Run your HOA board without running afoul of the law.
CommonGround is built for volunteer boards in self-managed associations across the country. Your state's HOA laws — fine caps, statutory clocks, committee eligibility checks — are enforced as code, not buried in templates. The legally correct path is the only path the software allows. All fifty states ship as versioned rule sets, encoded from the statutes themselves.
No credit card. Month-to-month after the trial. Questions? Email us.
All 50 states encoded · versioned rule sets · updated as the law changes
The rules changed. The penalties are personal.
Fining mistakes now carry real consequences
Florida boards face criminal penalties for some records and conduct violations (HB 1203, 2024). California capped fines at $100 and banned late fees and interest on them — your governing documents can't override it (Civ. Code § 5850). Texas blocks every fine until a certified notice and a 30-day hearing-request window have run (Prop. Code § 209.006–.007). A missed step isn't a paperwork problem — it's a liability for the people on the board.
The law is changing under you, right now
Indiana requires a published fine schedule with a hard per-violation maximum starting July 2026. Minnesota's $100 fine cap arrives January 2027. Georgia's registration regime phases in through 2027 — unregistered associations can't collect fines at all. Florida already requires 100+ parcel associations to serve records through a website or app. Legislatures rewrite HOA law every session.
CommonGround ships each state as a versioned rule set — when the law changes, the software changes.
What does your state require?
Notice elements, cure windows, hearing rights, fine caps, protected categories — every state writes them differently, and CommonGround encodes them from the statute itself, citation by citation. Where your state is silent, your governing documents' process runs with the same rigor.
CommonGround can't make legal risk disappear — no software can. What it does is make the statutory procedure the default: deadlines tracked, ineligible actions blocked, and every step documented so your board can show its work.
How it works
Capture on Tuesday. Hold the hearing on Thursday.
One statutory state machine, two surfaces: your phone in the field, and the board-meeting screen for decisions.
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1
Capture
Walk the neighborhood with your phone. Photograph the issue, add a note, and the violation is logged with time, location, and evidence attached. The app drafts the notice — firm, neutral, and addressed to the owner's address of record.
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2
Clock
The moment a notice goes out, your state's statutory clocks start — in Florida, 14 days' notice before a hearing, a 90-day hearing window, 7 days for written findings. CommonGround tracks every one and notifies you before a deadline slips — with the completing action one tap away.
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3
Hearing
Thursday's board meeting opens to a ready hearing queue. The committee's eligibility is verified, the evidence is on screen, fine caps are validated as the vote is recorded, and each committee member votes from their own phone — no accounts, no installs.
Feature highlights
Statute as code, not a checklist
Statutory state machine
Your state's fining procedure is a legally mandated workflow, so CommonGround implements it as one. Illegal transitions — a hearing held too early, a fine without a committee majority, an amount over the statutory cap — are impossible, not merely discouraged.
Protected-category warnings
Trash cans at the curb on pickup day. Flags, solar panels, political signs, clotheslines. Nearly every state protects something your documents say is finable — Florida alone protects holiday decor and hidden HVAC. The app flags your state's protected categories with the statute citation before the notice ever goes out.
Deadline dashboard
Every open violation's clocks in one view: days to hearing eligibility, days left in the hearing window, findings due dates, payment countdowns. At-risk deadlines surface to the top, with push alerts before they expire.
Audit trail built in
Every action is timestamped, attributed, and immutable. When your association's attorney asks "can you show the process was followed?", you export the packet instead of reconstructing it from email threads.
No-login owner responses
Homeowners respond to notices, and fining-committee members review evidence and record votes, through secure signed links. No accounts, no passwords, no app installs — it works on whatever device they bring.
Records requests on the clock
A written records request starts a statutory clock — 10 business days in Florida, where obstruction now carries criminal liability. CommonGround logs the request, counts down the deadline, and keeps the full request-and-response trail as your defense record.
Pricing
Published pricing. No sales call required.
Most HOA software hides pricing behind a demo request. Ours is right here: self-serve, month-to-month, cancel anytime. Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial.
Small
$59/mo
Under 50 parcels
- Full compliance engine
- Unlimited board & committee users
- Owner portal included
Most common
Standard
$119/mo
50–150 parcels
- Full compliance engine
- Unlimited board & committee users
- Owner portal included
Large
$229/mo
150+ parcels
- Full compliance engine
- Unlimited board & committee users
- Owner portal included
Certified mail is metered at cost plus a small margin. No setup fees, no annual contracts.
FAQ
Questions boards ask us
Is CommonGround legal advice?
No. CommonGround provides compliance guidance, not legal advice. The software encodes your state's statutory procedures and helps your board follow them, but it doesn't replace your association's attorney — in fact, it generates attorney-review export packets at every escalation point so working with counsel gets easier, not harder.
Does CommonGround satisfy HB 1023's website-or-app requirement?
HB 1023 requires HOAs with 100+ parcels to provide official records through a website or mobile application with a password-protected member area, as of January 1, 2026. CommonGround's owner portal and mobile app are designed specifically as that compliance surface — records posting, the member area, and the required document categories with staleness checks. Confirm the specifics for your association with your attorney.
Do homeowners and committee members need accounts?
No. Owners respond to violation notices, and fining-committee members review hearing materials and cast votes, through secure signed links — no account, no password, no install. Janet from the fining committee shows up to the clubhouse with nothing but her phone, and that's enough.
Does CommonGround cover my state?
Yes — every US state ships as a versioned rule set encoded from the statute itself: notice requirements, cure windows, hearing rights, fine caps, and protected categories where your state writes them, and your governing documents' process where it doesn't. Look up your state to see exactly what's encoded, citation by citation.
What happens when my state changes the law again?
States legislate on HOAs almost every year — Florida especially — so we treat legislative monitoring as part of the product. Statutory rules ship as versioned rule sets — when the law changes, the rules update, and every past action keeps a record of the rule version it was evaluated under.
Do we have to switch our accounting?
No. If your treasurer is happy in QuickBooks, keep QuickBooks — CommonGround syncs to it rather than replacing it, and collects dues via ACH. We focus on the part nobody else does well: enforcement and governance done by the book.
Your next violation notice can be done by the book.
Start your 30-day free trial. Self-serve setup, month-to-month, no contracts.