Current through: Texas 89th Legislature, 2025. This guide is general education, not legal advice.
Your right to inspect and copy records
Under Section 209.005, a homeowner has the right to inspect and copy most books and records of the association. Because the association runs on your assessments, you are entitled to see the recorded declarations, the adopted rules, the fine policies, the financial statements, and the meeting minutes. Some records are confidential by statute, such as another owner's personal financial information, and those can be withheld.
How to make a written request
Records access requires a written request. To trigger the statutory protections and deadlines under Chapter 209, send your written request by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the mailing address of the association or its authorized representative. An email does not compel the statutory timeline.
Once the certified letter is received, the association has 10 business days either to produce the records, set inspection dates during normal business hours, or provide written notice that it needs more time, and that extension cannot exceed an additional 15 business days.
Retention and management-certificate duties
Texas associations must prepare and record a management certificate that identifies the association, the recorded restrictions, and the managing agent. It has to be kept current and on file in the county records. Associations are also required to file their management certificates with the Texas Real Estate Commission, which posts them in a central public database at hoa.texas.gov. You can look your association up there directly to find its official contact information.
Board meetings and notice
Decisions that affect you, including the adoption of new rules, are made in meetings, and the law requires those open meetings to be transparent. Members are entitled to advance notice: generally 144 hours, six days, for a regular open board meeting, and 72 hours for a special meeting, unless your governing documents say otherwise.
Using records to test a notice
A violation notice is a claim that a specific, properly adopted rule applies to your property. Records let you test that claim on three fronts:
- Does the rule exist as written? Pull the recorded restrictions and find the exact language.
- Was it properly adopted? A rule the board enforces must be adopted through the right process. Check the minutes.
- Is the policy applied consistently? The fine schedule is a record. Reading it tells you what the amounts and steps are supposed to be.
You are the one reading the source and deciding what to do with it. Ground every response in the actual documents, not in what the notice asserts about them.