The questions
Ask these before the next meeting
Each question is tied to the Virginia rule it's based on. Skim all of them, then skip to the email template below if you want to send them as-is.
- 01
When was the last reserve study commissioned under § 55.1-1826, and does it fall within the statutory five-year cycle?
Virginia's Property Owners' Association Act requires the board to conduct a reserve study at least once every five years to determine the necessity and amount of reserves for capital components. A study older than five years is not a best-practice failing — it is a direct compliance gap with the statute.
Va. Code § 55.1-1826
- 02
Has the board conducted and documented the annual review of the reserve study for each year since it was last commissioned?
The statute imposes two distinct duties: the five-year study and the annual review of that study, with budget adjustments as needed. A board that did a fresh study in 2024 but has not reviewed it in 2025 is missing a separate compliance obligation — not the study, the review.
Va. Code § 55.1-1826
- 03
Does our current annual budget actually include the specific reserve fields the statute names?
Section 55.1-1826 requires the budget to reflect replacement cost, remaining life, useful life, current reserves, expected contribution, the procedures used, and a comparison of recommended versus current cash reserves — to the extent the study indicates a need. A budget that shows a single 'reserves: $X' line does not satisfy this field list on its face.
Va. Code § 55.1-1826
- 04
What is the current gap between the recommended cash reserves and our actual cash reserves, and how has that gap moved over the last three annual reviews?
One year of underfunding is a decision. A persistent gap across several annual reviews is a real warning sign — even if the association is technically compliant with the five-year cadence. The trend is the thing you want on the record.
- 05
If a shortfall exists, which funding lever is the board using — additional reserve contributions, special assessments, or borrowing?
Section 55.1-1826 explicitly permits the board to meet a reserve requirement through reserves, additional assessments, or borrowed funds. Those are not workarounds; they are statutorily named alternatives. Understanding which lever is in use is more useful than objecting that any lever is in play.
Va. Code § 55.1-1826
- 06
Who performed the most recent reserve study, and are they independent of the association, the property manager, and any contractors who did the capital work?
The POA Act does not define 'qualified independent persons' with the same mechanical precision as Delaware's DUCIOA, but a reserve study performed by the same contractor who is bidding on the capital work is a conflict worth naming. Pin down who did it and whether the board shopped the engagement.
- 07
Has the board treated 'reserve studies are a condo thing' as a reason not to commission one?
Most US states with reserve-study mandates apply them to condominiums only. Virginia is unusual — the POA Act reaches planned-community HOAs directly. A community telling you 'reserve studies are a condo thing' is wrong under Virginia law and the statement itself should be challenged on the record.
- 08
What capital components are currently included in the reserve study, and has anything been removed or reclassified since the last study?
Moving items out of the reserve schedule — to the operating budget, to a 'deferred maintenance' category, or off the books entirely — is a common way to make reserves look healthier than they are. Changes to the component list between studies are the kind of thing that should be on the record, not in the footnotes.
- 09
What does the annual review record actually say for each of the last three years?
Virginia's annual review duty is easy to comply with on paper and easy to skip in practice. Asking for the actual text — what the board concluded, what budget adjustments were made — is how you tell whether the review happened or whether a line item was checked off without underlying work.
- 10
Are there any capital components outside the current reserve schedule that the most recent study flagged as needing attention?
A reserve study can identify a component as needing work and the board can still decide not to reserve for it. If that happened, the owner should know about it — and the decision should be documented in the annual review record, not left implicit.
Email template
Send this to your board
Replace the bracketed fields with your community name and your details. The statute citations are deliberate — they move a response from "we'll get back to you" to a real written answer.
Hi [Board / Property Manager name], I own a property at [Community Name] and I want to make sure I understand how our reserves are being handled before the next budget is ratified. I've been reading Va. Code § 55.1-1826 and I have a few questions I'd like answered in writing. 1. When was the last reserve study commissioned, and does it fall within the five-year cadence required by § 55.1-1826? 2. Has the board conducted and documented the annual review of that study for each year since it was completed? 3. Does our current annual budget include the specific reserve fields the statute names — replacement cost, remaining life, useful life, current reserves, expected contribution, the procedures used, and a comparison of recommended versus current cash reserves? I'd like to see where each of those appears in the budget document. 4. What is the current gap between the recommended cash reserves in the study and our actual cash reserves, and how has that gap moved over the last three annual reviews? 5. If a shortfall exists, which funding lever is the board using — additional contributions, special assessments, or borrowing under § 55.1-1826? 6. Who performed the most recent reserve study, and are they independent of the property manager and any contractors who have done or bid on capital work for the community? I'm not trying to second-guess the board — I just want to make sure we are meeting both the five-year and annual-review duties the statute imposes, and that the budget actually contains the fields § 55.1-1826 calls for. I would appreciate written answers, or a pointer to where these are documented in the association's records. Thanks, [Your name] [Property address]
Why these questions, in this order
Virginia is one of the very few states where an HOA owner gets to ask “did you do the reserve study?” and have the statute on their side. Most states apply reserve-study requirements to condominiums only. The Property Owners’ Association Act — specifically § 55.1-1826 — reaches planned-community HOAs directly.
The rule has two halves that owners and boards alike tend to conflate:
- A reserve study at least once every five years. Boards sometimes treat this as the whole obligation. It is not.
- An annual review of that study, with budget adjustments as needed, in each of the intervening years. The annual review is a separate duty. Missing it is a separate compliance failure from missing the five-year study — which is why the question list above asks about them separately.
The budget also has to carry specific reserve information: replacement cost, remaining life, useful life, current reserves, expected contribution, the procedures used, and — importantly — a comparison of recommended versus current cash reserves. A budget that shows a single “reserves: $X” line does not satisfy that field list on its face. Asking for each field by name is how you turn a vague “we fund reserves” response into a concrete document you can read.
The funding question — reserves vs. special assessments vs. borrowing — is not a “gotcha.” The statute explicitly permits all three. The point of asking is to know which lever the board has chosen, because the right follow-up questions are different for each.
How to use the email template
The email below is written to be forwarded as-is to your board or property manager. It cites § 55.1-1826 directly because that is what moves a response from “we’ll get back to you” to “we need to check with our attorney.” You don’t need a lawyer to send this email — just your property address and the community name.
If the written response claims reserves are “fine” but cannot produce either a current study or an annual-review record, that combination — the claim plus the absence — is the single most useful thing to bring to the next meeting. It is documentable, it is specific, and it is not an opinion about how much to fund.
What this page is not
This is not legal advice and it is not a complete audit of your HOA’s compliance posture. It is the question list an owner should be able to hand to their board without retaining counsel. If the answers raise more questions than they resolve, the next step is usually reading the actual study and the annual review records against the components the board is supposed to be maintaining — which is where we come in.
The underlying rule
Virginia reserve law, in plain language
These questions come from the actual statute. If you want the full explainer before you send the email, start here.
Next step
Ready to put this against your community?
Send the questions to the board yourself, or pick the option below to share the community context with us so the next step is framed for the right person.