- Keep forever
- Governing documents (articles, declaration/CC&Rs, bylaws, amendments), plats/deeds, board & committee meeting minutes in most states
- Keep 7 years (typical)
- Financial statements, tax returns, contracts - the most common statutory minimum where one exists
- Keep 1-3 years (typical)
- Election materials/ballots/proxies, routine member communications, bids
- Real statutory minimums found
- Florida, Texas, Nevada, Illinois (partial), Colorado (partial), Georgia (new law, 2027) - see below
- No specific state rule
- Arizona and North Carolina's HOA-specific statutes are silent - the real answer comes from each state's general nonprofit-corporation law instead
The general baseline (if your state has no specific rule)
Most state HOA statutes regulate how fast a board must respond to a records request, not how long it must keep records in the first place - retention is often a separate, easy-to-miss question. Absent a specific statutory minimum (see your state below), this is the retention schedule recommended by common industry practice and IRS recordkeeping guidance for nonprofit corporations:
| Record type | Recommended minimum | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Articles of incorporation, declaration/CC&Rs, bylaws, and all amendments | Permanent | These define the association's legal existence and authority - never superseded, only amended |
| Plats, surveys, easements, deeds | Permanent | Tied to the property itself, not a fiscal cycle |
| Board & membership meeting minutes | Permanent (or your state's minimum, whichever is longer) | The official record of board decisions and authority - several states already require this |
| Financial statements & tax returns | 7 years | Matches the IRS's general recordkeeping guidance for supporting tax documents, and the most common statutory figure where states specify one |
| Contracts (vendor, insurance, management) | Term of contract + 4-7 years | Covers the contract period plus a typical state statute-of-limitations window for written contracts |
| Insurance policies | Permanent, or life of the policy + 7 years | Claims can surface years after a policy period ends |
| Election materials - ballots, proxies, sign-in sheets | 1 year | The most common figure where states specify a minimum at all (FL, CA, IL all land here) |
| Routine correspondence, bids not accepted | 1-3 years | Lower stakes; several states use 1 year for bids specifically |
Jump to your state
What each state actually requires
Arizona
Arizona's planned-community statute (A.R.S. § 33-1805 and neighboring sections) covers what records must be produced on request, but sets no retention period at all - a detail several other retention-schedule articles get wrong by citing 33-1805 for this. Since AZ HOAs are typically incorporated as nonprofit corporations, the real minimum comes from the Arizona Nonprofit Corporation Act, A.R.S. § 10-11601: meeting minutes and board/ committee actions must be kept as permanent records; member communications and furnished financial statements must be kept for 3 years.
Florida
Fla. Stat. § 720.303(4)(a) is unambiguous: the association "shall maintain each of the following items... for at least 7 years" - covering bylaws/articles/declaration and amendments, board and member meeting minutes, the member roster, insurance policies, contracts, and financial/accounting records. Two carve-outs get a shorter window within the same subsection: bids (1 year) and ballots/proxies/election materials (1 year after the election or vote).
Texas
Tex. Prop. Code § 209.005(m) requires associations with more than 14 lots to adopt a document-retention policy with real minimums: certificates of formation, bylaws, and restrictive covenants - permanent; financial books/records - 7 years; current owners' account records - 5 years; contracts of 1+ year term - 4 years after expiration; meeting minutes - 7 years; tax returns/audits - 7 years. Worth flagging: this specific rule's trigger is "more than 14 lots" - very small Texas associations fall outside it, and a nonprofit-code fallback (Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code § 22.353) is itself likely exempted for associations funded only by their own members' assessments (§ 22.355).
California
The Davis-Stirling Act's records section, Civil Code § 5200, defines what counts as an association record but sets a retention period for only one category: § 5200(c) requires election materials (ballots, signed voter envelopes, proxies, candidate lists, tally sheets) be maintained for 1 year after the election. Financial records, minutes, and everything else in § 5200 are governed by access rules, not a stated retention minimum - if you want to keep those longer (recommended - see the general baseline above), that's a board policy choice, not a separate statutory requirement in California.
Colorado
Colorado's CCIOA, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-317(1), frames its records list explicitly as a retention duty ("for purposes of document retention and production to owners") and specifies: financial statements - 3 years; tax returns - 7 years. Other listed categories (minutes, contracts, governing documents) don't carry their own stated duration in this subsection - the general baseline above is the reasonable approach for those.
North Carolina
N.C.G.S. § 47F-3-118 sets no retention period at all - only response-timeline requirements. Since NC HOAs are typically nonprofit corporations, the applicable rule comes from the North Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act, N.C.G.S. § 55A-16-01: meeting minutes and board/committee actions are permanent records; member communications and financial statements must be kept 3 years at the principal office; general accounting and membership records must be "maintained" with no specific duration stated.
Nevada
NRS 116.31175 requires the association's "books, records and other papers" to be maintained for at least 10 years. Meeting minutes are carved out separately (NRS 116.3108 for unit-owner meetings, NRS 116.31083 for executive-board meetings) and are understood to be kept until the association terminates - effectively permanent.
Georgia
Georgia's Property Owners' Association Act (O.C.G.A. § 44-3-220 et seq.) sets no retention period at all today - it only says the association "shall keep" minutes and financial records, with no duration attached. The fallback, Georgia's Nonprofit Corporation Code (O.C.G.A. § 14-3-1601), requires minutes, consents, and committee actions to be kept as permanent records, with no stated duration for accounting or membership records. That changes starting January 1, 2027: the newly signed SB 406 ("Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act") adds a real retention rule at new O.C.G.A. § 43-17A-2(g) - 10 years for records relating specifically to assessments, fines, fees, liens, and foreclosures (not a general records-retention mandate).
Illinois
Illinois splits this by structure. Condominiums (765 ILCS 605/19): financial records for the current plus 10 preceding fiscal years; meeting minutes for 7 years. Non-condo HOAs under the Common Interest Community Association Act (765 ILCS 160/1-30) have a narrower rule: board meeting minutes for 7 years, ballots and proxies for 1 year - but no specific duration is stated for financial records themselves (the Act requires them kept "in chronological order," without a year figure). Several online summaries apply the condo Act's 10-year financial-records figure to HOAs too - that's not actually in the HOA-specific statute's text.
Retention doesn't have to be a spreadsheet you maintain by hand
HOA Library keeps every document permanently by default - deletion is elective, not automatic, and requires a deliberate governance process if your board ever chooses to enable it at all. Once something is uploaded, it's OCR'd, full-text searchable, and simply stays there - so instead of tracking which folder needs purging on which schedule, the practical retention question becomes "do we still want this?" rather than "are we required to still have this?"
Keep everything, find anything, worry about none of this by hand
60-day free trial, no credit card.