Chesapeake, VA HOA Rules: Board Procedures (2026)

Chesapeake imposes no separate board-procedure ordinance on homeowners associations; Sec. 1-1816 of the Property Owners' Association Act supplies the rulebook. Subsection A requires that any meeting where board or committee business is "discussed or transacted" be open to all members of record and forbids the board from using informal gatherings to sidestep that rule; minutes must be recorded and made available under Sec. 1-1815(B). Subsection B requires notice of the time, date and place published where a majority of lot owners can reasonably see it, and a member who files a written request at least once a year is entitled to individual notice by first-class mail or email for board meetings and by email for committee meetings; special or emergency meetings still require notice given contemporaneously with notice to the board itself.

Agenda packets must generally be made available to the membership when they go to the board, members may record any open portion of a meeting subject to reasonable equipment and disclosure rules, and secret or written ballots are barred in open meetings except for electing officers. Subsection C confines executive sessions to four purposes: personnel matters, consulting legal counsel, contracts or pending and probable litigation and declaration or rule violations, and a member's personal liability to the association. Entry requires an affirmative vote taken in open session on a motion that states the specific purpose, and no action taken in the closed session becomes effective until the board reconvenes in open meeting and votes on it, with its substance identified publicly.

Subsection D requires a comment period for members at each meeting, though comments may be limited to agenda topics at a special or limited-agenda meeting.