Indiana required a written fine schedule before any association board can penalize an owner. New York's Condominium Act has no equivalent.
Indiana P.L. 155-2026 added six procedural requirements to the state's association law on July 1, 2026. New York's Condominium Act and Business Corporation Law contain none of them. Companion post: Minnesota capped fines at $100 and created an owner ombudsman.
Indiana's 124th General Assembly passed House Enrolled Act 1115 in the spring of 2026. Governor Eric Holcomb signed it on March 12 as P.L. 155-2026, and it took effect July 1. The act amends Indiana's Homeowners Association Act at IC 32-25.5 with six requirements that boards must meet before they can fine owners, hold meetings, or amend their own governing rules. New York's Condominium Act (Real Property Law Article 9-B) and Business Corporation Law contain none of the six. The community association manager implementing all of them in Indiana needs no state license, just as the person running a New York co-op or condo does not.
What the written fine schedule requirement does.
Before HEA 1115, an Indiana homeowners association board could impose fines even when its governing documents were silent on the subject. Starting July 1, 2026, a board must adopt a written fine schedule before it can assess any fine. That schedule must name each violation type, the dollar amount, whether the fine recurs each day the violation continues, and any aggregate cap. The board must also give the owner written notice of the specific violation and the amount before any fine is levied.
New York Real Property Law Article 9-B gives condo boards authority to levy charges against unit owners. It sets no procedure for how a board adopts a fine schedule and no requirement that a written schedule exist at all. A board may impose a fine by simple resolution, with no advance publication of amounts and no stated cap. Business Corporation Law §501(c) allows a co-op's proprietary lease to authorize additional maintenance as a fine. That statute sets no minimum content for a fine schedule, no advance notice requirement, and no aggregate maximum. The managing agent who transmits the fine typically drafted the resolution authorizing it. New York issues no license for that person and has no administrative forum for owners who dispute the charge.
The Indiana requirement traces to a pattern familiar in other states' reforms. Minnesota Chapter 82, signed in 2026, capped individual fines at $100 per violation and created an owner ombudsman. North Carolina Session Law 2026-51 barred managing agents from being compensated based on fines they collect. New York has adopted none of these approaches. The written-schedule requirement Indiana added in 2026 is the procedural foundation from which an owner could begin to challenge a fine. New York does not require that foundation.
Board meeting notice and free records access.
HEA 1115 requires Indiana association boards to give owners at least four days' advance notice of every board meeting, along with an agenda. Annual meeting notices must describe the owners' right to request a special meeting. Remote board meeting participation is permitted when the board follows Indiana's remote-meeting rules under IC 32-25.5.
New York Real Property Law Article 9-B sets no state-law floor on how much notice a condo board must give before a board meeting. Some condo declarations and bylaws specify a notice period; many do not. No statute requires an agenda to accompany any notice. For co-op boards, meeting-notice rules are set primarily by the proprietary lease and BCL §602, which requires ten days' notice for shareholder meetings but says nothing about the frequency or notice required for board meetings.
On records, HEA 1115 eliminated Indiana's prior authorization allowing associations to charge fees when members requested documents. Under IC 32-25.5 as amended, members requesting association records receive them at no charge. BCL §624 requires co-op boards to allow shareholder inspection of books, accounts, and minutes. It does not prohibit charging a copying fee or a fee for staff time in locating records. Many NYC co-op boards charge per page or per hour. No New York statute caps the amount.
Amendment vote ceilings and rental-restriction eligibility.
For governing document amendments, HEA 1115 caps the required owner vote: a declaration cannot require more than a two-thirds majority for the matters the act covers. Before the 2026 change, Indiana declarations could specify higher thresholds, sometimes 80 to 90 percent, which made it nearly impossible to update rules adopted decades earlier when boards held unchecked drafting authority.
