With all 50 state legislatures convening in 2025, CAI’s legislative action committees are advocating on the state level to develop and maintain sound and effective public policies for the community association industry. Now that the first four months of the year are behind us, 17 states have officially adjourned for 2025.
CAI’s Government and Public Affairs team is tracking more than 1,800 state bills impacting community associations across the United States, with 470 directly related to priority issues for the industry. Forty-nine state grassroots campaigns have been launched by CAI in 2025. More than 13,383 emails have been sent to over 750 state legislators and staff by more than 4,300 CAI advocates promoting reasonable public policy on behalf of the community association industry. This outreach to state legislators has already doubled last year’s count by CAI advocates.
Last fall, CAI’s LAC members predicted legislative and policy trends in 2025 based on conversations with elected officials, industry stakeholders, and peers. Many of these predictions are proving to be accurate. Here is a round-up of hot legislative topics and issues impacting community associations to date:
Reserve Studies and Funding: Legislation that mandates reserve studies and appropriate funding for condominium and homeowners associations is a policy issue expected to be discussed in numerous states in 2025. CAI supports mandated reserve studies and funding for new community developments and periodic reserve studies for communities with major shared components.
Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Rhode Island introduced legislation to address new or update current reserve study and funding regulations in community associations. To date, Maryland passed clean-up amendments led by CAI to its reserve study and funding law passed in 2022.
Dispute Resolution in Community Associations: Alternative dispute resolution is statutorily required in many states. Even where ADR is not required by law, CAI urges communities to adopt policy resolutions to offer ADR for housing-related disputes between individual unit owners as well as between owners and the association.
Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Utah introduced legislation to either create an ombudsperson office or initiate dispute resolution practices by community associations. Utah enacted a law to create a state common interest association ombudsperson office, and Maryland’s bill to create a similar office failed for 2025.
Environmental Sustainability: To address issues related to climate change and preserve the environment, community associations are navigating rules related to the installation and placement of solar devices and electric vehicle charging stations. Lawmakers also are considering incentives for energy-saving initiatives like window replacement, lighting choices, and more.
California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are addressing regulations related to environmental sustainability issues including electric vehicle charging stations and solar panels this year.
Board Member Education/Training: Community association board members are faced with increasing responsibility to comply with local, state, and federal laws. They also are grappling with complexities such as aging infrastructure and a greater number of people living in community associations. As these volunteer roles become more complex, legislators are looking to ensure volunteers have the proper training and education to fulfill their responsibilities. CAI understands the importance of making board member education accessible to all governing board members. CAI encourages board members to get education without state mandates. If states are considering mandated board member education, CAI recommends state legislatures work with CAI’s state legislative action committees to establish a minimum level of education for all community association board members.
Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, and Utah introduced legislation regulating state-mandated board member education in community associations. Maryland and Utah’s laws failed in 2025.
Construction Defects: Over the last several years, state legislatures addressed construction defect regulations and their impact on housing supply and affordability. Homeowners and associations should recognize that construction is a complex process and will not result in a perfect product. However, they should expect their homes, and common elements are fit for their intended purpose, conform to legally binding representations made by the builder, comply with building code and plans, and are constructed in a manner consistent with good workmanship. In recent years, builder and developer advocacy groups have proposed “right-to-cure” legislation to provide homebuilders with certain tactical privileges in connection with construction defect claims not available to other litigants. Often, these legislative proposals have unreasonably constrained the ability of community associations to represent the interests of both the association and individual owners and effectively seek resolution of construction defect claims in a timely manner.
Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington introduced legislation adjusting construction defect regulations for residential housing
Fining Authority and Foreclosures: Homeowners value community rules and regulations that lead to safer, more attractive, and more valuable homes. Rules are enforced with fines that could lead to foreclosure. It is important that CAI preserves the association’s authority to collect unpaid assessments when seriously delinquent, and as a last effort through a lien and foreclosure process.
Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington introduced legislation limiting a community association’s foreclosure ability. State LACs are working or have worked directly with legislators and staff to educate them on the established reasonable procedure behind lien foreclosure in community associations.
Omnibus Bills Post HOA Task Force Initiatives: Over the last several years, a few states have passed legislation to create a state HOA/condo study committee to study issues related to the community association housing industry. These issues range from governance procedures, dispute resolution, foreclosure processes, and roles of management companies in associations. The committees provide reports to the legislature. These include Indiana, Minnesota, and North Carolina.
In 2025, Indiana, Minnesota, and North Carolina introduced omnibus bills related to community association issues reported on from these task forces and/or study committees. An omnibus bill is a single piece of legislation that packages together multiple different, and often unrelated, measures into one larger bill. Indiana’s omnibus bill did not receive a hearing in 2025. Minnesota and North Carolina’s LACs are working closely with their state legislators and stakeholders to provide additional education and information on topics to ensure the best public policy possible is passed for associations.
Chicken and Fowl Regulations: In 2025, Idaho, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin introduced legislation regulating chickens, poultry, and fowl in community associations. Idaho’s multiple chicken regulatory bills died, and CAI was able to successfully amend West Virginia’s bill to allow associations to reasonably regulate chickens within their communities.
Read more on these issues on our advocacy priorities webpage and stay connected with our advocacy blog for updates on progress with these and other important legislative issues as CAI continues to navigate remaining state sessions in 2025. You can also review end-of-session legislative summary reports for states that have adjourned to date in 2025 here.
CAI and the community association industry are grateful for our 600+ state legislative action committee members and advocates who are industry leaders in their state capitals. Learn more about CAI’s legislative action committees and legislation being tracked in your state here.
If you have questions or comments, please contact CAI’s Government and Public Affairs team at government@caionline.org.
Author Phoebe E. Neseth, Esq.
Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs and the College of Community Association Lawyers
Reprinted with permission:
https://advocacy.caionline.org/capitol-leg-update/