Did Your HOA Opt In to the Arkansas Horizontal Property Act?

Arkansas's main HOA-related statute, the Horizontal Property Act (Ark. Code §§ 18-13-101 to 18-13-120), does not reach a community automatically. It governs only where a master deed was recorded to create a horizontal property regime under it. That single fact changes how everything else about your rights gets analyzed. For your specific situation, a licensed Arkansas attorney is the right resource. This is general information, not legal advice.

How is an Arkansas horizontal property regime created?

Only by recording a master deed. Under Ark. Code § 18-13-103, the master deed must be recorded in each county where the property is located. That wording comes from Act 516 of 2025 and applies to regimes organized on and after September 1, 2025; older regimes were created under earlier wording that also required a recorded master deed.

Under Ark. Code § 18-13-103(a), a horizontal property regime "may be created under this chapter only by recording a master deed," and § 18-13-103(b) requires that master deed to be recorded in each county where the property is located, "stating the particulars enumerated in § 18-13-104."

That is the current wording, from Act 516 of 2025, and Act 516 says it "is applicable to a horizontal property regime organized on and after September 1, 2025." Regimes organized before then were created under the earlier wording, which applied when owners "expressly declare, through the recordation of a master deed setting forth the particulars enumerated in § 18-13-104, their desire to submit their property to the regime established by this chapter." An older regime can come under the 2025 rules only by amending its master deed and filing reorganization documents (Act 516, § 9).

That language has two consequences:

1. No recorded master deed, no HPA regime. A community that never recorded a master deed under the Act isn't governed by the HPA at all.
2. The master deed has its own content rules. Section 18-13-104 lists what it must contain. Whether a particular recorded document does that is a document-specific question for a licensed Arkansas attorney.

What is a master deed in Arkansas?

The deed establishing the horizontal property regime, as defined in Ark. Code § 18-13-102(10). Section 18-13-104 lists the particulars it must include. Where it exists, it is a public record: § 18-13-104(a)(2) requires recording with the county clerk and ex officio recorder, and § 18-13-108(a) requires the regime's bylaws to be recorded with it.

The Act's definition reads: "the deed establishing the horizontal property regime" (§ 18-13-102(10)). For regimes organized before September 1, 2025, the § 18-13-104 particulars included a description of the land and building, each apartment, the common elements, and each apartment's value and percentage. Act 516 revised the list for newer regimes, adding for example each unit's allocated interests in the common elements and common expenses and each unit's share of the votes in the association.

Where it exists, the master deed is a public record. Section 18-13-104(a)(2) requires it to be recorded "in the office of the clerk and ex officio recorder of the county where the real property subject to the horizontal property regime is located," and § 18-13-108(a) requires the regime's bylaws to be "inserted in, or appended to, and recorded with the master deed." What matters is less the document's title than whether it submits the property to a horizontal property regime; if nothing recorded does, the HPA does not govern the community.

What changes if the HPA applies to my Arkansas HOA?

It adds a statutory layer on top of the community's documents: recorded bylaws covering certain basics (Ark. Code § 18-13-108), a book of receipts and expenditures co-owners can examine (§ 18-13-110), assessment liability, including joint buyer-seller liability at a sale (§ 18-13-116), and insurance (§ 18-13-117). Without the HPA, the declaration and general Arkansas contract and property law govern.

If the HPA doesn't apply and the HOA is incorporated, nonprofit corporation law applies too. The Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 covers nonprofits incorporated on or after January 1, 1994, plus older ones that elected into it. Older nonprofits that never elected in "shall continue to be governed by preexisting law" (§ 4-33-1701).

How owners commonly figure this out

The usual process involves:

• Pulling the recorded declaration or master deed (and any recorded bylaws) from the county recorder's office for the property
• For a regime organized before September 1, 2025, looking for a declaration submitting the property to the regime under the earlier § 18-13-103 wording. For a newer one, looking for a master deed recorded under the current § 18-13-103.
• Comparing the document with § 18-13-104's list for the version that applies
• For incorporated HOAs, pulling the articles of incorporation from the Arkansas Secretary of State to see when the entity was incorporated and whether it elected into the 1993 Act

A licensed Arkansas attorney can confirm which framework governs a specific community in a way owners often can't reliably do on their own.

Sources

• Arkansas Code Annotated — official public access (§§ 18-13-101 to 18-13-120; § 4-33-1701)
• Act 516 of 2025 — amendments to Ark. Code §§ 18-13-102 to 18-13-104, 18-13-112 and 18-13-116 (applicability, § 9)
• Act 1147 of 1993 — Arkansas Nonprofit Corporation Act of 1993 (Ark. Code § 4-33-101 et seq.)