HOA voting software: online votes and surveys for community associations
HOA voting software from Unitify lets the board or its management company put a question to owners — the annual budget, a renovation, a quick opinion poll — and owners answer from their phone instead of a meeting room or a paper ballot.
Results are visible to the management company as they come in. The names differ by country — HOA, condo association, or cooperative in the US; owners corporation or strata in Australia; residents' association in the UK — but the mechanics of an online vote are the same. In the US, whether a vote held online is valid depends on your state and your governing documents; see the state comparison below.
What it does
Create a vote in minutes
Choose Meeting for a formal owners' vote or Survey for a general poll, set the building scope and the voting period, then publish.
Residents vote from the phone
Owners open the vote from the resident app, review the questions, choose their answers and submit — no meeting room, no paper ballot, no mailing.
Results the company can see
Track participation — units voted out of units in the audience — and follow each vote through Draft, Published and Finished from one management panel.
How it works
Set up the vote
Choose Meeting or Survey, set the building, the voting period and the questions, then move it from Draft to Published.
Residents respond
Residents open the vote from their phone and answer the questions in the app.
Watch results come in
Follow participation — units voted against units in the audience — and each vote's status (Draft, Published, Finished) from the management panel, alongside your active and completed votes.
How an HOA board runs an online vote
For an HOA, condo association, or other community association, here is what the board decides and checks around an online vote. The mechanics — creating, publishing and following a vote in the management panel — are under How it works; the management company sets votes up per building.
- 1. Check the rules first. Before a formal vote moves online, read your governing documents and your state's statute. US states regulate electronic voting for associations differently, and the documents can add rules of their own.
- 2. Choose Survey or Meeting. A Survey is a general poll — a paint color or an amenity idea. A Meeting is a formal owners' vote. Use a Survey to test opinion before the board decides, and a Meeting only once your documents allow the matter to be decided online.
- 3. Keep the result with your records. File the result with the meeting minutes. Whether it binds the association depends on your governing documents and state law, not on the tool.
The limits of an online vote
- Results are visible to the management company as they come in, so this is not a sealed secret ballot. If your governing documents or state law require one for elections, follow that process.
- Some states add steps that the app does not replace. California, for example, administers electronic secret ballots through an inspector of elections.
- Unitify does not include video conferencing. If your association meets by video where the rules allow it, use Zoom or Google Meet; the vote itself runs in the app over a voting period.
See pricing.
See full pricingWhat it does not do
- Signature and legal validity depend on the applicable market and the building's governing documents; the tool records votes, it does not by itself make a meeting legally valid.
- No built-in electronic signature today. Where the law or your governing documents require a signed ballot, on request, we can connect a signature provider for your association.
- Voting requires the management company to set it up per building; it isn't self-serve for residents.
See it in the walkthrough
Frequently asked questions
What is HOA voting software?
Software that lets an association run owner votes and surveys online. Unitify's Resident Voting lets a management company create a Meeting (a formal owners' vote) or a Survey, set the building scope and the voting period, and owners vote from the resident app; the company tracks participation and results as they come in.
Does electronic voting make our owners' meeting legally valid?
Not by itself. The tool records votes; legal validity still depends on the applicable market and your governing documents.
What's the difference between a Survey and a Meeting vote?
A Survey is a general opinion poll; a Meeting is a formal owners' vote with the building scope, audience and voting period the administrator sets. Whether either carries legal weight depends on the market and your governing documents.
Do residents need to sign anything?
Not in the app: there is no built-in electronic signature today. Where the law or your governing documents require a signed ballot, on request, we can connect a signature provider for your association.
Is online voting for an HOA allowed in my state?
US states regulate electronic voting for associations differently and your governing documents may add rules; check both before moving a formal vote online. Our state comparison covers Florida, Texas, California and Arizona. Unitify records the vote, it does not make it valid by itself.
How does an HOA run an online vote?
The management company creates a Meeting or a Survey in the management panel, sets the building, the questions and the voting period, and publishes it; owners answer from the resident app and the panel shows participation as it builds. Before a formal vote goes online, check your governing documents and state law.
Related reading
- An Easy Way for Communities to Decide Together in Unitify
- MiniApps for Buildings: Examples and What They Do
- What's New in Unitify: Smarter Tools for Property Managers