How should our HOA handle notices for owners who read another language better than English?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 21, 2026

How an HOA board decides which notices to translate, records owner language preferences, gets accurate translations, and meets Colorado's preferred-language rule.

Part of the HOA board handbook: residents and communication.

The short answer

In most states the law does not make an HOA translate anything. Colorado does, for collection and violation notices, and every board has a practical reason to translate notices that cost an owner money. A fine letter the owner cannot read leads to missed cure deadlines, missed hearings and angry phone calls after the fine posts. One rule holds up everywhere: send the English notice exactly as your statute and governing documents require, and send the translation with it, never instead of it. Translate the notices that carry money, deadlines or safety information. The newsletter can wait. Rules vary by state and by your own declaration and bylaws, and this guide is general education, not legal advice. Have the association's attorney review any translated template you plan to use for collections or fines.

What Colorado requires

Colorado is where this stops being optional. Under C.R.S. 38-33.3-209.5(1.7)(a)(I), added by HB22-1137, an owner may tell the association they prefer correspondence and notices in a language other than English. If the owner states no preference, the association writes in English. Once a preference is on file, the statute attaches it to several notices. Delinquency correspondence goes to the owner in the preferred language, and a designated contact the owner names gets the same notices. Violation notices under 209.5(1.7)(b) must go out in English and in the preferred language. That covers the 72-hour notice for a health or safety violation and the 30-day certified mail notice for other violations. The letter confirming a violation is cured and stating any fine balance follows the same rule. The monthly itemized statement a delinquent owner receives under 209.5(1.7)(c) goes in English or the preferred language. The notice of intent to foreclose, which C.R.S. 38-33.3-316(10.8) requires at least 30 days before a foreclosure suit, must be sent in the preferred language. The statute does not limit which languages an owner can pick and does not say who pays, so budget for translation as an association expense. Colorado's mobile home park law, C.R.S. 38-12-212.9, lets landlords use online translation programs as long as the translated notice accurately conveys the meaning of the English one. That section does not apply to HOAs, but it is a fair standard to hold your own translations to.

Texas, Florida and everywhere else

Texas Property Code chapter 209 says how notices are delivered, not what language they are in. Section 209.006, for example, requires a violation notice by certified mail that describes the violation, states any amount due and gives the owner a reasonable period to cure. We found no translation requirement in chapter 209 or in Florida's chapters 720 and 718. In those states the English notice is the one that satisfies the statute, and a translated copy is a courtesy the board can offer under a written policy. The fair housing point is consistency. National origin is a protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604. A board that honors one family's request for a Spanish copy and ignores another family's request for a Vietnamese copy is inviting a complaint. Offer translation to every owner who asks, for the same list of notices, and never guess an owner's language from a last name. Check your declaration and bylaws as well. A few prescribe the exact form of certain notices, and the translated copy should not change that form.

Decide which notices to translate

Sort your notices into three groups and adopt the list by board vote, so the manager or secretary is not deciding case by case. Always translate: past-due letters, payment plan offers, violation and fine notices, hearing notices, notices of intent to sue or foreclose, and special assessment notices. Translate when practical: water shutoffs, pool or amenity closures, storm preparation notices, pest treatments, towing warnings, and construction that blocks driveways. Optional: newsletters, social events and committee recruitment. Ballots and proxy forms need extra care. A translated ballot that does not match the English text word for word hands a losing candidate or the opponents of an amendment an argument. Keep one official English ballot and enclose a translated instruction sheet that explains each question and how to return the ballot, with a line stating that the English ballot controls.

Find out who needs it

Ask. Add a language question to the owner contact form you already send each year, and put it in the welcome packet for new owners. Sample wording: 'The association sends notices in English. If you would also like notices about payments, violations, hearings and safety in another language, write the language here: ____. You can change this at any time by writing to the board.' Record the answer in the owner roster next to the mailing address and email consent, along with the date the owner gave it. In Colorado that record is how you show which owners triggered the statutory duty. For planning before the forms come back, the Census Bureau's American Community Survey publishes language spoken at home and English-speaking ability for your area. It will tell you whether Spanish alone covers most requests or whether to expect two or three languages. Legal notices go to owners, so collect the preference from owners. Post safety notices in the languages your residents, tenants included, actually use.

Getting translations you can trust

Fix the English first. Short sentences, one deadline per sentence and dates written out as 'March 15, 2027' translate cleanly. A letter full of 'pursuant to' and 'heretofore' produces a translation nobody can follow. Then translate templates, not individual letters. Pay a professional translator once for each always-translate template, with blanks for the owner's name, address, amount, violation and dates. After that, filling in the blanks costs nothing extra per letter. Ask the translator to write numbers and dates the way a reader of that language expects, and to flag any legal term without a clean equivalent. For the translate-when-practical group, a bilingual owner can volunteer, but have a second fluent reader check the text before it goes out, and never ask a volunteer to translate a neighbor's fine letter. Machine translation is fine for a first draft of a pool closure notice. For a collection letter it is a poor choice unless a fluent person reviews every line. File each approved template next to its English original in the association's records.

Hearings, meetings and phone calls

Written notices are only part of the job. If an owner with a language preference on file is coming to a violation hearing, ask in the hearing notice whether they want an interpreter and give a reply date. A phone interpreting service billed by the minute covers most hearings. An owner may bring a relative to interpret, but do not require it, and never use a director who is also the complaining neighbor. At an annual meeting in a 40-home community, one bilingual volunteer seated with the owners who need help is usually enough. Note in the minutes that interpretation was provided.

Sample motion and rollout timeline

Motion: 'The board adopts the attached notice language policy. Owners may request notices in a language other than English on the owner contact form or in writing. The association will send the notices on the attached always-translate list in English and in the requested language, will use translations approved by the board, and will pay translation costs as a common expense.' A workable rollout: in month 1, adopt the policy and the notice list and add the language question to the contact form. In month 2, mail the form with the next statement and post the question on the community website. In month 3, have the association's attorney review the English templates, then hire a translator for the languages owners named. In month 4, file the approved templates, add the preference column to the roster and start using them. Each year after that, ask the question again with the budget mailing.

Mistakes boards make

Sending only the translated version and dropping the English one, which can leave the association unable to prove proper notice. Running a fine letter through a phone app and mailing it unreviewed. Keeping a language preference in one director's inbox instead of the roster, so the next treasurer never sees it. Offering translation to some owners and not others. Translating the ballot itself and ending up with two versions of the official question. In Colorado, forgetting that the cure confirmation letter and the monthly statement also follow the preference. The language question belongs on the same form described in our guide on collecting owner email addresses and consent for electronic notices, and our past-due dues timeline for boards shows the order in which collection letters go out.

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.

More on living with an hoa

Or browse all living with an hoa guides.