Our HOA has had no board for years. How do owners restart it?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 25, 2026

How owners restart an HOA with no board: finding the documents, calling the first meeting under TX, FL and CO law, the election, bank and IRS steps and a 90-day plan.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

A few owners can restart it, and state law gives them a way to do it without anyone's permission. The recorded declaration still binds every lot even after years of silence, and an incorporated association keeps existing until it is formally dissolved, so you are restarting the same association, not founding a new one. The order that works: find the documents and the state record, call an owners' meeting through the route your state allows, elect a board, then have that board deal with the corporation, the bank, the IRS and insurance. Don't start collecting dues, hiring vendors or sending violation letters until a properly elected board exists, because nobody has authority to do those things yet. Rules vary by state and by the association's own governing documents. This guide is education, not legal advice, and a restart with money or property at stake is a good time to pay an association attorney for an hour.

Weeks one and two: find out what exists

Split the hunt among two or three owners. One goes to the county clerk's real property records, online or in person, and pulls the declaration, every amendment, the plat and any recorded management certificate. In Texas the management certificate names the association's mailing address and is where a demand letter has to go. Another searches the Secretary of State's business records (SOSDirect in Texas, Sunbiz in Florida, the Colorado business database) and saves the record showing the corporation's status, the registered agent and the last officers listed. A third asks around: the last known president or treasurer, the developer if it still exists, the title company that closed the most recent sale, and the insurance agent on the last policy. You are looking for the bylaws, which are often unrecorded, the bank name, the employer identification number and any old tax returns. Keep a list of what you found and where. If the state record shows the corporation dissolved or forfeited, read our guide on how to reinstate a dissolved HOA corporation, but the new board makes that filing, not the organizers.

Calling the first meeting when nobody can

Texas has a route built for this. Property Code section 209.014 says any owner may demand in writing that the association hold a members' meeting within 30 days. The demand goes by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the registered agent and to the address on the latest management certificate, with a copy to every owner. If no meeting is called by day 30, three or more owners may form an election committee. They file a notice with the county clerk stating that the committee exists to call a meeting for the sole purpose of electing board members, listing each member's name and home address and the subdivision, signed and acknowledged before a notary. The committee then calls the election meeting using the bylaws' notice, quorum and voting rules. It dissolves automatically if it has not held a successful election within four months of filing. Florida section 720.306(3) lets 10 percent of the total voting interests call a special meeting unless the documents set another figure, and section 720.306(5) requires at least 14 days' notice. In Colorado, section 38-33.3-308(1) lets owners holding 20 percent of the votes, or a lower figure in the bylaws, call a special meeting, with notice 10 to 50 days ahead that states the time, place and agenda. If Colorado owners cannot gather enough signatures, section 7-127-103 of the nonprofit act lets any voting member ask the district court to order a meeting once an annual meeting has been missed, and the court can set the quorum.

Petition and notice wording

A petition or demand to adapt: "We, the undersigned owners of lots in [subdivision], hold [number] of the [total] votes in [association name]. The association has not held an annual meeting since [year] and has no sitting board. Under [statute] and the bylaws, we call a special meeting of the members on [date] at [time] at [place] for these purposes: to elect directors, to report on the association's records, accounts and corporate status, and to set the date of the next meeting." Each owner signs with a printed name, lot number and date. The meeting notice repeats that agenda word for word, because a special meeting should act only on the purposes its notice lists. Mail it to every owner at the address in the county appraisal or property tax roll, which is the most current public list you will have, post it at the entrance, and keep a dated list of who you sent it to. That mailing list is your proof the meeting was valid if anyone challenges it later.

Running the restart meeting

Quorum is the usual problem, because owners who forgot the association exists do not come to its meetings. Send proxies or absentee ballots with the notice if the bylaws allow them; Texas Property Code section 209.00592 requires associations to offer at least one of absentee ballot, proxy or electronic ballot. Have one organizer chair, one take minutes, and two owners who are not running count the ballots. Florida section 720.306(9) helps here: if the number of candidates does not exceed the open seats, no election is needed, and those candidates take office whether or not a quorum is reached. A Florida director then has 90 days under section 720.3033 to file a certificate of completing approved education, or the director is suspended until it is filed. Keep the agenda short: the organizers' report on what they found, the election, and setting the next meeting. Save budgets and dues for the new board, which has to adopt them under the documents and state law anyway.

The new board's first 90 days

Days 1 to 10: meet as a board, elect officers, adopt a resolution naming who may sign at the bank, and record both in minutes. Days 10 to 30: take the minutes and the state corporate record to the bank. If the old account has gone quiet, ask whether it was turned over to the state as unclaimed property. Texas Property Code section 73.101 presumes a checking or savings account abandoned after three years of inactivity, while Florida section 717.106 and Colorado section 38-13-207.5 use five years. Claims run through the state programs: ClaimItTexas, Florida's unclaimed property site, and the Great Colorado Payback. Days 10 to 30, in parallel: confirm the employer identification number, which the IRS treats as permanent. If the paperwork is lost, the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933 can confirm it to an authorized officer, and Letter 147C is the written confirmation. File Form 8822-B within 60 days to name the new responsible party. Days 30 to 60: bring the corporation current with the state, buy general liability and directors and officers coverage, and ask a CPA which years of Form 1120-H or Form 1120 need filing; the 1120-H election is made year by year by filing the return. Days 60 to 90: adopt a budget, notice the first assessment as the documents require, and set the annual meeting date. Our new HOA treasurer handoff checklist covers the books once there is something to hand off.

Mistakes that sink a restart

Incorporating a new nonprofit because the old one looks dead. The new corporation is not the association named in the recorded declaration, and it cannot enforce or collect under it. Mailing a meeting notice only to the owners you know, then having a skipped owner challenge the election. Organizers collecting money into a personal account "until the bank is sorted"; use no money until the board has an account in the association's name. Back-billing years of dues at the first meeting. A board can look at what the documents allow, but a surprise bill for six years of dues to people who never got an invoice ends the restart, so take legal advice and decide it later. Letting one person hold every record again. Put the documents in a shared folder the board controls and keep the state record's email address on a board account. For the mechanics of the meeting itself, see our guide on how to call an HOA special meeting.

Sources

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.

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