HOA Texts and Calls to Residents: TCPA Rules for Associations

Routine texts a homeowners association sends, like a meeting reminder or a notice that the water will be shut off, aren’t telemarketing, so the Do Not Call rules usually don’t reach them. The TCPA risk for an association sits in two other places. Prerecorded calls have their own consent and frequency rules, and a message that promotes a vendor’s services can turn an ordinary community text into a marketing message. An association that keeps those two lines in view has solid defenses if a resident sues.

Do the Do Not Call rules apply to HOA texts?

Usually not. The FCC’s Do Not Call rule covers telephone solicitations, and the definition in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(f) is a call or message meant for “encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services.” A reminder about an annual meeting or a pool closure doesn’t encourage a purchase.

The same definition also leaves out a call or message “By or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization,” according to the rule. An association may be organized as a nonprofit corporation, but nonprofit status under state law isn’t the same thing as federal tax exemption. Whether an association fits that exclusion depends on how it’s treated for federal tax purposes, and that’s worth confirming with the association’s accountant before relying on it.

Does an HOA need consent to text or call residents’ cell phones?

For autodialed or prerecorded messages, yes, unless the message is an emergency. The statute at 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A) bars calls to cell phones using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, “other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party.” The FCC defines emergency purposes as “calls made necessary in any situation affecting the health and safety of consumers,” according to the same section. A gas leak or a wildfire evacuation fits. A landscaping schedule doesn’t.

For ordinary association business, the consent usually comes from the resident giving the number. Its scope has limits, though. In Van Patten v. Vertical Fitness Group, LLC (9th Cir. 2017) 847 F.3d 1037, the court said “the transactional context matters in determining the scope of a consumer’s consent to contact.” A number given for the owner directory supports messages about the community. It’s a weak basis for a text that pitches a vendor’s product.

What rules apply to prerecorded calls to a resident’s landline?

A frequency cap. Under the FCC’s rule at § 64.1200(a)(3), a prerecorded call to a residential line that isn’t made for a commercial purpose needs no consent only if “the caller makes no more than three calls within any consecutive 30-day period to the residential line and honors the called party’s request to opt out of future calls.” The rule applies the same cap to calls by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

The cap is easy to hit during an election season or a special assessment vote. A board that sends a prerecorded reminder each week before a meeting can exceed three calls in a month without noticing. The practical fix is to count calls per number and honor opt-out requests promptly. Residents who want more frequent calls can give written consent.

When does an HOA message become telemarketing?

When it promotes something for sale. The FCC’s rules treat a prerecorded or autodialed call that “includes or introduces an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing” differently, and in most cases they require prior express written consent for it, under the same section. A text from the association advertising a preferred solar installer’s discount, or a management company’s message pitching its own add-on services, can fall on the marketing side of that line.

Management companies deserve a close look. A company that manages several communities may send texts under each association’s name using the same platform. If those texts include offers from the manager or its partners, the association’s name is on a marketing message it didn’t plan. The post on landlord and property manager texts covers the related rules for rental properties, and defending TCPA class actions in California often begins with sorting which messages were informational and which weren’t.

Can a text replace a required Davis-Stirling notice?

Not on its own. California’s Davis-Stirling Act requires each member to tell the association, every year, how it wants to receive notices. Under Civil Code § 4041(a), the member’s preferred delivery method “shall include the option of receiving notices at one or both of the following”: a mailing address and a valid email address. A text message isn’t on that list.

So a text is a courtesy, not the legal notice. That’s a useful framing for the TCPA side too. A text telling members that the annual meeting notice went out by email is informational on its face, and it keeps the association’s required notice in a channel the statute recognizes.

Records an association should pull when a resident complains about texts

1. Preserve the text and call logs, platform data, and the consent or directory records showing how each number was collected, under a litigation hold once a claim arrives.
2. Pull the opt-out and internal do-not-call logs, with the date each request was made and honored.
3. Pull any National Do Not Call Registry scrub records the management company or vendor used for promotional campaigns.
4. Collect the management agreement, vendor contracts, message templates, and any prerecorded call files.
5. Talk to a lawyer before replying to a demand letter, contacting the resident, or offering anything to settle.

Questions about HOA texts and the TCPA

Can an HOA text residents about overdue assessments?

Usually yes, if the resident gave the number and the text is about the account. An assessment reminder is association business, not a solicitation. Collection messages can raise separate debt collection rules, and those matter most when a management company or collection agency sends them. The texts should stay factual and offer a way to opt out, and texting should stop when the resident asks.

Does a text sent through a group messaging app count?

The autodialer claim is narrow. In Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021) 592 U.S. 395, the Court held that “a necessary feature of an autodialer” is “the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to either store or produce phone numbers to be called,” so many platform texts won’t qualify. But a prerecorded voice message, or a text that markets a product, still raises the issues covered above. The safer approach is to treat every mass message as covered and keep the consent and opt-out records anyway.

Who is liable if the management company sent the texts?

Possibly both. A management company that sends messages in the association’s name is acting for the association, and a plaintiff may name both. The management agreement should say who controls message content and who bears the cost of a TCPA claim. Boards should review those terms before a claim arrives, not after.

If your association is facing a TCPA claim

If your association or management company has received a demand letter or lawsuit over texts or prerecorded calls to residents, the consent records and the content of each message usually decide whether the claim holds up. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving texts and prerecorded calls to community residents. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.

Sources

The statute is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act at 47 U.S.C. § 227. The FCC’s rules are at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200. The California statute is Civil Code § 4041.

The court decisions are Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021) 592 U.S. 395 and Van Patten v. Vertical Fitness Group, LLC (9th Cir. 2017) 847 F.3d 1037.

This post is general information about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related laws as of April 27, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Courts and the FCC change the rules in this area often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.