HOA By Owners communities can begin using the platform immediately after signing up, with full data migration and community setup completed within 24-48 hours through the free guided onboarding service.

HOA By Owners provides free onboarding support and free data migration for all new customers, with no setup fees, training fees, or migration fees at any plan level.

No. Our free guided onboarding imports the records most boards care about: homeowners, balances, recurring invoices, vendors, and document libraries—from Buildium, PayHOA, spreadsheets, and most other systems.

• Typical timeline: most communities go live in 24–48 hours
• Historical accounting: export prior-period reports to PDF for audit retention before or during migration
• No migration fee at any plan level—email support@hoabyowners.com to schedule a switch

HOA By Owners offers month-to-month subscriptions with no cancellation penalties, allowing communities to cancel at any time without long-term commitment.

There is no long-term contract and no cancellation fee. Your community is never locked in.

Before you leave, your board can take records with you:

• Governance reports — CSV export and print/PDF from Payments → Governance reports
• Member rosters & dues aging — CSV downloads from the dashboard
• HOA documents — download files your board uploaded to the document library
• Payment & payout history — remains in your HOA’s Stripe Dashboard (Stripe Connect account)

Need help exporting before you cancel? Email support@hoabyowners.com and we will walk your board through it.

We protect HOA and homeowner data with concrete technical controls—not vague marketing claims:

• Encrypted connections: All traffic uses HTTPS (TLS) in transit.
• Secure login: Passwords are hashed; sessions use expiring tokens, not shared passwords.
• Role-based access: Board, property manager, and homeowner roles see only what their role allows—enforced in the application, not just the UI.
• HOA isolation: Each community’s data is scoped to that HOA; users only access HOAs they belong to.
• Payments: Card and ACH processing runs through Stripe; we do not store full card numbers on our servers.
• Infrastructure: Application and database run on secure cloud hosting with automated backups.

See also our Security & payments page and Privacy Policy for retention, subprocessors, and your rights.

Not today. HOA By Owners does not currently hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certifications. Those programs are common for large enterprise vendors and can cost tens of thousands of dollars and many months to complete—most volunteer-run and self-managed HOAs never require them.

What we offer instead for board due diligence:

• Published Privacy Policy and Terms of Service
• Documented role-based access and per-HOA data separation (see FAQs below)
• Written security overview and questionnaire answers on request—email support@hoabyowners.com
• Roadmap toward independent third-party assessment as customer needs grow

For most boards, transparent documentation plus Stripe-backed payments and enforced access controls matter more than a SOC 2 badge from a small HOA-focused platform.

No. HOA By Owners does not sell, rent, trade, or share homeowner or HOA data with data brokers, advertisers, or unrelated third parties for their own marketing or commercial use.

• Your community’s records stay scoped to your HOA—users only access HOAs they belong to
• We use data only to run the service for your community (dues, documents, communications, etc.)
• Limited subprocessors (e.g. Stripe for payments, email providers for notifications) are listed in our Privacy Policy

Your HOA data is not our product. We charge a subscription to run the platform—not by monetizing resident information.

Access is role-based and enforced server-side—not just hidden buttons on a dashboard:

• Homeowners / members: Their own payments, maintenance requests, documents shared with members, message boards, and voting—plus community-wide info the board publishes.
• Board members & property managers: Community-wide operational data (members, violations, accounting, communications, etc.) for HOAs they manage.
• Between HOAs: No cross-community access—a user only sees HOAs they are approved members of.

Examples: violation reports are scoped so members generally see their own submissions; board tools such as member management are limited to board and PM roles. Boards can also choose which dashboard modules are enabled for their HOA.

HOA data is stored in a dedicated PostgreSQL database on secure cloud infrastructure in the United States. Documents and uploads are stored on our application servers with access restricted to authenticated users in your HOA.

Retention, deletion requests, California privacy rights, and subprocessors (e.g. Stripe for payments, email providers for notifications) are described in our Privacy Policy. You can request account deletion or data questions by emailing support@hoabyowners.com.

HOA By Owners board members receive full administrative access including accounting, budgets and reports, violation tracking, member management, and all approval functions through a unified dashboard.

• Board Members Full administrative access including Accounting, Budgets & Reports, Violations, Member Management, and all approval functions.
• Property Managers Similar access to Board Members with tools designed for managing multiple properties.
• Homeowners Can access Payments, HOA Documents, Maintenance Requests, Message Boards, and Voting & Surveys.

All features are accessible from the unified Features Dashboard - you'll only see the tools relevant to your role. No need for separate dashboards!

HOA By Owners Customer Success Team is available via chat, email, and scheduled 1-on-1 meetings at no additional cost, with support accessible directly through the in-app support widget.

HOA By Owners does not custody HOA cash. Online payments follow a direct path through Stripe:

1. A homeowner pays by card or ACH on Stripe’s networks
2. Funds credit your HOA’s Stripe Connect account—not HOA By Owners’ operating account
3. Stripe deducts processing fees per its pricing
4. Stripe pays out to the bank account your board verified in Connect, on Stripe’s payout schedule

Card and bank details stay with Stripe, not on our servers. Your board manages payouts, fees, and bank settings in the Stripe Dashboard. Overview: Stripe Connect documentation.

HOA By Owners homeowners can add their bank account using either their online banking credentials or by entering their account and routing number directly, with no requirement to share banking login details.

HOA By Owners supports paper check payments through a lockbox service that accepts mailed checks at a PO Box, scans them, and deposits them electronically, with all payments recorded automatically in the platform.

HOA By Owners costs $5 per user per month with all features included — no setup fees, training fees, or hidden charges. Start with a free trial; no credit card required.

HOA By Owners costs $6,000 per year for 51-100 units with all features included, while Buildium costs approximately $12,100 per year for equivalent communities when including setup fees ($1,000), training fees ($800), migration fees ($1,000), and monthly add-ons for payment processing and support. HOA By Owners also includes electronic voting, unlimited document storage, and package tracking — features not available in Buildium's standard plans. See our full Buildium alternative guide for a side-by-side comparison.

HOA By Owners is designed specifically for self-managed homeowner associations and volunteer boards. The platform requires no technical expertise to set up, offers free onboarding within 24-48 hours, and includes all features — automated dues collection, maintenance tracking, electronic voting, and community communication — at $5 per user per month with no hidden fees.