Quick Answer
Virtual HOA board meetings are authorized in all 7 states vote.direct verified for this guide — California, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Minnesota — and every one of them makes that authority conditional on the same thing: each director must be able to hear and be heard by the others before remote participation counts as presence.
- Where the authority lives. Usually not in your HOA statute, but in the nonprofit corporation act your association was incorporated under. California and Texas are the exceptions.
- What the notice adds. The platform, the link, a dial-in number, and a named person who answers a phone when an owner cannot get in.
- How the board votes. By roll call. California requires it at a fully virtual meeting (Civ. Code §4926(a)(3)); elsewhere it is the only method that leaves a record naming each director.
- How the members vote. Not in the meeting software. A member vote is usually a secret ballot your state has written rules about.
- The California catch. The meeting where ballots are counted cannot go fully virtual (Civ. Code §4926(b), pointing at §5120). That one still needs a room.
"Can we meet on Zoom?" almost always turns out to mean "can we decide something on Zoom, and will the decision stick?" Those are different questions, and this guide separates them.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Remote meeting rules vary by state, by governing document, and by whether your association is a condominium or a planned community. No software can make a decision legally binding or guarantee that your association is in compliance. Confirm your own rules with counsel.
Where Video Meetings Are Authorized
The authority is usually not in your HOA statute
Most community associations are nonprofit corporations first and HOAs second. When the community association act says nothing about remote meetings, and most say nothing, the nonprofit corporation act fills the gap with a version of the same clause: directors may participate by any means of communication through which all of them can hear each other, and a director who does is present in person.
Florida shows both halves side by side. A condominium board gets its rule from the condominium act: Fla. Stat. §718.112(2)(b)5. says participation "via telephone, real-time videoconferencing, or similar real-time electronic or video communication counts toward a quorum, and such member may vote as if physically present." An HOA board under chapter 720 gets none of that from its own statute; it gets it from Fla. Stat. §617.0820(4), the Not For Profit Corporation Act. A board that reads only chapter 720 concludes it has no authority at all.
| State | Authority | Who may appear by video, and on what condition |
|---|---|---|
| California | Civ. Code §4090(b), §4926 | Directors and members. Fully virtual only on the four §4926 conditions, and never for the ballot-counting meeting |
| Florida (condo) | Fla. Stat. §718.112(2)(b)5. | Board and committee members. Counts toward quorum, votes as if present, speaker required in the room |
| Florida (HOA) | Fla. Stat. §617.0820(4) | Directors, by any means through which all participating directors may simultaneously hear each other |
| Texas | Prop. Code §209.0051(c-2) | Directors, but owners must also hear all board members and be able to listen by any method a director uses |
| Nevada | NRS 82.271(3) | Directors, by technology allowing participants to communicate simultaneously or sequentially; that is presence in person |
| Arizona | ARS §10-3820 | Directors, where all participating directors simultaneously hear each other; the director is deemed present in person |
| Colorado | C.R.S. §7-128-201(2), §7-127-108 | Directors and members, where all participants hear each other; each is deemed present in person |
| Minnesota | Minn. Stat. §317A.231, §317A.450 | Directors and members. A remote member meeting must verify identity, let members hear the proceedings substantially concurrently, and let them speak and vote |
Texas is the only state on that list that thought about the homeowners rather than only the directors. Outside executive session, Prop. Code §209.0051(c-2) requires that "all owners in attendance at the meeting may hear all board members" and that "owners are allowed to listen using any electronic or telephonic communication method used or expected to be used by a board member." Send the link to the directors only and you have not held an open meeting.
California wrote all of it down
AB 648 added Civil Code §4926 effective January 1, 2024. A board meeting or a meeting of the members may run entirely by teleconference, with no physical location held open for anyone, if all four of these are true:
- 1The notice carries clear technical instructions, the telephone number and email address of a person who can give technical help before and during the meeting, and a reminder that a member may request individual delivery of notices (§4926(a)(1)).
- 2Every director and member has the same ability to participate that would exist in person (§4926(a)(2)).
- 3Any vote of the directors is conducted by roll call (§4926(a)(3)).
