By the Templateez Team · Licensed Attorney · June 2026

HOA & Condo Disputes Intake Forms: What Attorneys Need to Capture at Client Intake

Homeowner association and condominium disputes sit at an unusual intersection of real property law, corporate governance, contract interpretation, and — increasingly — civil rights law. A client walks in with what sounds like a simple fine over a fence height. Three conversations later, you discover the association selectively enforces the covenant against your client while ignoring identical violations by board members, the fine was imposed without the hearing required by the bylaws, and the state HOA statute provides a mandatory pre-suit mediation procedure that your client has not yet invoked. The scope of an HOA or condo case can shift dramatically between the first phone call and the first filing, and what you capture at intake determines whether you spot those shifts early or discover them during depositions.

A generic real estate intake form will not work here. HOA and condo disputes require a purpose-built intake form that captures the client's role, the association's structure, the governing document framework, the specific dispute type, the procedural history, and the state-specific statutory landscape. Here is what that form needs to include — and why each section matters.

Client role: the threshold question that frames everything

Before you ask a single question about the dispute itself, you need to know who your client is in relation to the association. This is not a formality — it determines the entire framing of the case, the available claims and defenses, and the strategic posture of the litigation.

Homeowner or unit owner. The most common client. But within this category, you need to distinguish immediately: is this an individual owner acting alone, or a group of owners acting collectively? A single owner challenging a fine has a different case than twelve owners challenging a special assessment. Group representation raises conflict-of-interest considerations (do all owners have aligned interests, or will their positions diverge as the case develops?), joint-defense logistics, and cost-sharing arrangements — all of which should be identified at intake, not after you have filed on behalf of a group whose members turn out to want different things.

HOA or condo board. When the board is the client, the analysis flips entirely. But you still need to clarify: is the board acting as a body (the association itself is the client), or are individual board members named as defendants in their personal capacity? Board members facing personal liability claims need to know immediately whether the association's D&O insurance covers them, whether the association is obligated to indemnify them under the bylaws, and whether a conflict exists between the board's interests and their individual interests. These are intake questions, not discovery questions.

Management company involvement. Many disputes involve the management company as a key actor — they sent the violation notice, they imposed the fine, they refused the architectural modification request. Your intake needs to capture the management company's name, contact information, and the specific actions they took. In some cases, the management company itself may bear liability for ultra vires acts taken without board authorization.

Association details: the corporate profile

An HOA or condo association is a legal entity — typically a nonprofit corporation — and your intake needs to capture its profile the same way you would capture any corporate party's profile:

• Association name — the full legal name as it appears in the declaration or articles of incorporation. This is often different from the informal name residents use.
• Management company — name, contact person, phone, and email. The management company is frequently the point of contact for all correspondence, and in many disputes they are the entity that actually took the challenged action.
• Property address and unit number — for condominiums, the unit number is critical because it ties to the ownership interest, the allocated share of common expenses, and the specific limited common elements assigned to that unit.
• State of organization — the state where the association is incorporated or organized. This determines which state's nonprofit corporation act governs internal governance disputes.
• Number of units or lots — this affects voting thresholds, quorum requirements, and the financial impact of special assessments. A 20-unit condo where each owner pays 5% of a special assessment is a fundamentally different case than a 500-lot subdivision where each owner pays 0.2%.

Financial snapshot: assessments, reserves, and budgets

Money is at the center of most HOA disputes, even when the nominal issue is something else. A board that imposes aggressive fines may be doing so because the reserve fund is depleted and fines have become a revenue source. A special assessment challenge requires understanding the association's financial position. Your intake should capture:

• Annual dues/assessments — the current regular assessment amount and frequency (monthly, quarterly, annually). This establishes the baseline financial obligation and is necessary for calculating any claimed delinquency.
• Special assessments — any special assessments pending or recently levied, the amount, the stated purpose, and whether the board followed the procedural requirements for levying a special assessment (many governing documents and state statutes require a membership vote above a certain dollar threshold).
• Reserve fund — current balance, whether a reserve study has been conducted (and when), and whether the reserve is funded at the level recommended by the study. An underfunded reserve is a red flag for future special assessments and may indicate board mismanagement.
• Annual budget — current year budget. Budget disputes — particularly where the board adopted a budget without proper notice or member input — are a common governance claim.

