A.R.S. 33-1810: HOA Annual Financial Audit in Arizona

Your HOA collects your dues, so it owes you a yearly accounting of where the money went. A.R.S. 33-1810 puts that duty in writing. The board must provide an annual financial audit, review, or compilation of the association every year, finish it within 180 days after the fiscal year ends, and hand it over to any member who asks within 30 days. This is the statute that lets you check whether your dues are being managed honestly. Here is what it requires.

The yearly financial duty

The board does not get to skip the books. Each year it must arrange a financial audit, review, or compilation of the association. The statute lets the HOA pick which of the three it does, unless your community documents demand something stricter:

Unless any provision in the planned community documents requires an annual audit by a certified public accountant, the board of directors shall provide for an annual financial audit, review or compilation of the association.

Those three options are not the same level of scrutiny. An audit is the deepest, where a CPA tests the numbers and gives an opinion. A review is lighter, with limited checking. A compilation is the simplest, where an accountant just assembles the association's figures into financial statements. The statute sets the floor at the compilation level, but your CC&Rs can raise the bar to a full CPA audit, and if they do, that stricter rule controls.

The 180-day deadline and your 30-day right

Two clocks make this duty enforceable. First, the financial work has to be completed no later than 180 days after the end of the association's fiscal year. That stops a board from letting the books slide for years. Second, once it is done, any member can ask to see it, and the association must make it available within 30 days of the request after completion.

The audit, review or compilation shall be completed no later than one hundred eighty days after the end of the association's fiscal year and shall be made available upon request to the members within thirty days after its completion.

So if your HOA runs a calendar fiscal year ending December 31, the financial review must be finished by roughly late June. If you ask to see it after it is done, the HOA has 30 days to produce it.

For example, in a Fountain Hills HOA with a December 31 year-end, the board must have the compilation or audit completed by the end of June. If you email the manager in July asking for a copy, the association has 30 days to deliver it. If it never completed the review at all, it is in violation of this statute.

Why this matters before you buy or build

If you are buying a lot or a home in an HOA, the annual financial document is one of the most useful things you can read. It shows whether the reserve fund is healthy, whether dues are covering costs, and whether a special assessment may be coming. A community that cannot produce a current audit, review, or compilation is a red flag, because this statute requires one. Reading it next to the resale disclosure packet gives you a real picture of the association's finances before you commit.

How it connects to the rest of the law

This financial duty pairs directly with your broader records inspection right in A.R.S. 33-1805 , which lets you demand the underlying books, and with the resale disclosure you receive under A.R.S. 33-1806 when you buy. Sound finances also tie into the dues caps in A.R.S. 33-1803 , since the budget drives any increase. A board that hides its finances or steers paid contracts to insiders can be checked through the conflict rule in A.R.S. 33-1811 and, if needed, removed under A.R.S. 33-1813 . The board's spending power flows from the recorded CC&Rs defined in A.R.S. 33-1802 .

Full text and source

Read the current section on the legislature's site: View A.R.S. 33-1810 on azleg.gov .

Before you close on an HOA property, ask for the most recent annual audit, review, or compilation, since this statute entitles you to it and a missing one tells you something about how the board is run.