Condominium owners have the direct route. Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-27-417, the association must keep financial records detailed enough to meet its statutory accounting duties, and those records, with the association's other records, must be made reasonably available for examination by any unit owner (and any mortgage holder) or their authorized agents. This is one of the 2008 Act's retroactive sections, so it applies to condominiums of every vintage. The statute doesn't fix a response deadline, which makes your written request the tool that creates one: name the documents, propose dates, and treat silence as the refusal it is.
Subdivision HOA owners are not out of luck; they just have to walk through the corporate door. Nearly every Tennessee HOA is a nonprofit corporation, and under § 48-66-102 of the Nonprofit Corporation Act a member may inspect and copy corporate records on five business days' written demand. For financial records and board minutes, the demand must be in good faith, for a proper purpose, described with reasonable particularity, and the records must connect to that purpose, a hurdle, but one that 'checking how my mandatory dues are spent' clears comfortably. Two features give this right teeth: the statute says it cannot be abolished or limited by the charter or bylaws, and copying charges are capped at the actual cost of production.
Ask like you know the statute
In both regimes the practical playbook is identical. Make the request written, dated, and specific: the current budget, year-to-date financials, the reserve balance, board minutes for named months, the violation and fine ledger, contracts with the management company. Cite § 66-27-417 or § 48-66-102 by number so the board knows you know the floor exists, and keep every response. If the association stonewalls, the documented refusal becomes evidence in any later dispute, and for nonprofit HOAs the corporate statutes give courts a well-worn path to order inspection.
The authority
The statutes behind this
Cited by name as authority, for your own reading. Informational only, not legal advice.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-27-417
Condominium associations must keep sufficiently detailed financial records and make them, and other association records, reasonably available for examination by any unit owner; applies to pre-2009 condominiums as well.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-66-102
A nonprofit corporation's member may inspect and copy records on five business days' written demand (good faith, proper purpose, and particularity for financial records and minutes); the right cannot be abolished or limited by the charter or bylaws.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-66-103
Scope of the member inspection right, including that copying may be done by photographic or electronic means with charges capped at production cost.
Step by step
How to make a records request in Tennessee
A statute-anchored records request for a Tennessee condominium or subdivision HOA.
- 01
Pick the right statute
Condominium: § 66-27-417's reasonable-availability duty. Subdivision HOA: § 48-66-102's member inspection right, which requires five business days' written notice before your chosen inspection date.
- 02
Write a specific, dated demand
List the exact records: budget, financial statements, reserve figures, minutes by month, the fine ledger, management contracts. For an HOA, state your purpose plainly, verifying how mandatory assessments are spent is a proper purpose.
- 03
Propose the logistics
Offer inspection during regular business hours at the association's or manager's office, and ask for electronic copies where they exist. Reasonable copying costs are payable; padded 'search fees' are not part of the statute.
- 04
Track the response
For an HOA the statute's five-business-day structure frames the timeline; for a condo, your proposed dates do. Log every reply and non-reply in one place.
- 05
Enforce a refusal
A member denied inspection can seek a court order, and the documented refusal itself becomes evidence of bad faith in any wider dispute. Most boards produce the records once the demand letter shows you know the route.
Straight answers
Common questions
What records can a Tennessee condo owner see?
The association's financial records, kept in sufficient detail to meet its accounting duties, and its other records, made reasonably available for examination under § 66-27-417. The right extends to unit owners, mortgage holders, and their authorized agents.
My HOA says its bylaws don't allow records requests. Is that the end?
No. If the HOA is a nonprofit corporation, and nearly all are, § 48-66-102 gives members an inspection right the statute says cannot be abolished or limited by the charter or bylaws. Five business days' written demand starts the process regardless of what the bylaws claim.
Do I have to explain why I want the records?
For a nonprofit HOA's financial records and minutes, yes: the demand must be in good faith, for a proper purpose, and described with particularity. Verifying how your mandatory dues are spent, or how fines have been applied, comfortably qualifies.
Can they charge me for copies?
Reasonable charges only. The nonprofit act caps copying charges at the estimated cost of production, reproduction, or transmission, and inspection itself is your right, not a billable service.