Can an HOA board meet in secret or in closed session?
Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated June 2026
An HOA board can meet in closed (executive) session only for limited topics - litigation, contracts, personnel, and member discipline. Meeting in true secret to dodge owners is improper. Here is the line.
The short answer
Open meetings are the default, and most HOA business is supposed to happen where owners can watch. But boards can - and sometimes must - meet privately in a closed session, often called executive session, for a short list of sensitive matters. The difference between a lawful closed session and an improper secret meeting is the subject: a board may go behind closed doors for specific protected topics, but it can't use that privacy to decide ordinary community business out of owners' sight. Crossing that line is where closed session becomes secrecy.
What a closed (executive) session legitimately covers
State open-meeting laws and most bylaws limit executive session to a defined set of topics. In California, the Open Meeting Act lets a board meet in executive session only to discuss litigation, matters relating to the formation of contracts with third parties, member discipline, personnel matters, or to meet with a member at the member's request about a payment plan for overdue assessments (Civil Code section 4935). Florida similarly keeps board meetings open but lets the board close the meeting to discuss proposed or pending litigation with the association's attorney and certain personnel matters (Florida Statutes section 720.303(2)). The common thread is privacy for legal, contractual, personnel, and individual-owner matters - not general decision-making. Our guide on what an HOA executive session is breaks down each category.
Where closed session crosses into improper secrecy
A board steps over the line when it uses privacy to avoid transparency. Deciding the annual budget, adopting rules, awarding a routine contract, or voting on most community business in a closed room is generally not permitted - those belong in an open meeting. Equally improper is the informal end-run: a quorum of directors quietly settling a decision by email, phone tree, or hallway conversation and then rubber-stamping it in public. Many states bar boards from taking action outside a properly noticed meeting - California Civil Code section 4910, for example, prohibits action on most items outside a board meeting. Our guide on whether an HOA board can make decisions by email covers that serial-meeting trap.
Notice, minutes, and the records owners still get
Even legitimate closed sessions aren't invisible. Boards generally still have to give notice that a meeting is occurring, and many statutes require that any action taken in executive session - or at least the fact that the board met in closed session - be noted in the minutes of the next open meeting, without disclosing the confidential details. Owners keep the right to the open-session minutes and to most association records. A board that meets with no notice at all, keeps no minutes, and announces decisions after the fact is not holding a closed session; it's holding a secret meeting. Our guide on whether an HOA board can meet without telling owners explains the notice rules.
What you can do if you suspect secret meetings
If you think your board is deciding things in secret, start by asking - politely and in writing - which meeting a decision was made at and to see the minutes. Raise it during the open-forum portion of the next meeting. Where state law was violated, owners often have remedies: some statutes let a member ask a court to void actions taken improperly outside an open meeting or to order the board to stop, and California offers internal dispute resolution as a lower-cost first step. Our guide on HOA open-meeting and quorum rules lays out the sunshine requirements your board has to follow.
How OurHOA helps
Most secrecy complaints come down to poor record-keeping rather than bad intent - decisions made informally and never documented. OurHOA helps small self-managed communities post meeting notices, keep clean minutes, and share the records owners are entitled to, so the line between a proper closed session and an improper secret one stays clear to everyone. Because the exact list of permitted executive-session topics and the notice and minutes rules vary by state and by your bylaws, check your governing documents and your state's open-meeting law for what applies to your community.
OurHOA is the friendly, affordable way self-managed communities keep dues, records, and reminders in one place. See how it works.
These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.