- 4Anyone entitled to participate is offered the option of participating by telephone (§4926(a)(4)).
Miss one and you fall back to Civ. Code §4090(b), which requires the notice to name at least one physical location where members may attend, with a director or a board designee present there. And §4926(b) excludes "a meeting at which ballots are counted and tabulated pursuant to Section 5120," because §5120(a) makes the inspector count in public at a properly noticed open meeting. A California association can hold its annual meeting on video and still has to open a room for the count. See California HOA election rules and the inspector of elections guide.
What the Notice Must Say
A virtual notice is an ordinary notice plus the means of getting in. The ordinary half does not get easier because the meeting moved online: same window, same agenda, same delivery method. Five lines get added.
- 1The platform, by name. "Virtual meeting" is not a notice. "Zoom" is.
- 2The join link, meeting ID and passcode, printed so an owner can read them off paper and type them in.
- 3A dial-in number. California requires the telephone option outright (§4926(a)(4)).
- 4A named person for technical support — name, phone, email — reachable before the meeting, not only during it. California requires the number and the address specifically (§4926(a)(1)(B)).
- 5The voting instructions, if the ballot lives elsewhere: the URL, the open and close times, and how each owner receives their own ballot.
| State | Board meeting notice | What a virtual notice adds | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 4 days with the agenda; 2 days if solely executive session | Technical instructions, support phone and email, individual-delivery reminder | Civ. Code §4920; §4926(a)(1) |
| Texas | 144 hours posted or emailed, 72 for a special meeting, or mailed 10–60 days ahead | Instructions for owners to reach the method the board is using | Prop. Code §209.0051(e), (c-2)(3) |
| Florida (condo) | 48 continuous hours posted, except in an emergency | Nothing express; the speaker requirement still applies | Fla. Stat. §718.112(2)(c) |
| Florida (HOA) | 48 hours posted, or mailed 7 days ahead | Nothing express; publish the link anyway | Fla. Stat. §720.303(2) |
| Nevada | 10 days, posted, with a copy of the agenda | Nothing express; chapter 116 still says "time and place" | NRS 116.31083 |
| Colorado | Per §7-128-203 and your bylaws, agenda made available | Nothing express | C.R.S. §7-128-203 |
| Minnesota | Per your bylaws; MCIOA member meetings take 21 to 30 days | A remote member meeting follows the notice rules in §317A.450 | Minn. Stat. §515B.3-108; §317A.450 |
Nevada is the one to watch. NRS 116.31083 still frames a board meeting as having a "time and place," and nothing in chapter 116 says a link is a place; NRS 82.271(3) is about directors, not about the community's access. Nevada boards that go virtual generally keep a physical location open too. For the ordinary half of the notice, start from the election notice template.
How to Take a Roll-Call Vote on Video
A roll call is not video etiquette. It is the only method that produces, with no extra work, a record naming each director and what that director said. California made it a condition of meeting without a room. Elsewhere the reason is plainer: the alternatives leave your minutes unable to answer the only question anyone asks a year later, which is who voted for this.
The five methods of voting, and which of them survive a video call
| Method | What it is | On a video call | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice vote | The chair calls for ayes and noes and judges by volume | Fails. Audio delay and mute buttons make volume meaningless | Nothing consequential |
| Show of hands or rising vote | Attendees raise a hand and someone counts | Fails at any size. Tiles paginate and the count is not in the record | Reading the room, not deciding |
| Roll call | Each voter is named in turn and answers aloud; each answer goes in the minutes | Works. This is the video-native method | Every board vote taken on a call |
| Ballot | Votes cast in writing, not attributable to the voter | Not in the meeting software | Member elections, recalls, anything your state makes secret |
| General consent | The chair states the action and asks whether there is objection | Works, with care: pause longer than feels natural | Routine, uncontested items |
Robert's Rules treats the rising vote and the show of hands as separate methods, which is why some lists count six. For the mechanics of each, see Robert's Rules of Order voting procedures.
This one gets heated
Should community boards be required to use independent election administrators?
