Board & governance
Open Meeting
The principle (often a state statute) that HOA board meetings must be open to all owners, with limited exceptions.
Also called: sunshine law · open meeting law · open session
What it means
Open meeting requirements are written into many state HOA statutes — Davis-Stirling in California, Chapter 720 in Florida, the Colorado CCIOA, and similar statutes elsewhere. They typically require that board meetings be noticed in advance, open to all owners, and that owners have a right to speak (often within a defined time limit). Closed-door action — including by email or text between directors — that effectively avoids the open meeting requirement is a violation in most jurisdictions, even when the substance of the decision is reasonable.
Why it matters
Open-meeting violations are one of the most common bases for owner challenges to HOA decisions. The fix is procedural: notice meetings properly, keep substantive discussion in the meeting, ratify any between-meeting decisions in open session.
Example
Five directors trade emails throughout the week and informally agree to fire the management company. At the next noticed meeting, they vote on the record to terminate. The vote is valid because the formal decision was made in open session — the prior emails were just informal coordination.
This definition is general orientation, not legal advice. Specific questions about your association should be routed to your attorney or a state-statute resource.
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