a rule applied at a given time.

State-by-State Quick Reference

Select your state below for its actual amendment threshold, resale disclosure, statutory override, and bylaws-recording rules. The "scope" line is worth reading first — several states regulate this only for condominiums and leave ordinary planned-community HOAs to the declaration alone, and that distinction matters more here than almost anywhere else in this guide series.

This article is general information about how HOA governing documents typically work and is not legal advice. The exact structure, terminology, and applicable statutes vary by state and by your association's specific documents — consult your governing documents and, where needed, a qualified attorney for your specific situation.