Under ARS 33-1805, an Arizona HOA must make virtually all of its financial and other records available to any member who asks in writing, and it has ten business days to comply. Examining the records in person is free. If you want physical copies, the association can charge no more than fifteen cents per page.21Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33 Section 33-1805 – Association Financial and Other Records[/mfn]
Records You Have a Right to See
The statute uses a deliberately broad phrase: “all financial and other records of the association” must be reasonably available for examination by any member, or by a person the member designates in writing.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33 Section 33-1805 – Association Financial and Other Records There is no itemized list in the law, and that is the point. In practice, the category reaches operating budgets, bank statements, assessment ledgers, minutes of open board meetings, vendor contracts, insurance policies, reserve studies, and architectural review files.
You do not have to give a reason. The right belongs to every member on equal terms, and you can send someone else to do the reviewing for you by naming them in writing. That is useful when you want an accountant to work through the financials or an attorney to look at governance documents.
What the HOA Can Keep Confidential
The statute carves out five specific categories the board may withhold, plus a catch-all for anything protected by other state or federal law. These exceptions are narrow, and they apply to the sensitive portions of a document, not automatically to the whole file. If one paragraph of a record is privileged, the rest still has to be produced with that paragraph redacted.
- Attorney-client communications between the association and its lawyer, including legal advice and strategy.
- Records tied to pending or contemplated litigation.
- Minutes from portions of board meetings that were properly closed under ARS 33-1804. Minutes from the open portions of the same meetings remain accessible.
- Personal information about members, association employees, or contractor employees, such as health records and personal financial details.
- Records about an individual employee’s job performance, compensation, health information, or specific complaints against them.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33 Section 33-1805 – Association Financial and Other Records
Beyond those five, the association can also withhold anything whose disclosure would violate state or federal law, which covers records protected by federal privacy statutes.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1805 – Association Financial and Other Records
One line the board sometimes tries to blur: an aggregate payroll number in the operating budget is not the same thing as an individual employee’s salary or health data. The exception for personnel records does not let the association refuse to show you a line-item budget just because a total payroll figure appears on it.
The exception for closed-session minutes has its own limit. The board can meet in executive session only for legal advice, pending or contemplated litigation, personal or financial information about an individual, employee performance, or a member’s appeal of a violation.5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 33 Section 33-1804 If the board closes a session to discuss something outside those topics, the closure was improper, and the minutes lose their protected status.
How to Submit a Records Request
Put the request in writing and identify the records specifically. The statute does not prescribe a form, but a precise request (“board meeting minutes for January through June 2025”) gets a faster response than a sweeping one and gives the board less room to claim your request was unclear.
Once the association receives the written request, the ten-business-day clock starts. That deadline covers both examination requests and requests for copies. Looking at the records yourself costs nothing. Physical copies are capped at fifteen cents per page, and nothing more.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1805 – Association Financial and Other Records The statute is silent on electronic copies, so if the HOA sends you PDFs, any charge beyond the cost of the storage medium would be hard for the board to justify.
If you would rather have a professional review the documents, name that person as your representative in writing. They then have the same access you do for the scope of the request.
What to Do If the HOA Refuses
Arizona offers an administrative route that avoids civil court. The Arizona Department of Real Estate administers an HOA dispute process under Title 32, Chapter 20, Article 11. ADRE does not regulate HOAs directly, but it accepts petitions and forwards accepted cases to an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Hearings.6Arizona Department of Real Estate. Homeowners Association Dispute Information
Only an owner or the association itself can file, and the petition names the association as an entity, not the individual board members. Filing goes through ADRE’s online message center with a fee, and incomplete petitions come back without processing.
An ALJ who finds a violation can order the association to comply and impose civil penalties for each violation.7Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 32 Section 32-2199-02 – Orders Penalties Disposition If you prevail, the ALJ must order the association to reimburse your filing fee. The order is binding and enforceable through contempt proceedings, and either party can seek judicial review.
Set your expectations honestly on timing. ADRE notes that cases can take anywhere from a few months to a few years, and continuances are common.6Arizona Department of Real Estate. Homeowners Association Dispute Information The filing fee is only refundable if the case settles before a hearing is scheduled; once the hearing is on the calendar, the fee is not coming back regardless of who wins.
If You Live in a Condominium
ARS 33-1805 applies to planned communities. If your home is a condominium, your records-access rights come from a parallel statute, ARS 33-1258, not from 33-1805.8Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1258 – Association Financial and Other Records Applicability The substance tracks closely: the same broad access to financial and other records, the same ten-business-day deadline, and the same confidentiality exceptions for attorney-client material, pending litigation, closed-session minutes, and personal information. The ADRE petition process covers condominium associations too, so if a condo board refuses a request, the enforcement path looks the same.