Governing documents: the contractual framework

HOA and condo disputes are fundamentally contract disputes. The governing documents are the contract, and your intake needs to identify every layer of that contractual framework:

• Declaration of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) — the master document. Recorded against the property. Contains the use restrictions, architectural standards, assessment authority, and enforcement mechanisms. Note the recording date and any amendments.
• Bylaws — govern the internal operations of the association: board composition, election procedures, meeting requirements, officer duties, committee structure. Procedural challenges (failure to hold a proper hearing, improper election, inadequate notice) are usually bylaw violations.
• Rules and regulations — board-adopted rules that supplement the CC&Rs. These are often the source of the actual restriction being enforced (parking rules, pet policies, rental restrictions, noise standards). Unlike the CC&Rs, these can typically be adopted and amended by the board without a membership vote — which means they are also easier to challenge as unreasonable or beyond the board's authority.
• Articles of incorporation — the corporate charter. Rarely the source of a substantive dispute, but necessary for confirming the association's legal existence and corporate powers.
• Amendment history — has the relevant provision been amended? When? Was the amendment properly adopted (correct vote threshold, proper notice, recorded if required)? An improperly adopted amendment may be void, which means the provision being enforced against your client may not actually exist in its current form.
• Are the governing documents properly recorded? — unrecorded CC&Rs or amendments may not be enforceable against subsequent purchasers. This is a threshold enforceability question that should be investigated at intake.

For each document, your intake form should capture the date, whether the client has a copy, and whether the client has identified the specific provision at issue. Many clients will say "the HOA is enforcing a rule" but will not have actually read the rule. Getting the exact provision cited — section number, quoted language — is essential for evaluating the case.

Dispute classification: the substantive categories

HOA and condo disputes cluster into recognizable categories. Your intake form should present these as checkboxes or categories because most clients do not know the legal label for their dispute — they know the facts, and they need the form to translate those facts into a legal framework:

• Assessment/dues dispute — amount owed is contested, special assessment is being challenged, a lien has been filed for alleged delinquency. Subcategories matter: is the client disputing that they owe the amount, or disputing the procedure by which the assessment was levied?
• Covenant violation — the client received a violation notice. What rule was allegedly violated? Was a fine imposed? Was a hearing held before the fine was imposed (required under many governing documents and state statutes)? Is the client alleging selective enforcement — that the same rule is not being enforced against other owners?
• Architectural review — a proposed modification was denied by the architectural review committee. Alternatively, the association claims the client made an unapproved modification and is demanding removal. Or the client is alleging selective enforcement — identical modifications approved for other owners.
• Maintenance dispute — who is responsible for the repair? In condominiums, the line between unit owner maintenance responsibility and association maintenance responsibility is defined in the declaration, and the distinction between common areas, limited common areas, and exclusive-use common areas is critical. A leak from a common-area pipe that damages a unit raises different liability questions than a leak from within the unit's plumbing.
• Board governance — open meeting act violations (many states require HOA board meetings to be open to members), failure to provide records upon request (most states give owners a statutory right to inspect association records), failure to hold elections, self-dealing by board members, conflicts of interest in vendor contracting.
• Election dispute — proxy irregularities, candidate qualification challenges, voting procedure violations, failure to hold an annual meeting, disputed election results.
• Discrimination — Fair Housing Act claims (race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability), ADA reasonable accommodation request denied, assistance animal request denied despite qualifying disability, familial status discrimination (rules targeting families with children), age-restricted community compliance.
• Construction defect — defects in original construction, defects in renovation work, transition disputes (the critical period when the developer turns control of the association over to the homeowners — often accompanied by discovery that the developer underfunded reserves, deferred maintenance, or concealed defects).
• Insurance dispute — association master policy vs. individual unit owner's HO-6 policy, coverage gaps between the two, reconstruction disputes after a casualty (who pays for what, to what standard), failure to maintain adequate insurance.
• Nuisance and lifestyle disputes — noise complaints, smoking (secondhand smoke infiltration between units is a growing litigation area), short-term rental violations (Airbnb enforcement), parking disputes.
• Pet restrictions — breed restrictions, size limits, number limits. Note that pet restrictions must be evaluated against Fair Housing Act requirements for assistance animals — a blanket "no pets" rule cannot be enforced against a resident with a qualifying disability who needs an assistance animal.
• Collection actions — the association is pursuing the client for delinquent assessments. Has a lien been filed? Is foreclosure threatened? In some states, assessment liens carry super-priority status — they take priority over the first mortgage lender's lien, which makes assessment lien foreclosure an extraordinarily powerful collection tool.

