An HOA annual meeting is the yearly owners' meeting your bylaws call for, usually to elect the Board. To run one that holds up, send notice inside the legal window and count quorum the way your statute does. Use a proxy form that meets local rules and have only the people your statute allows count the ballots. The rules for each step differ between DC, Maryland and Virginia.
Key takeaways (the short version)
- DC and Virginia condominiums must send annual meeting notice at least 21 days ahead. Virginia HOAs need 14 days and Maryland condominiums 10 to 90 days.
- Default quorum is more than one-third of the votes in DC and Virginia condominiums and 25 percent in Maryland condominiums. HOAs usually set quorum in their bylaws.
- DC condominium proxies need a witness. A Maryland condominium proxy can vote in the Board election only for candidates the owner named.
- Since October 1, 2025, independent parties must run and count Maryland condominium and HOA Board elections. Staff of an outside management company do not qualify.
- The annual meeting is usually not a budget vote. Owners ratify a budget only where the documents require it.
Which laws set our annual meeting requirements?
Your association statute, your corporate statute if the association is incorporated, and your declaration and bylaws. The bylaws set the date and often the quorum and election method. They cannot shorten a statutory notice period or override a rule the statute applies regardless of the documents.
- DC. Condominiums follow the DC Condominium Act. The District has no HOA statute. A DC HOA follows its documents and, if incorporated, the DC Nonprofit Corporation Act. Our guide to DC co-op Boards covers co-ops, which follow the statute they were formed under.
- Maryland. Condominiums follow the Maryland Condominium Act and HOAs the Homeowners Association Act. State nonstock corporation law also applies to every condominium, incorporated or not, and to incorporated HOAs.
- Virginia. Condominiums follow the Virginia Condominium Act and HOAs the Property Owners' Association Act. Incorporated associations add the Nonstock Corporation Act.
Our compliance calendar puts annual meeting season in October and November. Read the meeting and election articles of your bylaws first. Our guide to DC governance pitfalls covers how those documents govern the rest of the Board's work. Our Board meetings checklist covers the Board's own meetings, which are separate from the owners' meeting.
How much annual meeting notice do we owe owners?
At least 21 days for a DC or Virginia condominium, 14 days for a Virginia HOA and 10 to 90 days for a Maryland condominium. If your bylaws require more, give more.
| Association | Annual meeting notice | Can your bylaws change it? |
|---|---|---|
| DC condominium | At least 21 days | Only to require more |
| DC HOA (incorporated) | 10 to 60 days | Yes, your bylaws control |
| Maryland condominium | 10 to 90 days | Only to require more, within the 90 days |
| Maryland HOA | "Reasonable notice", or 10 to 90 days if incorporated | Usually; confirm with counsel |
| Virginia condominium | At least 21 days | Only to require more |
| Virginia HOA | At least 14 days | Only to require more; ask counsel about older declarations |
Incorporated Virginia associations also face a 60-day ceiling in the Nonstock Corporation Act. Mailing 21 to 60 days ahead, or 14 to 60 days for a Virginia HOA, fits both statutes. Confirm the window with counsel.
Give the time, place and purposes and list every item owners will vote on. Purposes are mandatory for DC and Virginia condominiums and Virginia HOAs. DC condominiums and Maryland associations holding a phone or video meeting must include the link or dial-in instructions. A Maryland Board that may need the reduced-quorum meeting described below must state in this notice that the procedure might be used, with the additional meeting's date, time and place.
Email notice counts only for owners who agreed to receive it that way. DC condominiums and Maryland associations also need a Board authorization and a written certification from the sender that notice went out. Virginia condominiums need the certification. In Virginia a bounced email must be followed by a mailed copy.
How do we count quorum and what if we fall short?
Add up the votes present in person, by proxy and online where allowed and compare them with the quorum in your bylaws or the default below. Quorum is the share of votes that must be present before owners can act. Under all three condominium acts, quorum present at the start counts for the rest of the meeting.
| Association | Default quorum | Can your bylaws change it? |
|---|---|---|
| DC condominium | More than one-third of the votes | Yes, higher or down to 25 percent |
| DC HOA (incorporated) | A majority, or one-tenth for corporations older than the current Nonprofit Act | Yes, your bylaws control |
| Maryland condominium | 25 percent of the votes | Yes, your bylaws control |
| Maryland HOA | Set by the bylaws; a majority if an incorporated HOA's documents are silent | Yes, your bylaws control |
| Virginia condominium | More than one-third of the votes | Yes, higher or down to 10 percent |
| Virginia HOA | Set by the bylaws; one-tenth if an incorporated HOA's documents are silent | Yes, your bylaws control |
Remote attendees count toward quorum in DC condominiums and Maryland associations. Virginia condominiums and HOAs count owners who voted by proxy or absentee ballot. Mail a proxy with the notice and call non-responders in the final week.
