Ask a Minnesota board which law governs it and you'll hear "the HOA Bill of Rights." That's the new part, not the whole picture — and for many of the state's older townhome associations, it isn't even the first question.
Minnesota HOA law comes in three layers: the Minnesota Common Interest Ownership Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 515B, "MCIOA"), the corporate statute the association was incorporated under (usually the Nonprofit Corporation Act, ch. 317A), and the governing documents. The 2026 rewrite reworked the first layer. It changed nothing about which layer applies to you — still where most disputes start.
Which statute your association is under
MCIOA applies in full to communities created on or after June 1, 1994 (§ 515B.1-102(a)). Older ones are a patchwork:
- Condominiums created under ch. 515A: MCIOA reaches events on or after June 1, 1994, without invalidating existing declarations, bylaws, or plats. For the original ch. 515, only the sections MCIOA lists apply.
- Planned communities created before June 1, 1994 — the classic Minnesota townhome association — sit outside MCIOA entirely unless they elected in (§ 515B.1-102(b)(3), (d)). So do planned communities created from June 1, 1994 through July 31, 2006 with more than two but fewer than 13 units. Electing in means recording a declaration or amended declaration with conforming bylaws.
The resale disclosure duties (§§ 515B.4-107 and 4-108) reach nearly everyone regardless of vintage. Settle the vintage question first: much of the advice circulating about "Minnesota HOA law" is accurate only for post-1994 communities.
What your bylaws must say, and who may change them
MCIOA sets a floor for bylaw content, not a threshold for amending them. Under § 515B.3-106, bylaws must provide for a members' meeting at least once each year and an annual report to every owner covering reserves, last year's financials, litigation, insurance, planned capital expenditures, and past-due assessments. From January 1, 2027, that report also carries the insurance deductible and a notice that owners are personally responsible for loss assessments.
The documents rank differently than most boards assume:
- A declaration amendment takes owners holding at least 67% of the votes and takes effect only on recording (§ 515B.2-118) — and since August 1, 2026, the vote must be established of record, in practice by an officer's affidavit attached to the recording.
- Bylaws are the opposite: they "may be recorded, but need not be recorded to be effective unless so provided in the bylaws."
- Rules sit at the bottom. § 515B.3-102(a)(1) permits only rules "not inconsistent with the articles of incorporation, bylaws and declaration," and enumerates what they may reach — common-element use, conduct affecting health, safety, noise or damage, animals, and exterior appearance. A rule outside those categories is the first thing to fall.
Who amends the bylaws is a corporate question, not an MCIOA one. Under § 317A.181, subd. 2(a), the power sits with the board unless the articles reserve it to the members — but absent a contrary provision, member approval is required to fix a meeting quorum, set the number of directors or their qualifications or terms, or change the vote needed for member action. MCIOA agrees: § 515B.3-103(b) bars the board from determining directors' terms, qualifications, or powers at all.
What the 2026 rewrite changed beyond fines
The HOA Bill of Rights is 2026 Minn. Laws ch. 82 (S.F. 1750), signed May 12, 2026. The fine cap, collection policy, and narrowed foreclosure path are in our January 1, 2027 Minnesota checklist. Here is the rest — nearly all of it effective January 1, 2027:
- Director terms are capped. "Each term of a director must not exceed three years," and terms must be staggered unless they run one year or less.
- Board meetings open for real. The old "to the extent practicable" qualifier on notice is struck, the agenda and the documents up for approval must be available in any reasonable manner, an owner or the owner's written designee "must be permitted to speak," and the board "may not impose a fine for exercising the right to speak."
- Conflicts and competitive bids. A board member must not participate in deliberations or vote on approving a contract in which the statute finds an interest, and must not solicit or accept money or other compensation. Contracts over $50,000 need at least three written competitive bids, with the selection record and the awarded contracts kept six years.
- Architectural requests get a clock. § 515B.3-107(e) requires a "fair, reasonable, and expeditious" procedure and a written, reasonable decision within 90 days unless the governing documents set a different period.
- Asking a question stops being expensive. New § 515B.3-125: before referring an owner's inquiry to counsel, the association must notify the owner in advance that it intends to and that it may incur legal fees that could be assessed to the owner — at no cost to the owner. Exceptions are pending or threatened litigation, an owner already represented, and action needed immediately to preserve rights or prevent harm.
- Retaliation is prohibited. § 515B.4-116(e) bars restricting an owner's rights, or imposing any fine or charge not authorized by the governing documents, because the owner asserted a right. Foreclosing a fine left unpaid after the board upheld it by resolution is expressly not retaliation.
Older associations should not assume they are outside this. The act's application clause says sections 1 to 13 "apply to common interest communities created before, on, or after the date of enactment," and the foreclosure section is explicit: the three-month delinquency floor applies "regardless of when the condominium or planned community was created." How far that reaches a pre-1994 planned community that never elected in is an open question, since § 515B.1-102(b)(3) still says the chapter doesn't apply to it.*
What didn't pass
The February 2025 report behind the act came from the Legislature's Working Group on Common Interest Communities and Homeowners Associations — not the Attorney General — and carried 41 recommendations. Two of the most-discussed were left out: licensing of HOA managers "similar to real estate agents" (recommendation 4.02), and a bar on blanket rental-screening restrictions (8.02). Chapter 82 does not license or register managers; it defines "property manager" and regulates manager contracts and conflicts, nothing more. Both are live candidates for 2027, and the watch list in our Minnesota HOA rental compliance guide tracks them.
The board checklist
- Write down which statutory regime you're under, with the creation date and, if you elected into MCIOA, the instrument that did it. Every other answer depends on this one.
- Read the articles before the bylaws — they decide whether a bylaw amendment is the board's call or the members'.
- Re-paper the board calendar for three-year staggered terms, and check the bylaws' term language against § 515B.3-103 — a bylaw the board amended on director terms was outside its power to begin with.
- Publish the agenda and approval packet before each board meeting, and strike any rule that lets the board fine an owner for speaking.
- Build the bid file for anything over $50,000 — three written bids, the selection criteria, six-year retention — and minute each conflict recusal.
- Give alteration requests a dated 90-day track, and add the counsel-referral notice to your inquiry workflow.
- Keep leasing in its own lane. Rental violations are the one enforcement tier the new law left uncapped, lienable, and foreclosable — and claiming that tier is a documentation exercise, as the January 1 checklist spells out. For the dated deadlines across the states we cover, see the HOA compliance calendar.
The bottom line
The 2026 act is less a fine statute than a governance statute: terms, meetings, bids, conflicts, and decision clocks. The associations caught out in 2027 won't be the ones that misread § 515B.3-102 — they'll be the ones that never settled which chapter they were under, or let the board amend a bylaw it had no power to touch.
All of it assumes the association knows who actually lives in each home — including the ones nobody registered as rentals. Getting that record current and verified is what we do.
* Our reading of the statute, not a settled rule — validate with your association's HOA attorney before relying on it.
This article is general information for community associations, not legal advice. Decisions under Minn. Stat. ch. 515B and 2026 Minn. Laws ch. 82 should be reviewed with your association's attorney.