Academy/Minutes & Official Records
Redacting records
What a board may black out before handing over a record, and what it may not.
Redaction means removing or obscuring a specific part of a record before producing it, not withholding the whole document. Associations may redact only the narrow categories their state statute allows, such as identity theft risk data or privileged communications. Not everything a board holds counts as a record subject to inspection at all.
Redaction is narrower than it sounds
Redacting a record means blacking out or removing one specific piece of information before handing the record over, not refusing to produce the record itself. Before a board reaches for a marker, it has to answer a prior question: is this document even a "record" an owner has a right to see in the first place?
"Not all documentation that the HOA may have constitutes a 'record' that is subject to inspection by a member."
Source: Inspection and Copying of Association Records, Tinnelly Law Group
That is a different question from executive session confidentiality. A state statute can carve certain categories, like executive session minutes, out of the inspectable-record category entirely. That is not the same thing as redacting part of an otherwise inspectable record, and the two get confused often. Check what your own state statute puts in each bucket.
What can actually be redacted
The categories a board may redact are set by its own state statute, and they are narrow. In California, the list includes information that could enable identity theft, material protected by attorney-client privilege or tied to litigation, executive session materials (with an exception for signed maintenance, management, or legal service contracts), employee personnel files, and another member's discipline or collection records. Florida, Texas, and Virginia each set their own, different lists. Confirm which categories apply to your association by reading your own state's statute.
Even inside a permitted category, the redaction can be narrower than boards expect. California specifically will not let an association redact compensation figures, only reorganize how they are presented.
"information concerning the compensation paid to employees, vendors, or contractors"
Source: California Civil Code Section 5215, California Legislature
That figure cannot be blacked out under that statute. It can only be organized by job title instead of by the individual's name. A board that redacts a vendor invoice amount because it feels private is applying an instinct the statute does not support.
Where redaction stops
Redaction is not a general escape hatch from a records request, and the response clock does not pause while a board decides what to black out.
"legal counsel may need to be engaged to review specific requests and ensure that records which are not official records, such as attorney-client privileged information, private medical information, personnel records, etc., are not inadvertently produced"
Source: Best Practices for Community Associations in Records Requests, Adams and Reese LLP
When a California association does withhold or redact something, it must state its legal basis in writing rather than simply omitting the material. Whether your state imposes the same written-basis requirement, and what happens if a board gets a redaction wrong, is not the same everywhere. Some states attach real consequences to a mishandled request. Ask your association's attorney before you rely on redaction to solve a records problem.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A California board gets a records request and wants to omit how much the landscaping vendor is paid. What should it do?
A board withholds a document an owner requested, calling it privileged only because the board discussed it in executive session. What is the flaw in that reasoning?
Under Texas Property Code, which of these may an association withhold from a general owner records request, absent a court order?
Sources
- California Civil Code Section 5215, California Legislature
- Florida Statutes Section 720.303, Florida Legislature
- Texas Property Code Section 209.005, Texas Legislature
- Code of Virginia Section 55.1-1815, Virginia General Assembly
- Inspection and Copying of Association Records, Tinnelly Law Group
- Best Practices for Community Associations in Records Requests, Adams and Reese LLP
Minutes & Official Records
Next, see exactly how fast the clock runs once a records request lands, redaction has to happen inside that window, not instead of it.
Which categories a board may redact, whether it must state its legal basis in writing, and what happens if it redacts something it shouldn't have, all vary by state and by your own governing documents.