Indiana HEA 1210: HOA Rental Votes Go Homestead-Only and Cities Lose Rental Caps on July 1, 2026

Indiana HEA 1210: HOA Rental Votes Go Homestead-Only and Cities Lose Rental Caps on July 1, 2026

Starting July 1, Indiana House Enrolled Act 1210 strips non-occupant investors of any vote on HOA rental restrictions and bars cities and counties from capping residential rentals in their communities, citing HEA 1210 (2026 Reg. Sess.), signed March 12, 2026.

Information last verified on June 26, 2026. This is a developing story; we update it as the record changes.

Status: Signed by Gov. Mike Braun on March 12, 2026; takes effect July 1, 2026. As of June 26, 2026 the new rules are not yet in force.

Jurisdiction scope: This article addresses Indiana HOA law and local government authority over residential rentals only. It is general legal information, not legal advice. For broader context see our Indiana landlord-tenant laws page and the national landlord-tenant law hub.

What Happened

During the 2026 Regular Session, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Bill 1210 by wide margins: 91-3 in the House and 48-0 in the Senate. Governor Mike Braun signed the measure into law on March 12, 2026, and it is enrolled as House Enrolled Act 1210.

The legislation addresses two distinct problems that its sponsors identified in Indiana's housing market.

The first concerns HOA governance. Under prior law, all members of a homeowners association could vote on any association matter, including whether to restrict or prohibit owners from renting their properties. Critics argued that investor-owners who do not live in the community had an outsized incentive to vote for rental restrictions that protected their investment values, while the property-owner residents who actually live in the neighborhood had no special protection in that vote.

HEA 1210 changes this by tying voting eligibility on rental matters to Indiana's homestead property-tax deduction. Beginning July 1, 2026, only a member who uses the property as a homestead under that statute may vote on any HOA rental prohibition or restriction. An investor who owns a home in the association but does not occupy it as a primary residence retains all other HOA membership rights but loses the right to vote on rental restrictions.

The second concern is local government authority. Several Indiana municipalities had adopted ordinances that capped the percentage of homes in a subdivision that could be used as rentals. Fishers, for example, had a rule limiting rentals to 10 percent of homes in a given subdivision. Proponents of HEA 1210 argued that such caps reduce housing supply and are incompatible with Indiana's broader home-rule framework for residential property.

The law bars local governments from adopting or enforcing any ordinance, resolution, regulation, policy, or rule that prohibits or restricts an owner of privately owned residential property from using that property as a rental, or that has the practical effect of doing so. Cities and counties may still enforce building codes, health and safety standards, and reasonable occupancy limits; the preemption is targeted at density-based rental caps and outright use prohibitions.

Two carve-outs soften the transition. Local ordinances adopted before January 1, 2026, are exempt from the preemption until January 1, 2028, giving communities like Fishers and Carmel a transition window to unwind their rules. Short-term rental restrictions adopted before 2018 are grandfathered, although HEA 1210 also narrows the statutory definition of a short-term rental, which limits that protection for some communities.

Both sets of changes take effect July 1, 2026.

What the Law Actually Says

HEA 1210 operates on two layers of Indiana law.

The first layer is the Indiana Homeowners Associations Act, codified at IC 32-25.5. That statute governs the formation, governance, and powers of homeowners associations across the state. HEA 1210 amends this framework by linking rental-related voting rights to the homestead property-tax deduction. The homestead deduction under Indiana law (IC 6-1.1-12-37) applies to a property that an owner uses as a primary residence; it is a standard property-tax benefit that Indiana homeowners claim each year. By making that deduction status the dividing line for HOA rental votes, the legislature ties membership participation rights to whether the owner actually lives in the community.

Under the amended rules, a member who qualifies under the homestead deduction may vote on rental prohibitions or restrictions. A member who does not qualify cannot cast such a vote. The provision is limited to rental matters; investor-owners retain their general association membership and all other voting rights, including board elections and non-rental assessments.

The second layer is Indiana's home-rule framework. Indiana is a Dillon's Rule state for many purposes, meaning local governments derive their authority from the state. The legislature may preempt local action in specific areas, and HEA 1210 does so explicitly for residential rental regulation. After July 1, a city or county may not adopt or enforce a rule that caps rental density, prohibits owners from renting, or has the effect of restricting rental use, even if it is framed as a zoning or land-use measure rather than a rental-specific ordinance.

The retained carve-out for building codes, health and safety standards, and reasonable occupancy limits is deliberate. Those categories of local regulation address conditions within a rental unit and the number of people who may occupy it; they are not density caps on how many units in a neighborhood may be rented at all. The preemption draws a line between supply-side restrictions and condition-based regulation.

The January 1, 2028 sunset date for pre-2026 ordinances and the grandfather for pre-2018 short-term rental restrictions reflect political compromises that allowed the bill to move through both chambers with minimal opposition. Those carve-outs do not affect the new HOA voting rule, which takes effect on July 1 with no transition period.

For landlords and tenants in Indiana generally, the broader legal framework that governs residential rentals remains the Indiana Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Our Indiana landlord-tenant laws page covers that framework, and our national landlord-tenant law hub offers comparison context across states including California landlord-tenant laws and Florida landlord-tenant laws.

