Delaware HOA laws & resources.

Laws impacting Delaware associations.

Delaware runs on a modern, comprehensive common-interest statute plus a handful of parallel and supporting laws, alongside the federal laws that apply nationwide. HOPB hosts the full text of every one of these Delaware statutes, each with a plain-language guide.

Three things are worth knowing about how Delaware's HOA law works:

• Delaware has a comprehensive act — but two condominium regimes still coexist. The Delaware Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (DUCIOA), effective September 30, 2009, is the modern statute for condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities — though it does not reach every community. A condominium, cooperative or planned community of 20 units or fewer is subject only to §§ 81-105 to 81-107 unless its declaration adopts the whole chapter (§§ 81-117, 81-118, 81-120); a nonresidential community is outside the Act unless the declaration opts in (§ 81-122); and pre-October 31, 2008 continuing-care communities stay under the Unit Property Act (§ 81-124). The older Unit Property Act still applies to condominiums created under it — and can still be used for the small and nonresidential condominiums DUCIOA excepts (§ 81-116(a)) — but § 2201 makes it expressly subject to Chapter 81. Under § 81-119 an enumerated set of DUCIOA sections applies to preexisting communities as well, in a set order: an existing declaration or bylaw provision controls if it expressly conflicts with DUCIOA and does not itself conflict with the Unit Property Act; failing that, the Unit Property Act controls where it expressly addresses the issue; and where neither speaks to the issue, DUCIOA controls. Manufactured-home communities, where residents own the home but rent the lot, are governed separately by the Manufactured Home Communities Act.
• An association's corporate rulebook depends on how it was organized. Under DUCIOA § 81-301, a Delaware association may be organised as a profit or nonprofit unincorporated association, corporation, trust, LLC, or any other lawful Delaware entity form. Associations organised as unincorporated nonprofit associations draw their legal status — the power to own property, to sue and be sued, and protection from personal liability for members based solely on their membership or management role — from the Delaware Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act. Incorporated associations instead follow Delaware's corporate law, covered on the related-laws page.
• Delaware gives owners a dedicated help office — and fair-housing protection. The Common Interest Community Ombudsperson does more than answer questions. Under 29 Del. C. § 2544 it publishes the complaint procedure every association must follow, receives and investigates owner complaints once the association's internal process has been exhausted and its final determination attached, offers mediation, supplies election monitors on petition of 15% of voting interests or 6 owners, can subpoena records and testimony, and can refer violations to the Attorney General for prosecution. It is not a court and is not your attorney. Separately, the Delaware Fair Housing Act bars housing discrimination on an unusually broad list of protected characteristics and reaches community associations directly — including the duty to make reasonable accommodations in rules and policies (§ 4603A(a)(2)) and the duty not to refuse reasonable physical modifications, which the resident with a disability pays for (§ 4603A(a)(1)).

HOA contact information and documents.

• The HOPB HOA Directory — visit HOPB's HOA Directory and select Delaware to reach the state's official corporate registry (the Delaware Division of Corporations), where you can search under the community's name to find an incorporated association's registered agent and corporate documents.

• Association records and inspection — members generally have a right to examine the association's records. In a community DUCIOA reaches, the association must keep records and make them available (25 Del. C. § 81-318) — and § 81-318 is one of the sections § 81-119 extends to communities created before September 30, 2009, so a condominium under the older Unit Property Act is covered too, except on points that Act expressly addresses (its § 2218 covers the treasurer's receipts-and-expenditures records) or where the recorded declaration expressly provides otherwise. The right is conditioned: the request must be in good faith for a proper purpose related to membership, on 5 days' written notice identifying the purpose and the specific records, during reasonable business hours — and § 81-318(c) lets the association withhold eight categories, including executive-session minutes, pending or threatened litigation, privileged communications with counsel, and other owners' individual files. The association may charge actual cost in advance and need not compile information it does not already hold. Note the 20-unit and nonresidential exceptions above: in an excepted community none of this applies. The Delaware Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act gives an unincorporated association its capacity to hold property, sue and be sued, and shield its members — but it contains no records or internal-governance rules.

• Recorded documents — an association's declaration, code of regulations or bylaws, plans, and amendments are recorded with the Recorder of Deeds in each county in which any portion of the community is located (25 Del. C. § 81-103(38)) — Delaware has three: Kent, New Castle, and Sussex. To bind the property, these instruments must be recorded in the county land records.