Maryland. If quorum fails, a majority of the owners present can call an additional meeting, provided the first notice announced the procedure and that meeting's date, time and place. The additional meeting is held at least 15 days later, after a separate notice sent at least 10 days ahead that states the reduced quorum and voting rules. At that meeting the owners present in person or by proxy are a quorum. The vote needed to amend the declaration or bylaws does not drop.
DC. A DC HOA corporation can adjourn. Unless its bylaws say otherwise, the members present at the reconvened meeting are a quorum. Announcing the new date, time and place before adjourning usually avoids a new notice. The DC Condominium Act has no failed-quorum procedure. Your bylaws and counsel decide.
Virginia. Reschedule with at least 7 days' notice stating that the meeting will elect directors. Incorporated associations should ask counsel whether the Nonstock Act's 10-day minimum applies. After three successive years of failed quorum in a condominium, the association or any owner entitled to vote can ask the circuit court to order a meeting and set its quorum. An owner must send the Board a copy of the petition at least 10 business days before filing.
A failed election does not empty the Board. Directors of DC HOA corporations and incorporated Virginia associations serve until their successors take office.
How should our proxy forms work?
Build each form to your row in the table below. In DC and Maryland condominiums those rules apply even where the bylaws say otherwise. A proxy is an owner's signed appointment of someone else to vote for them.
| Association | What the form needs | How long it lasts | Can your bylaws change it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| DC condominium | A date, every co-owner's signature and a witness's signature, full name and address. A proxy that says it can be revoked without notice is void | The first meeting on or after its date, with adjournments | No |
| DC HOA (incorporated) | The member's signature, paper or electronic | 11 months, or up to 3 years if the form says so | Yes, they may limit or bar proxies |
| Maryland condominium | The owner's candidate choices for the Board election. An undirected proxy counts only for quorum and other business | Up to 180 days, revocable at any time | No |
| Maryland HOA (incorporated) | The owner's signature, paper or electronic | 11 months unless the proxy says otherwise | Yes, the charter or bylaws may limit or bar proxies |
| Virginia condominium | A signature and a short note on the effect of leaving it uninstructed. A date, unless the condominium instruments say otherwise | The first meeting on or after its date, with adjournments | Partly; the instruments may bar proxies |
| Virginia HOA | A signed form or electronic transmission if incorporated | 11 months if incorporated, unless the form says longer | Yes, the documents may bar proxies |
Ask counsel whether your DC HOA is a member-governed corporation, which defaults to in-person voting. At registration, match each proxy to the owner roll and set aside any defective one before the vote.
Can we hold the meeting and the vote online?
Yes, on conditions the statutes set, except that a DC HOA needs authority in its own documents.
- DC condominiums. Since May 2, 2025, owners' meetings may be held by phone or video even if the documents are silent or say otherwise. The Board may mail a ballot with the notice and let owners vote electronically up to 7 days before the meeting. This is permanent law as of September 2026.
- DC HOAs. A fully online meeting needs authority in the articles or bylaws. Unless the documents restrict it, a DC HOA corporation can hold a director election by mail or email ballot without a meeting. Ask counsel about hybrid meetings and the quorum for a ballot-only vote.
- Maryland condominiums and HOAs. The Board may authorize phone or video meetings whatever the documents say. A ballot may go out with the notice, but only owners present at the electronic meeting may vote it. Absent owners use proxies. The ballot deadline can be no later than 24 hours after the meeting.
- Virginia condominiums and HOAs. Once the Board adopts guidelines, meetings may be held fully or partly online and owners may vote electronically unless the documents prohibit it. An owner who will not use electronic means gets a reasonable alternative at the association's expense.
Where your documents require a secret ballot, the electronic system must protect voter identity or offer another way to vote in secret. From January 1, 2027, an incorporated Virginia association whose articles or bylaws allow it may elect directors by written consent in place of an annual meeting. The Condominium and POA Acts still require a yearly owners' meeting. Ask counsel before relying on it.
What voting rules apply to our Board election?
Your bylaws set the election method wherever the statute lets them. In Maryland, any election rule in your documents that conflicts with the 2025 election law is void. If your bylaws have the new Board choose its officers, that happens at a Board meeting after the annual meeting.
How do nominations work?
A Maryland condominium must send a call for nominations at least 45 days before the election notice. With the 10-day notice minimum, the call goes out at least 55 days before the meeting. Nominations made at least 15 days before the notice go on the ballot. Floor nominations are also allowed, though a Maryland meeting held by phone or video may skip them once every open seat has a candidate. Election materials the association pays for list candidates alphabetically and show no preference.
