Tennessee Condo Meetings, 10-to-60-Day Notice and Record Access (T.C.A. §§ 66-27-408, 66-27-417)

The governance rules come from 2008 Public Chapter 766, effective January 1, 2009. Section 66-27-408 fixes the meeting calendar. One meeting of the association each year is the floor. A special meeting may be called by the president, by a majority of the board of directors, or by unit owners holding twenty percent of the votes in the association, or a lower percentage if the bylaws set one. The notice window is a two-sided rule that catches boards out: notice sent nine days ahead is too late, and notice sent seventy days ahead is too early. The notice must state the time, place and method of attendance, and the agenda, including the general nature of any proposed amendment to the declaration or bylaws, any budget changes, and any proposal to remove a director or officer. Notice may be waived only in a writing signed by all unit owners.

Quorum and voting sit in the next two sections. Under § 66-27-409(a), unless the bylaws say otherwise, a quorum exists throughout a members' meeting if persons entitled to cast twenty percent of the votes for election of the board are present in person or by proxy at the beginning of the meeting. For the board itself, § 66-27-409(b) sets fifty percent unless the bylaws require more. Attendance may be in person, by telephone or by any other means the bylaws specify, and members may also attend by proxy. Section 66-27-410(b) polices proxies: a proxy is void if it is not dated or if it purports to be revocable without notice, it may be revoked only by actual notice to the person presiding over the meeting, and its duration is governed by the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, including § 48-57-205. Section 66-27-410(d) forbids voting any votes allocated to a unit the association itself owns.

Board composition and removal are governed by § 66-27-403. Directors appointed by the declarant owe the care required of fiduciaries of the unit owners, while directors elected by the unit owners owe ordinary and reasonable care, a deliberate two-tier standard. Declarant control must end no later than the earlier of 120 days after seventy-five percent of the units that may be created have been conveyed to owners other than the declarant, or five years after the first conveyance to a purchaser, extended to seven years if more than 100 units may be created. At least one director must be elected by non-declarant owners within 120 days after twenty-five percent of the units have been conveyed. Once declarant control ends, the owners elect a board of at least three members, a majority of whom must be unit owners. Owners may remove any director other than a declarant appointee, with or without cause, by a two-thirds vote of all persons present and entitled to vote at a meeting where a quorum is present, and § 66-27-403(f) makes that power override any contrary provision of the declaration or bylaws. The board may not amend the declaration, terminate the condominium, or set its own qualifications, powers, duties or terms, although it may fill vacancies for the unexpired term.

Records access runs on two tracks. Section 66-27-417 is the general right: the association must keep financial records detailed enough to comply with §§ 66-27-502 and 66-27-503, and all financial and other records must be made reasonably available for examination by any unit owner, by the holder of any mortgage or deed of trust on a unit, and by their authorized agents. Tennessee attached no deadline and no copying fee schedule to that right, and "reasonably available" is the whole standard. Section 66-27-502 is the specific right and does carry a clock: on request from a unit owner, a purchaser, or a lender to either, the association must provide the § 66-27-503 information within ten business days, and the requesting party is entitled to rely on what it receives unless it has actual knowledge to the contrary. The association may charge a reasonable fee, and if the fee is not paid it may be assessed against the unit. Requests and responses may be made in writing or electronically, including by email or by posting to a website and providing a link and access. The § 66-27-503 package includes the recorded master deed or declaration, bylaws, charter or articles and all amendments, the current rules and regulations, and the most recent balance sheet, income statement and approved budget, with the budget required to state the reserve for repairs and replacements or that there is none, whether a reserve study has been done and where it may be reviewed, any other reserves, the projected aggregate and monthly common expense assessments, and any debt or lease affecting the common elements or amenities.

Outside the condominium act, Tennessee legislates association governance only in fragments. Section 66-27-702 requires a homeowners' association to produce, on written request, the full vote record behind an amendment prohibiting long-term rentals. Section 66-27-802, added by 2024 Public Chapter 645, lets a member of a homeowners' association for a gated subdivision, meaning a neighborhood with at least 300 single family homes and two or more gates, request that the board obtain a police activity and arrest report from local law enforcement and make it available to every household, but subsection (b) limits that right to gated subdivisions in a county whose 2020 census population is between 247,700 and 247,800. That is a single-county law, not a statewide one, and it is a useful reminder that Tennessee governance rights often turn on the type of community and even on the county.

There is no regulator and no penalty. Tennessee gave neither the Department of Commerce and Insurance nor the attorney general authority over association meetings or records, so a board that skips the annual meeting, sends five-day notice or stonewalls a records request faces only a private lawsuit. The practical remedies are a suit in the chancery court of the county where the condominium lies to compel inspection under § 66-27-417 or production under § 66-27-502, or an action to invalidate business transacted at a meeting that was not properly noticed under § 66-27-408, since notice may be waived only in a writing signed by all unit owners.

Because most Tennessee associations are also nonprofit corporations, the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act at Title 48 supplies a parallel set of member inspection rights and meeting rules, and § 66-27-410(b) already borrows Title 48 for proxy duration. Neither § 66-27-408 nor § 66-27-417 shifts attorney fees, so a member who sues to see the books normally pays for it, unlike a § 66-27-415 assessment lien action, where the prevailing party must be awarded costs and reasonable attorney's fees. If a board refuses to act, the ultimate self-help is removal: a two-thirds vote of the owners present at a quorate meeting removes any elected director with or without cause, and no bylaw can raise that bar.