Help Interpret this voting requirement

Started by ChrisP5 • 9 replies • 1349 views

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ChrisP5 (Missouri)
Posts: 165

Posted:

Here is what our bylaws say about approving the annual budget for the association

"Unless at that meeting the (budget) and the suggested interest rates, are rejected by unit owners who own more than 60% in aggregate of the allocated interests in the condominium then in such event the (budget) and the interest rates shall be ratified, whether or not a quorum of unit owners is present"

In this case does "in aggregate" mean 60% at the meeting or 60% of all unit owners? I am leaning toward all unit owners but wanted to see what others thought.

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767

Posted:

Here is my interpretation of that mess.

60% of the unit owners must disapprove by either a combination in person, by proxy or by ballot, otherwise the budget and the interest rates go as presented.

Who in the hell dreams this stuff up???

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Richard ... Lawyers!!!! Have you not noticed, they do not speak ENGLISH.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

AGGREGATE. A collection of particular persons or items, formed into one body; as a corporation aggregate, which is one formed of a number of natural persons; the union of individual charges make an aggregate charge.

per

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.

Therefore, my layman's opinion is that it would be 60% of the membership not the members present.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

The aggregate would be:

60% in aggregate of the allocated interests in the condominium.

The question should be: what is allocated interests (ownership?, units? )

ChrisP5 (Missouri)
Posts: 165

Posted:

In our case allocated interests are based the the percentage of the total square footage that each unit owns. We have 10,000 total votes in our assocation, 1 type of unit gets 40 votes, the other type gets 48. We also pay assessments based on allocated interests.

We didn't come up with this system on our own, it was writen by a lawyer when the condo was created.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 388

Posted:

Chris,k

So you would need 60% of the total votes or 6,000 votes. There are many condo assn's that are set up this way. I believe the thinking is that since the HOA is resp for maint, replacement, etc of so many parts of a unit (roof, walls, etc) it's only fair that a member with a larger unit has more of a vote than a member of a smaller unit, likewise with paying a higher or lower assessment.

DennisT (Ohio)
Posts: 109

Posted:

The aggregation language also deals with situations in which one entity owns multiple units. In most cases this would be the developer in the early stages of development but at my previous condo a single family trust owned three units for three different people. Let's say there were 10 units total.

If we went by 60% of the members, that would mean there were only eight members. Units 1-7 were each owned by unique entities, and units 8-10 were owned by a single entity. In this case, 60% would mean five members. Thus entities with a greater ownership interest would actually see their voting power diluted because despite owning three times what another owner has their votes count equally.

If you go by 60% of the aggregate, that would mean the votes representing 60% of the units (regardless of ownership) must approve. In this case the owner with three properties gets three votes. Probably the fairer way since it is presumably paying three times the assessments.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 388

Posted:

Dennis,

I know this is going to sound awfully confusing, however. . .

Ownership of a lot/unit constitutes one membership so if one person owns 3 lots/units then they have 3 memberships. If there are 60 units/lots there will always be 60 memberships. Also, if a member owns more than one lot/unit they are charged an assessment for each lot/unit.

DennisT (Ohio)
Posts: 109

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MaryA1 on 10/14/2010 10:50 AM
Dennis,

I know this is going to sound awfully confusing, however. . .

Ownership of a lot/unit constitutes one membership so if one person owns 3 lots/units then they have 3 memberships. If there are 60 units/lots there will always be 60 memberships. Also, if a member owns more than one lot/unit they are charged an assessment for each lot/unit.

In our case the Bylaws specifically defined a member as as a unique entity without regard to how many units they held. We had the similar aggregate language to make it clear that multiple ownerships gave multiple votes. IMHO it just made things more confusing than necessary but Janet hit it right on the head. It was written by the lawyers (just so years later they could argue on the clock about what they meant)!

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