Most incorporated Virginia associations need each nominee's consent in advance. Put a consent line on the nomination form.
Who can count the ballots in a Maryland Board election?
Only independent parties. Since October 1, 2025, they must run Maryland condominium and HOA Board elections, from collecting and counting ballots to certifying results. The law is Chapter 512 of 2025 (Senate Bill 758). An independent party is not a candidate and has no conflict of interest with any candidate. Property management representatives do not qualify unless the association or a parent association owns the management company.
The Board can hire an election vendor or use a commercial voting platform. It can also appoint an owner who does not electioneer, as long as no more than 25 percent of eligible voters object. A bylaw naming the managing agent as vote counter no longer works for Board elections. As of September 2026 the rule covers every Board election, contested or not.
How do DC and Virginia elections work?
Incorporated associations may appoint inspectors of election. A DC inspector cannot be a candidate. Announce when the polls open and close. After they close, an incorporated DC or Virginia association accepts no further ballot, proxy or revocation. Unless the documents say otherwise, the candidates with the most votes win. The DC Condominium Act leaves the election method to your bylaws.
Do we need owners to approve the budget at the annual meeting?
Usually not. In most DC-area associations the Board adopts the budget and owners receive it. Owners ratify only where the declaration or bylaws require it. The DC, Maryland and Virginia condominium acts and the Maryland and Virginia HOA acts contain no annual owner ratification vote.
Maryland condominiums, and HOAs that maintain common areas, must send owners the proposed budget 30 days before adopting it at an open meeting. A non-emergency expense that would raise their assessments more than 15 percent mid-year needs a budget amendment at a special meeting. Our budget season playbook covers the timing.
Maryland condominium and HOA Boards must also review progress on the reserve funding plan at each annual meeting. Our reserve funding guide covers the plan itself.
What should our annual meeting agenda include?
A typical agenda runs from proof of notice and the quorum report through officer reports, the election and adjournment. Adapt this sample to your bylaws.
- Call to order by the chair named in the bylaws.
- Proof of notice, with the sender's certification.
- Quorum report, counting owners present in person, online and by proxy.
- President's and treasurer's reports, with the budget for the coming year.
- Maryland: review of progress on the reserve funding plan.
- Owner comment period (required in Maryland and in DC and Virginia condominiums).
- Election: candidates introduced, nominations closed, polls opened and closed.
- Other business listed in the notice.
- Election results, certified by the independent party in Maryland.
- Adjournment.
If quorum is not present at item 3, stop there. In Maryland the owners present then vote on the additional meeting named in the notice.
Frequently asked questions
What is a proxy vote in an HOA?
A proxy vote is cast by someone an owner appoints in writing to vote for them. A general proxy lets the holder decide how to vote and a directed proxy tells the holder how. The absent owner also counts toward quorum. Maryland condominiums require a directed proxy for any vote in the Board election.
Can HOA Board members vote by proxy?
Directors of an incorporated Virginia association cannot vote by proxy, apart from a narrow exception. The DC statutes do not provide for director proxies. In DC and Maryland your bylaws and counsel decide.
What is cumulative voting in an HOA?
Cumulative voting lets each owner multiply their votes by the number of open seats and cast the total for one candidate or split it among several. DC HOA corporations and incorporated Virginia associations use it only where their documents provide for it. Virginia also requires advance notice before owners cumulate their votes.
What happens if an HOA skips its annual meeting?
In DC and Virginia, owners can go to court. A DC HOA corporation member can ask the Superior Court to order a meeting after the earlier of 6 months past fiscal year end or 15 months past the last annual meeting. Incorporated Virginia associations face the same request after 15 months and DC condominium owners can sue over any breach of the Condominium Act. Maryland Boards should ask counsel which remedy applies.
Can owners who are behind on assessments vote?
Sometimes not. A DC condominium Board may vote to suspend the voting rights of an owner more than 30 days behind until the balance is paid. Maryland condominium bylaws may bar voting while a recorded lien on the unit is unpaid. Check the owner roll and ask counsel before turning anyone away.
This article is general information for association Boards and is not legal advice. Your governing documents and association counsel control.
Founded in 1996, EJF Real Estate Services provides community association management to more than 650 HOA and condominium communities in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. Under Full-Service management, your community manager attends Board meetings in person, prepares meeting packages and documents minutes and action items. If your Board is heading into annual meeting season without a timeline, or missed quorum last year, request a proposal at ejfrealestate.com/request-proposal or call 202-537-1801.
