Can an HOA have a 55 and older age restriction?
Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated July 2026
How the 55-plus exemption works, what the 80/20 rule really means, who can live there, and the paperwork that keeps the restriction enforceable.
Yes, but only through a specific federal carve-out
The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate based on familial status, which means a normal association cannot keep out families with children under 18. Age-restricted communities exist because Congress wrote an exception into the law, refined by the Housing for Older Persons Act of 1995 and codified at 42 U.S.C. 3607(b). A community that qualifies can lawfully limit who lives there by age. A community that does not qualify has no such power, no matter what its recorded documents say. That distinction matters more than most boards realize, because the exemption is something you earn and keep by meeting conditions, not something that comes attached to the property forever.
The 80/20 rule and what the 20 percent is not
There are two versions of the exemption. The stricter one covers housing intended for and solely occupied by people 62 and older. The common one is the 55-plus standard, which requires that at least 80 percent of the occupied units have at least one resident aged 55 or older. Note the wording: occupied units, and at least one resident. A unit with a 58 year old and a 50 year old counts as a qualifying unit. The mistake people make is treating the remaining 20 percent as an entitlement, as if one in five buyers has a right to be under 55. It is not a right, it is headroom. The community sets its own rules within that space, and most write their documents to require every household to have a resident 55 or older, keeping the 20 percent as a buffer rather than handing it out.
Who can actually live there
This is where the federal law stops and your CC&Rs take over. Nearly every 55-plus community allows an under-55 spouse or partner to live with a qualifying resident, since the standard only needs one occupant to hit the age. Beyond that, it varies. Most communities set a floor age for any permanent occupant, often 18 or 19, which effectively bars minors from living there full time. Federal law does not require a community to admit anyone under 55, so a household that wants to bring in an adult child or a grandchild is asking for permission, not exercising a right. Read the occupancy section of the declaration before you buy, and read it again before anyone moves in with you.
What happens when the qualifying resident dies
Say a couple buys at 60 and 52, and the older spouse dies eight years later. The survivor is 60 by then and qualifies on their own, so nothing happens. Change the ages and it gets uncomfortable: a 71 year old dies and leaves a 49 year old spouse in the home. HOPA does not protect that survivor, and whether they can stay depends entirely on the community's documents. Many declarations include a surviving spouse provision that lets the person remain, sometimes indefinitely and sometimes for a defined period. Plenty of others are silent, which leaves the board applying general rules to a genuinely hard situation. If you are buying with a significant age gap, that clause is worth finding before you sign, not after.
Guests, grandchildren, and the visit limit
Age-restricted does not mean child-free. Grandchildren visit constantly in these communities and that is normal and expected. What the rules police is the line between visiting and living there, because a household that quietly becomes multigenerational puts the community's qualifying percentage at risk. So most communities cap guest stays, commonly somewhere in the range of a few weeks per visit with an annual total on top, and some require guests under 18 to be registered. The limits differ a lot from one community to the next, and enforcement ranges from relaxed to meticulous. If you expect the grandkids for a full summer every year, read the guest policy closely before you buy rather than assuming it will be fine.
The paperwork that keeps the exemption alive
Qualifying is not just a headcount. Under HUD's rules at 24 CFR part 100, subpart E, a 55-plus community has to do three things: meet the 80 percent occupancy standard, publish and follow policies and procedures that demonstrate an intent to operate as housing for older persons, and maintain age verification through reliable documentation such as a government-issued ID, with the survey of residents updated at least once every two years. That last piece is the one small self-managed boards let slide, and it is the one that gets tested. A community that has not surveyed its residents in six years and cannot document who lives where is in a weak position the moment someone challenges the restriction.
What is at stake if the community stops qualifying
Losing the exemption is not a technicality with a fine attached. Without it the association has no legal basis to enforce its age restriction at all, and turning away a family with children becomes a straightforward familial status violation under the Fair Housing Act, with HUD complaints and private lawsuits on the table. Owners who paid a premium for an age-restricted community also tend to have opinions about a board that let the qualification lapse. And it is worth remembering the exemption only covers familial status. Race, religion, national origin, sex, and disability protections apply in a 55-plus community exactly as they do anywhere else, and the disability accommodation rules matter more here, not less, given who lives in these communities. The practical defense is unglamorous: keep a current resident roster with verified ages, run the biennial survey on schedule, keep the written age policy where owners and buyers can see it, and log the occupancy percentage each time it is checked. That is a records problem more than a legal one, and keeping that kind of roster and document trail in one place a future board can actually find is exactly what OurHOA is built for. For how the underlying familial status rules work outside the exemption, see our guide on fair housing and HOAs.
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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.