Does a new subdivision need an HOA?
Not automatically. An association comes from a county ordinance requiring one for shared features, such as Floyd County's private division roads and common areas or Pulaski County's patio homes, or from a declaration the developer records. The Property Owners' Association Act governs developments under that declaration, and unless members already control it, the developer registers the association with the Common Interest Community Board within 30 days after recording the declaration.
A privately maintained street announces itself on the plat before any lot sells
The association question often surfaces first on the plat, at the street. Under VDOT's secondary street acceptance rules, 24VAC30-92-20, a street proposed to be privately maintained has to carry a notation on the plat and the deeds it affects saying what the street would need before VDOT could accept it, and that notation is an early sign that the owners of the lots may end up sharing the upkeep.
Floyd County adds its own sentence to plats with private division roads: "The private division roads in this division do not meet the standards necessary for inclusion in the system of state highways and will not be maintained by VDOT or Floyd County." What a street has to meet to become a state road is covered in whether subdivision roads have to meet VDOT standards.
| Class B | Class C | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it can be used | Subdivisions intended for the primary purpose of erecting non-primary recreational dwellings | Only parcels existing and recorded before January 1, 2014 that lack the road frontage or acreage for Class A or Class B |
| Lots | At least 2.5 acres each, not resubdivided | At most five, each at least 1.5 acres, not resubdivided |
| Public services | None | None |
| Streets | Not built to VDOT standards or maintained by VDOT or public funds | Not built to VDOT standards or maintained by VDOT or public funds |
| Who maintains the streets | The developer or a homeowners association | The developer or a homeowners association |
A private street is a strip of right of way that somebody has to grade, drain and keep open once the lots are sold, and the plat notations speak only to what VDOT or the county will not do. Who does, and on what terms, is the subject of who maintains a private road.
Some ordinances name the association outright, feature by feature
Carroll's ordinance, above, names an association as one of two possible keepers of a Class B or Class C street. Floyd's goes further and ties the requirement to a list of features:
Floyd County requires a POA for ownership, construction, maintenance, and management of private division roads, private centralized water systems, private centralized wastewater systems, stormwater facilities, and common areas only.
Floyd County Land Division Ordinance
Pulaski County's Unified Development Ordinance ties an association to one housing type. Patio homes require a planned subdivision development, and the text reads: "Homeowners Association shall be formed to manage the common areas."
Read side by side, the pattern is specific. Each requirement attaches to something the lot owners will hold or rely on in common: a road, a central water or wastewater system, a stormwater facility, a common area. Floyd's list, as written, does not name a division that has none of those features. Whether a shared road and common ground make sense for a tract in the first place is part of the read on land development and feasibility.
The recorded declaration creates the duties, and registration follows within 30 days
Whatever the ordinance requires, the association itself takes shape in the land records, in a declaration recorded under Virginia's Property Owners' Association Act.
The recording starts a short clock for the developer:
Unless control of the association has been transferred to the members, the developer shall register the association with the Common Interest Community Board within 30 days after recordation of the declaration
Va. Code 55.1-1802
One caution on older paperwork: Va. Code 55.1-1808 through 55.1-1814 were repealed effective July 1, 2023, so a document or checklist that still cites them for association rules is out of date.
From there the association runs under its declaration, and what a declaration is, which developments the Act reaches, and how rules, charges and reserve studies work are set out in covenants and HOAs on rural land. The use limits a declaration records are a kind of covenant, and who can enforce restrictions of that kind, including where no association exists, is taken up in what are restrictive covenants.
Planning shared roads or common areas in a new subdivision?
Send the county, the acreage and what the lots would share, and Lowell will talk through what that county's ordinance ties to shared roads and common areas, and who to ask next. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
In a Carroll County Class B subdivision, can the developer keep up the streets instead of an association?
Carroll's posted subdivision ordinance says all streets within a Class B subdivision, and within a Class C subdivision, shall be maintained by the developer or a homeowners association, so the text names either one. Which arrangement a given plat carries, and what the county asks to see for it, is a question for Carroll County Land Use and Planning.
Does Floyd County require a POA for a division with no shared road or common area?
Floyd's Land Division Ordinance requires a POA for private division roads, private centralized water systems, private centralized wastewater systems, stormwater facilities and common areas only. A division without any of those is not named in that requirement. Confirm a specific plan with Floyd County Planning.
Is a homeowners association the same as a property owners' association?
The name changes with the document. Carroll's and Pulaski's ordinances say homeowners association, Floyd's says POA, and Virginia's Property Owners' Association Act defines the association as the property owners' association of a development subject to a recorded declaration. Whether a particular association falls under the Act turns on its declaration, which is an attorney's reading.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 24VAC30-92-20: privately maintained streets and the plat notation Virginia Administrative Code
- Subdivision Ordinance, amended through April 14, 2014: Class B and Class C subdivisions Carroll County, Virginia
- Land Division Ordinance: POA requirements and private division roads Floyd County, Virginia
- Unified Development Ordinance, July 2025: patio homes Pulaski County, Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-1800: Property Owners' Association Act definitions Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-1801: applicability of the Act Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-1802: registration with the Common Interest Community Board Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-1808 through 55.1-1814: repealed Code of Virginia