Why the chat window and the thumbs-up do not count
A reaction emoji is not attributable in any document the association keeps. A chat message can be edited or deleted by its author, so a chat-window tally is a record the association does not control. And a platform poll is anonymous by default, which is exactly backwards: board votes are attributed on the record, and member ballots are the secret ones — see HOA secret ballot rules by state.
The script
- 1The chair states the motion in full after the second — the words that will appear in the minutes, not "the motion we discussed."
- 2The secretary calls the roll in a fixed order, the same order every meeting, with the chair voting last.
- 3Each director answers "aye," "no," or "abstain" aloud. A nod is not a vote. If there is no answer, the secretary repeats the name and records "no response."
- 4A director who abstains says why when a conflict is the reason; many states require the recusal to be noted in the minutes.
- 5The secretary reads back the tally before the chair declares the result.
- 6The minutes record each name and each vote, the platform used, and the fact that every director could hear and be heard.
Step 6 is the one boards skip. It costs one sentence, and it is the sentence that answers a challenge later.
How Members Observe and Speak
Opening a link is not the same as opening a meeting. Most states that make board meetings open make them participatory too, and that right does not thin out on a screen. California entitles a member to attend a teleconference meeting, requires it to be audible at the location named in the notice, and requires the board to let any member speak outside executive session subject to a reasonable time limit (Civ. Code §4925). Arizona lets members and their written designees "attend and speak at an appropriate time during the deliberations and proceedings," with at least one chance to speak after the board discusses an item and before it acts (ARS §33-1804(A)). Nevada schedules owner comment at both the beginning and the end of each board meeting (NRS 116.31083). Florida gives unit owners the right to speak on designated agenda items (§718.112(2)(c)), Texas requires owners to be able to hear all board members (Prop. Code §209.0051(c-2)(2)), and Colorado carries attendance and speaking rights alongside its notice rules (C.R.S. §7-128-203).
Three settings follow, decided before the meeting rather than during it: join muted with a raise-hand queue, chat open only if someone is assigned to read it aloud (an unread chat is a speaking right you quietly removed), and a stated time limit per speaker. A board that improvises the mute policy mid-argument looks like a board silencing a critic, whether or not it is.
Hybrid Meetings and the Ballot
Here the two questions finally separate. A board vote is taken by the directors, in the meeting, on the record, by roll call, and it belongs on the video call. A member vote — election, recall, assessment, amendment — is taken by the owners, usually by secret ballot, over a window of days, under a statute with opinions about envelopes, inspectors and who may count. It does not belong in the meeting software, which has no roster, no eligibility check, no ballot secrecy model and no audit trail.
So put the deliberation on the call and in the room, put the ballot on a voting platform that opens before the meeting and closes after it, count quorum from attendance plus ballots as your governing documents define it, and hold the count where the statute requires. In California that last step is the one part that cannot be fully virtual (Civ. Code §4926(b), §5120).
Two notes. Opening the voting window before the meeting is what moves participation; the video link only fixes attendance, which is a different problem (how to reach quorum). And if your bylaws require a ballot, the assembly cannot substitute a voice vote on a call (unopposed candidates and acclamation).
On vote.direct, running that ballot beside the meeting starts at $4.99 (50% off list through August 31, 2026) per election, or from $199 if you would rather we ran the whole thing, for a digital election of up to 100 voters.
Recording and Minutes
No statute in these seven states requires a board to record its meetings, and recording is a governance decision rather than a convenience setting: it creates something that may be an association record subject to inspection. Adopt a written rule first — whether meetings are recorded, who holds the file, how long it is kept, and whether members may obtain a copy.
Members may have recording rights of their own. Under NRS 116.31083 a Nevada owner may audio-record a board meeting outside executive session after giving notice of the intent to record to the board and the other owners in attendance. California's Open Meeting Act does not address recording and Texas Prop. Code §209.0051 is silent on it too, which leaves both to board rules. Assume someone is recording.
