The HOA-OS Blog
Practical advice, product updates, and community management insights for HOA boards.
The HOA Secretary: Records, Minutes, and Legal Cover
The HOA secretary keeps the minutes, guards the official records, and handles records requests. Quiet work, until a decision gets challenged and the record is all that stands.
How a board keeps its books and generates statements
A walkthrough of one community's books in HOA-OS, from recording a storm-damage invoice to generating income and expense, budget against actuals, the reserve fund, and the year-end package an accountant asks for.
HOA President Duties: More Referee Than Ruler
The HOA president runs meetings and signs approved contracts, but cannot make policy or spend alone. A plain-English look at the job and its real limits.
How a board collects dues online and tracks who hasn't paid
A walkthrough of dues collection in HOA-OS, from setting one recurring schedule that bills every unit, through residents paying by card or bank account, to the delinquency view that shows who is behind and by how much.
How to import your resident roster from a spreadsheet
A walkthrough of the roster import in HOA-OS, from uploading the file exactly as somebody else wrote it, through the column mapping it shows you before anything is created, to approving the batch that sends the invitations.
Are HOA Board Members Paid? (And Should They Be?)
Almost all HOA board members serve as volunteers. Here is why paying them gets legally and tax-wise messy, and what boards do instead to make the job sustainable.
HOA Treasurer Duties: A Plain-English Job Description
What the HOA treasurer actually does month to month: the close, the budget, the reserves, and the reporting that keeps a board out of trouble.
How to move your HOA records out of a management company
A full walkthrough of the records handover, from the four files to ask the management company for to importing balances, matching them against the old system, and uploading the governing documents.
HOA Board Members: Who Does What (and Why It Matters)
A plain-English guide to the HOA board: the officer roles, what fiduciary duty actually requires, and how decisions get made in a self-managed community.
Fair HOA Rule Enforcement: The Board's Playbook
A week of HOA rules coverage, pulled into one working playbook: know the document, check the statute, notify consistently, log everything, and enforce the same way for everyone.
Selective Enforcement: How Boards Lose HOA Disputes
Enforcing a rule against one owner while ignoring it next door is the fastest way to make that rule unenforceable. Here is how waiver works and how boards avoid it.
California HOA Laws: What Every Board Should Know
The Davis-Stirling Act governs every common interest development in California. Here are the parts a board actually runs into: meetings, elections, records, and enforcement.
How HOA-OS keeps your community's data and money safe
A plain-language look at how HOA-OS protects your community: isolated and encrypted data, payments through Stripe so it never holds your funds, full data export anytime, and personal details stripped before the AI ever sees them.
How to build your HOA community website with no coding
A full walkthrough of the HOA-OS website builder, from generating a complete community site with AI in about a minute to editing pages and publishing them for residents.
HOA Pet Restrictions: What's Legal and What's Not
Breed bans, weight limits, and pet counts are usually enforceable. Assistance animals are a different question entirely, and getting it wrong is expensive.
Can an HOA Restrict Solar Panels? Where the Law Stands
Many states void covenants that ban rooftop solar outright, but boards keep real authority over placement and appearance. Here is where the line falls.
HOA Liens: How They Work and How to Avoid One
An assessment lien is the association's strongest collection tool and its most dangerous one. Here is how liens attach, what they can lead to, and how a board avoids getting there.
CC&Rs Explained: The Rulebook Your HOA Runs On
CC&Rs are the recorded document that gives your board its authority. Here is what is in them, how they bind buyers, and how they change.
Why HOA Fees Keep Going Up (And When That's a Good Sign)
Why HOA fees keep rising, why the real driver is usually reserve underfunding and inflation rather than waste, and when a dues increase is actually good news.
Do Renters Pay HOA Fees? Clear Answers for Landlords and Tenants
Whether renters pay HOA fees, who is really responsible for dues and violations in a rented home, and what landlords and tenants each need to know.