Procedural history: what has already happened

Most clients do not contact an attorney at the first sign of a dispute. They receive a violation notice, they write a letter, they attend a hearing, they receive a fine, they write another letter, and three months later they call a lawyer. Your intake needs to reconstruct the entire procedural timeline:

• Notices received or sent — violation notices, hearing notices, fine notices, demand letters, lien notices. Get dates, get copies. The notice timeline is critical because many governing documents and state statutes impose specific procedural requirements (notice must be given X days before a hearing, fines cannot be imposed without a hearing, liens must be preceded by a demand letter with a cure period).
• Client's responses — what has the client done so far? Written responses, in-person conversations with board members, attendance at board meetings, communications with the management company.
• Internal dispute resolution — does the association have an internal dispute resolution (IDR) process? Has the client invoked it? Many governing documents require IDR as a prerequisite to formal action.
• Mediation — has mediation been attempted? In many states, mediation or alternative dispute resolution is a mandatory prerequisite before filing suit. California's Davis-Stirling Act, for example, requires that a request to meet and confer be sent before filing most HOA lawsuits.
• Hearings — was a hearing held? Before whom (the board, a committee, a hearing officer)? What was the outcome? Was the hearing conducted in accordance with the procedures in the governing documents? A fine imposed without the required hearing is often voidable regardless of whether the underlying violation occurred.
• Fines — amount of fines imposed, whether fines are accumulating (daily or weekly fines for ongoing violations), total amount currently owed.
• Lien filed — date, amount, whether foreclosure has been threatened or initiated.
• Prior litigation — any previous lawsuits between the parties. Prior litigation may affect the current dispute through res judicata, collateral estoppel, or simply through the history and dynamics between the parties.

Relief sought: what does the client actually want

This is where many HOA intake forms fall short. The attorney focuses on documenting the dispute but does not ask the client what outcome they are seeking. The answer shapes the entire case strategy:

For the owner: fine reversal, lien removal, injunctive relief (stop the enforcement action, compel the board to approve the modification, require the board to hold a proper election), modification of the governing documents, monetary damages for property damage or diminished value, and attorney fees — which are recoverable under many state HOA statutes and under many governing documents' prevailing-party fee provisions.

For the board: collection of delinquent assessments, foreclosure of assessment lien, injunction compelling the owner to remove an unauthorized modification or cease a violation, fine enforcement, or a declaratory judgment that the board's action was proper.

Understanding the desired relief at intake also helps you evaluate proportionality. A client who wants to spend $15,000 in legal fees to fight a $500 fine needs to understand the economics. Conversely, a client facing assessment lien foreclosure on their home needs to understand the urgency.

State-specific statutory landscape

HOA and condo law varies more dramatically by state than almost any other area of civil practice. Your intake form should capture the state and flag the applicable statutory framework, because the state statute may override the governing documents on critical issues:

• State HOA/condo statute — California has the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act. Colorado has the Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA). Florida has Chapter 718 (condos) and Chapter 720 (HOAs). Virginia has the Property Owners' Association Act and the Condominium Act. Each imposes different requirements on notice, hearings, records access, elections, reserve funding, and litigation prerequisites. Identifying the applicable statute at intake is essential.
• Mandatory pre-suit ADR — many states require mediation, arbitration, or a meet-and-confer process before an HOA lawsuit can be filed. If your client has not completed the required pre-suit steps, you need to know that before you draft a complaint.
• Assessment lien priority — some states grant assessment liens "super-priority" status, meaning they take priority over the first mortgage. This dramatically changes the collection landscape and the first mortgage lender's incentives. Your intake should flag whether this applies.
• Foreclosure restrictions — judicial vs. non-judicial foreclosure, restrictions on assessment lien foreclosure (some states prohibit foreclosure for fines alone, or require a minimum delinquency amount before foreclosure is available).
• Attorney fee provisions — prevailing-party fee-shifting under the state statute or the governing documents. This affects case economics for both sides and should be evaluated at intake.

The state-specific dimension is what makes HOA disputes genuinely different from a standard contract case. Two identical disputes — same facts, same governing document language — can have completely different outcomes depending on whether the property is in California, Texas, or Florida. If your practice crosses state lines, your intake form needs to capture the jurisdiction and route the analysis to the correct statutory framework from the first conversation.

Superseding state law: when the governing documents are wrong

One of the most common issues in HOA practice is a governing document provision that conflicts with state law. The CC&Rs say the board can do X, but the state statute says it cannot — or the CC&Rs are silent on a procedure that the state statute requires. Your intake should include a field for noting potential state-law preemption issues, because these are often the strongest arguments available to the challenging party. A fine imposed under a perfectly valid covenant provision may still be void if the board did not follow the hearing procedure mandated by state statute — even if the governing documents themselves do not require a hearing.

Cross-referencing related practice areas

HOA and condo disputes frequently intersect with adjacent practice areas. A construction defect dispute may involve the same parties and properties addressed in a real estate intake. A landlord-tenant dispute may arise when an HOA's rental restrictions affect an owner who is leasing their unit. These overlaps should be flagged at intake so the attorney can identify potential additional claims or defenses that the client's initial description of the problem may not have surfaced.

If your practice includes other areas of real property or governance litigation, the Legal Bundle includes intake forms across 38 legal practice areas, each with subject-matter-specific fields designed for that area of law.