A recording is not minutes. California requires the minutes, draft minutes marked as drafts, or a summary of any board meeting other than executive session to be available to members within 30 days (Civ. Code §4950(a)). Texas requires written minutes kept for owner inspection (§209.0051(d)). Nevada lets the minutes include the substance of an owner's remarks on request (NRS 116.31083).
Four lines belong in virtual minutes that would not appear otherwise: the platform, the statement that every director could hear and be heard throughout, how attendance was verified, and the roll-call result with each director named. The board meeting minutes template covers the rest.
FAQ
Q: Can an HOA hold its annual meeting on a Minnesota primary election day?
Yes. Nothing in the Minnesota Common Interest Ownership Act (Minn. Stat. §515B.3-108) or in Minnesota election law bars a private community association from meeting on a primary or general election day. The statute people are thinking of is §202A.19, and it does not reach associations: it stops city councils, county boards, township boards, school boards, special taxing district boards and state agencies from meeting after 6:00 p.m. on the day of a major political party precinct caucus, and separately restricts public school and University of Minnesota events that night. Caucus night, not primary day; public bodies, not HOAs. The real reason to move the date is turnout.
Q: Can the board vote by video, or does it have to meet in person?
It can vote by video in all seven states above, provided every director can hear and be heard by every other director. That is the common condition in Civ. Code §4926, Fla. Stat. §718.112(2)(b)5. and §617.0820(4), Prop. Code §209.0051(c-2), NRS 82.271(3), ARS §10-3820, C.R.S. §7-128-201(2) and Minn. Stat. §317A.231. What changes is the paperwork around the vote, not its validity.
Q: What are the five methods of voting in a meeting?
Voice vote, show of hands or rising vote, roll call, ballot, and general consent. On a video call only roll call, ballot and general consent are usable: a voice vote cannot be judged through audio delay and mute buttons, and a show of hands cannot be counted across paginated tiles.
Q: Do remote attendees count toward quorum?
For a board meeting, yes in every state in this guide, because the statutes deem remote participation to be presence in person. For a members' meeting it depends on whether your state's authority covers members as well as directors — California (§4926), Colorado (§7-127-108) and Minnesota (§317A.450) do — and on whether your documents count ballots and proxies toward quorum.
Q: Can we use the Zoom poll for the board election?
No. A meeting platform poll has no voter roster, no eligibility check, no ballot secrecy model and no audit trail, and it is anonymous by default, which is wrong for a board vote and insufficient for a member election. See electronic voting for HOAs by state.
The Bottom Line
The legal question was settled a while ago, and the answer is yes nearly everywhere, on one condition every statute words the same way: everyone in the meeting has to be able to hear everyone else. The live question is narrower. It is what happens at the moment of the vote.
Take board votes by roll call and name every director in the minutes. Take member votes on a ballot that opens before the meeting and closes after it, on a system built to check eligibility and to keep the ballot secret where your state requires it. Keep the notice honest about how to get in, and keep a phone number on it.
Do that and the format stops mattering, which is the point. The room was never what made the decision valid. The record was.
Sources:
- 1California Civil Code §4090(b), §4920, §4925, §4926 (AB 648, Stats. 2023, Ch. 203), §4950, §5120
- 2Florida Statutes §718.112(2)(b)5. and (2)(c); §720.303(2); §617.0820(4)
- 3Texas Property Code §209.0051(c-2), (d), (e)
- 4Nevada NRS 82.271(3); NRS 116.31083
- 5Arizona ARS §10-3820; ARS §33-1804(A)
- 6Colorado C.R.S. §7-127-108; §7-128-201(2); §7-128-203
- 7Minnesota Statutes §317A.231; §317A.450; §515B.3-108; §202A.19
This article is general information, not legal advice. We recommend you do your own research and confirm anything you plan to act on. Where this article states law, the section is cited so you can read the primary source yourself rather than take our word for it — that is what the citations are for. Election requirements also turn on your own governing documents, which we have not seen, and statutes are amended. For advice about your community, consult a qualified attorney licensed in your state.
We work hard to verify every citation against the primary source, but laws change and errors happen. If you spot an inaccuracy, email [email protected] and we will correct it. See our editorial standards for how these pages are researched and checked.
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