HOA glossaryGoverning documents

What is a board resolution?

A formal, recorded-in-the-minutes decision of the board, used to adopt policies that need to be provable later.

Resolutions are how a board turns a discussion into an act with a date on it. Collection policies, fine schedules, architectural guidelines, records-request procedures and reserve funding policies are all commonly adopted by resolution rather than buried in a motion nobody wrote down properly.

The value is evidentiary. A resolution states what was adopted, on what authority, effective when, and by what vote. Two years later, when an owner argues the policy did not exist when they were fined, that document answers the question in one page.

Resolutions cannot exceed the authority the governing documents grant. A resolution that contradicts the covenants is void no matter how carefully it was minuted.

Why it matters to a board

Adopt policies by resolution, number them, and keep them in one binder. It converts institutional memory into something that survives a board turnover.

Where the answer lives

Your recorded declaration and bylaws first, then the act that governs associations in your state. Whichever is stricter is the one that binds you.

Related terms

Rules and regulationsStandards adopted by the board under authority granted in the covenants — enforceable, but subordinate to them.MinutesThe official record of what a meeting decided — the association's institutional memory and its primary evidence.Collection policyThe board-adopted procedure setting out how unpaid assessments are pursued, at what intervals, and with what charges.Governing documentsThe full set of instruments that binds an association and its members, read in a fixed order of authority.CommitteeA group appointed by the board to study or administer a defined area, with only the authority the board delegates to it.Records requestAn owner's demand to inspect association records, which most states grant subject to defined limits and exclusions.
General information, not legal advice. This entry explains what the term means, not what your association must do about it. Any notice period, cure window, fine cap, vote threshold or deadline comes from your recorded declaration and your state's act — those differ in all fifty states and are amended every session. Updated August 2026. Confirm the current requirements with an attorney licensed in your state before acting.
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