Tennessee draws a sharp line most residents don't expect: condominiums are comprehensively regulated by the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, but single-family subdivision HOAs — the kind most Tennessee homeowners actually belong to — have no comparable statute. Instead, a Tennessee subdivision HOA runs on its own recorded declaration (CC&Rs) as a binding contract, the general Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act (since nearly every HOA incorporates under it), and a handful of narrow, targeted statutes in Title 66, Chapter 27, Part 7. If you see a website citing Tennessee's condo-association statute as if it were general HOA law, be skeptical — it usually isn't.

Fines: what your HOA can and can't charge

No Tennessee statute sets fine caps or a required hearing procedure for subdivision HOAs — fine authority exists only to the extent your recorded declaration grants it, and any notice-and-hearing right you have comes from your own governing documents, not state law. (Tennessee's condo statute does require "notice and an opportunity to be heard" before a fine — but that provision applies to condo unit-owner associations, not standard subdivision HOAs.) If your board skips its own documents' fine procedure, that's a breach-of-contract problem you can raise, not a statutory violation.

See our guide on how to fight an HOA fine for the general playbook.

Unpaid assessments, liens, and foreclosure

A subdivision HOA's lien and foreclosure rights come entirely from what the declaration says — there's no dedicated statutory lien mechanism the way there is for Tennessee condos. In practice, most declarations provide that unpaid assessments automatically become a lien, and many allow a fast, non-judicial foreclosure modeled on Tennessee's standard deed-of-trust process.

A real, statewide protection that does apply — since July 2024: before levying a special assessment for a "nonessential amenity" (think: a pool, clubhouse, or golf course rather than roads or drainage), the association must get a two-thirds vote of the full membership and offer a financing or payment plan. And if you don't pay that specific kind of assessment, the HOA cannot foreclose on your home over it — that's written directly into state law.

Outside that carve-out, Tennessee has no HOA-specific interest-rate or late-fee cap for subdivision associations; general contract and usury law (a 10% default rate where the declaration doesn't specify one) would apply if the question ever came up.

More on this in our guide to what happens if you don't pay HOA dues.

Meetings and quorum

Meeting notice and quorum for a subdivision HOA come from the Nonprofit Corporation Act's general defaults: written notice of a members' meeting must go out 10 days to 2 months ahead, and default quorum is 10% of the votes entitled to be cast — unless your charter or bylaws set a different number, which most communities do.

Board elections

Tennessee has no HOA-specific election statute at all — no plurality-vs-majority rule, no felony bar, no automatic delinquency-based disqualification, and no dedicated election-dispute forum. Everything comes from the Nonprofit Corporation Act's general corporate rules (which allow cumulative voting if your charter authorizes it, and let members remove a director with or without cause) plus whatever your own bylaws provide. One narrow transparency right does exist in state law: an HOA must provide voting records to members who request them. Beyond that, a contested election is a matter for your governing documents and, if it comes to it, ordinary civil court.

For the general mechanics, see how HOA board elections work.

Buying a home in a Tennessee HOA

Tennessee's Residential Property Disclosure Act requires sellers to disclose the property's physical condition — but it says nothing about HOA dues, restrictions, or pending litigation. There's no dedicated statutory HOA resale-certificate requirement in Tennessee. In practice, buyers learn about dues, rules, and the association's finances through the standard Tennessee Realtors® purchase contract's HOA addendum — an industry-standard form, not a state mandate — and through their own request for governing documents before closing.

One more thing worth knowing if you're buying with rental income in mind: if a declaration is later amended to restrict or ban long-term rentals, an owner who already owned the property keeps a vested right to keep renting it long-term until they sell — a real, if narrow, statutory protection.

See our full buying checklist for homes in an HOA before you make an offer.

This guide covers general Tennessee law affecting non-condominium homeowners associations as of 2026 — including Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-27-701 et seq. and the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act — and is for general education only. It isn't legal advice, and it doesn't cover condominium associations, which follow the separate, more detailed Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008. Your community's declaration and bylaws control most day-to-day rules. For anything binding, talk to a Tennessee HOA attorney.

Need help with a Tennessee HOA issue? Find an HOA attorney in Tennessee, or find a management company in Tennessee.