A.R.S. 33-1802: What Counts as a Planned Community (HOA) in Arizona

Before any rule about meetings, assessments, or liens can apply to you, the law first has to agree that your neighborhood qualifies as a planned community and that the group running it is an association. A.R.S. 33-1802 is where those labels get their legal meaning, functioning as the dictionary for Arizona's HOA law. Get the definition right and you know exactly which rights you have when you build or buy a custom home inside an HOA.

What this statute does

This section sits at the front of the Planned Communities Act (A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 16), the set of laws that govern most Arizona HOAs. It does not create a single rule of conduct. Instead it fixes the meaning of the words every other section uses, so that "association," "declaration," and "planned community" mean the same thing in every dispute. The four definitions that matter most to a homeowner are these.

A planned community is a real estate development where an association owns or holds maintenance duties or covenants (like keeping up the roads or common areas), and where the recorded declaration says owners are automatic, mandatory members who must pay assessments. The statute draws the lines:

"Planned community" means a real estate development that includes real estate owned and operated by or real estate on which an easement to maintain roadways or a covenant to maintain roadways is held by a nonprofit corporation or unincorporated association of owners, that is created for the purpose of managing, maintaining or improving the property and in which the owners of separately owned lots, parcels or units are mandatory members and are required to pay assessments to the association for these purposes.

The same definition then carves out what is not a planned community: a timeshare plan, a condominium (those have their own law, A.R.S. Title 33, Chapter 9), and a development where membership and assessments are not mandatory. So a neighborhood with a voluntary social club is not an HOA under this law. A neighborhood where the deed forces you to join and pay is.

An association is the nonprofit entity (incorporated or not) that the declaration creates to run the community and that can assess members for shared costs. The declaration is the recorded instrument that sets up the planned community, plus any amendments to it. And the community documents are the full rulebook: the declaration, the bylaws, the articles of incorporation if any, and the rules if any.

What it means for your build

These definitions decide whether the rest of the HOA law protects you. If your lot in Rio Verde, Cave Creek, or a Scottsdale gated community sits under a recorded declaration with mandatory membership, you are in a planned community, and every other section of this chapter applies: open meetings under A.R.S. 33-1804 , your right to inspect records under A.R.S. 33-1805 , the cap on assessment hikes under A.R.S. 33-1803 , and your protected right to solar under A.R.S. 33-1816 .

For example, suppose you are buying a custom-home lot and the seller hands you a thick packet titled "CC&Rs." That packet is the declaration and the rest of the community documents named in 33-1802. Reading it tells you whether you must submit plans to a design committee before you build, whether there is an assessment, and what the HOA can fine you for. If the packet shows mandatory membership and recorded covenants, you are bound by it the day you close. The legal shorthand for that recorded rulebook is the CC&Rs .

How it connects to the rest of the law

Because 33-1802 is purely definitions, it links to every section that follows. The "community documents" defined here are the documents an HOA must hand a buyer under A.R.S. 33-1806 . The "association" defined here is the one that gets a lien for unpaid assessments under A.R.S. 33-1807 . And the design rules in your declaration are enforced through A.R.S. 33-1817 . If you are weighing a lot inside an HOA, start with our FAQ on how HOA design review affects building a custom home .

Full text and source

Read the current version, including any amendments, on the legislature's site: View A.R.S. 33-1802 on azleg.gov .

How a definition applies to a specific neighborhood depends on the recorded documents, so confirm your situation with a qualified attorney before relying on it.