New York Real Property Law §339-v authorizes condo declarations to require any percentage vote the document specifies. Many NYC condo declarations require 75 or 80 percent owner approval to amend. No state law sets a ceiling. An owner group that wants to add a fine-schedule requirement to their own building's rules faces a vote threshold that often requires near-unanimity, with no state mechanism to compel a vote at all.
HEA 1115 also limits who may vote on rental-restriction amendments and who may serve on an HOA board for those matters: starting July 1, 2026, only primary-resident owners may participate. New York has no equivalent restriction. Investor-owned units vote on condo governing document amendments alongside owner-occupants under the same one-vote-per-unit rule. Investor representatives may sit on NYC condo boards with no statutory carve-out for rental policy decisions.
Indiana's six new requirements compared to New York's.
| Requirement | Indiana after HEA 1115 (IC 32-25.5) | New York (RPL Art. 9-B / BCL) |
|---|---|---|
| Written fine schedule | Required before any fine; must list type, amount, recurrence, and cap | No statutory requirement |
| Board meeting notice | 4 days minimum, with agenda; special-meeting rights disclosed | No state-law floor for condo board meetings |
| Records access fee | No fee permitted | Fee permitted; no statutory cap |
| Resale statement fee | Capped under HEA 1115 | No statutory cap in RPL Art. 9-B |
| Amendment vote ceiling | Two-thirds maximum for matters the act covers | No ceiling; declaration controls |
| Rental vote eligibility | Primary-resident owners only for rental-restriction votes and board service | No restriction; investor representatives permitted |
The manager who must implement all six requirements needs no license.
Indiana has no community association manager licensing program. The person managing a multi-building Indianapolis homeowners association, calling board meetings, assessing fines, and producing records faces no state examination, no registration requirement, and no agency oversight. HEA 1115 gives Indiana owners written rules the manager must follow, but there is no professional license to revoke if the manager disregards them.
New York Senate Bill S.71 would have required managing agents of NYC condos and co-ops to register with the Secretary of State. The bill did not receive a committee hearing in ten consecutive sessions. Albany adjourned in June 2026 without a designated sponsor for the 2027 session, as this site reported in September. Indiana owners gained statutory fine-schedule, notice, and records rights in 2026. New York owners gained none of those rights. Indiana's manager still faces no license requirement. New York's managing agent still faces no license requirement. The difference is that Indiana owners now have written rules to point to and a statutory violation to name when those rules are broken. New York owners do not.
HEA 1115 applies to homeowners associations governed by IC 32-25.5. Indiana condominiums governed by a separate statute, IC 32-25, may or may not be subject to each provision depending on how the enrolled act amends each title. A law firm summary of the 2026 session from Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit describes the changes as applying to "condominium, homeowner (HOA), and townhome community associations," but the enrolled text of P.L. 155-2026 is the governing source and should be reviewed before relying on any specific provision for an Indiana condominium. The New York gap exists regardless: RPL Art. 9-B contains no written-fine-schedule requirement, no four-day board meeting notice floor, no records fee prohibition, and no amendment vote ceiling.
Bottom line.
Indiana P.L. 155-2026 offers a specific list of what New York's Condominium Act and Business Corporation Law do not require: a written fine schedule before any penalty, four-day meeting notice with an agenda, free records access, a cap on resale statement fees, a ceiling on amendment vote thresholds, and a primary-resident restriction on rental board service. Indiana added all six on July 1, 2026, and still licenses no one running those associations. New York added none of the six and licenses no one running its condominiums and co-ops. Each item on the list is a bill Albany could introduce, pass, and sign without constitutional obstacle. None of the six has a pending companion bill in the current session. The managing agent registration bill has no Senate sponsor going into 2027. The gap is not a structural limit. It is a set of choices the legislature has made and can reconsider.
Companion resources: Minnesota capped fines at $100 and created an owner ombudsman. · North Carolina banned fine-based pay for managing agents. · Arizona required boards to act reasonably and banned executive-session votes. · Albany adjourned without voting on four co-op reform bills. · The managing agent bill has no Senate sponsor going into 2027.