Analysis: Why This Matters

The following is analysis from the Recording Law Editorial Team.

HEA 1210 is notable for the scope of what it does simultaneously: it realigns private governance within HOAs and withdraws a category of regulatory power from local governments, both with a single effective date.

The homestead-only voting rule is a structural change to HOA democracy. Most HOA statutes treat membership as a function of property ownership, not occupancy. By introducing the homestead deduction as a filter, Indiana is introducing an occupancy-based distinction into association governance. The practical effect depends on how many investor-owners exist in a given association and how concentrated their voting power was on rental questions. In subdivisions with high investor ownership, the shift could meaningfully change the outcome of rental-restriction votes. In associations with few investor-owners, the change may have little immediate effect.

The local preemption is the broader-reaching provision for policy purposes. Several Indiana communities built rental-cap ordinances as a tool to manage neighborhood character and housing availability. Whether percentage caps on rentals actually serve those goals is contested; advocates for the preemption argued they reduce supply and drive up costs, while some local officials argued the caps protected homeownership rates. HEA 1210 removes the local option entirely for prospective ordinances. The transition window for communities with pre-2026 ordinances delays but does not prevent the end of those rules.

The grandfather for pre-2018 short-term rental restrictions is the narrowest carve-out. It appears to preserve rules that some communities put in place when short-term rental platforms first gained scale, without extending that protection to newer ordinances.

Taken together, the two provisions reflect a consistent legislative direction: moving control over rental market access upward from local governments and HOA majorities toward individual property owners and state law. How courts interpret the preemption's scope and how HOAs administer the new homestead-based voter eligibility are questions the record has not yet answered.

How This Affects You

For homeowners in Indiana HOAs generally, the change that arrives July 1 is one of governance: who gets to vote when an HOA takes up a rental restriction. If you own a home as your primary residence and claim the homestead deduction, you remain eligible to vote on those questions. If you own investment property in an HOA but do not live there, you will not be eligible to cast a ballot on rental restrictions starting July 1.

For HOA boards, the new eligibility standard requires identifying which members qualify as homestead occupants before any vote on rental matters. Boards managing the transition should review their voting procedures in light of the new statute.

For small landlords and rental property owners, the local preemption removes one category of local restriction from the landscape going forward. Landlords in communities that had percentage caps should understand that their local ordinance may remain in effect under the grandfather clause until January 1, 2028, after which the state preemption applies.

For renters, the effects depend on how property owners respond to the changed environment. This article covers what the law says, not predictions about market behavior.

None of this is advice about any specific situation, lease, or HOA dispute.

What Happens Next

Both provisions of HEA 1210 take effect on July 1, 2026, which is four days away as of the date of this article. No further legislative action is required for either the HOA voting change or the local preemption to become operative.

For communities with pre-2026 rental-cap ordinances, the operative deadline is January 1, 2028. Between July 1, 2026 and that date, their existing caps remain in effect under the grandfather provision. On January 1, 2028, the state preemption reaches those ordinances as well, and communities that have not repealed or amended them will find them unenforceable.

Short-term rental restrictions adopted before 2018 are grandfathered from the preemption, though the act's narrower statutory definition of a short-term rental can still affect some older local rules.

For HOAs, the July 1 effective date means that any vote on a rental restriction held on or after that date must apply the new homestead-based eligibility rule. Votes taken before July 1 under the prior rules would be governed by prior law.

We will update this article as the record develops, including any litigation or guidance interpreting the homestead voter eligibility provision or the scope of the local preemption.

This is general legal information, not legal advice. It covers Indiana HOA and landlord-tenant law and reflects sources verified on June 26, 2026. Laws change and this story is developing; consult a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction about your specific situation.

Sources

• Indiana General Assembly, HEA 1210 (House Bill 1210, 2026 Regular Session), bill details: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2026/bills/house/1210/details
• Chip Garver and Lacey Berkshire, "Legislature's overhaul expands housing supply, reins in HOAs," The Indiana Lawyer (2026): https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/chip-garver-and-lacey-berkshire-legislatures-overhaul-expands-housing-supply-reins-in-hoas
• "New Indiana law blocks cities from limiting rental homes in neighborhoods," WTHR (2026): https://www.wthr.com/article/money/whats-the-deal/new-indiana-law-blocks-cities-limiting-rental-homes-neighborhoods-whats-the-deal-politics/531-617c8928-a4d1-415f-bf4c-8102cc98af95
• "New Indiana law bans local rental caps and reshapes short-term rental rules," Avalara MyLodgeTax (May 2026): https://www.avalara.com/mylodgetax/en/blog/2026/05/indiana-bans-city-caps-on-rental-properties.html
• Indiana Homeowners Associations Act, IC 32-25.5: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/laws/2025/ic/titles/032#32-25.5
• Indiana homestead property-tax deduction, IC 6-1.1-12-37: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/laws/2025/ic/titles/006#6-1.1-12-37

Related articles

• Indiana landlord-tenant laws
• Landlord-tenant law hub
• California landlord-tenant laws
• Florida landlord-tenant laws

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Last updated: 2026-06-26. This is a developing story; details verified as of 2026-06-26.