HOA Special Meetings, NC

Working with 3 HOA Boards, one as a member of the association (homeowner). A majority of homeowners pettioned the Board and management company on Dec. 1st, 2010 to hold a specail meeting to remove the board. Now the fun begins! How long does the Board have to call the Special meeting by state law and which law takes precedence (This is a condominium association which was established in 1979). The attorney for the association references 47C-3-108 Meetings. However, under 47C-1-102 Applicability it states it applies to condominiums created with this State after October 1, 1986? Does this count? Also, how many homeowners (what percentage) does it take to make quorum? 47C-3-109 Quorums states 20% of the homeowners, unless bylaws state a larger percentage which I believe is 2/3 of the association. There are no provisions for special meetings in the bylaws or covenants only annaual meetings where special meeting are mentioned. Help!

Allen,

As Kelly recommended you should follow your attorneys advise.

Typically a special meeting for a recall would be no different procedurally then a special meeting for any other issue.

You will need to follow any notice requirements
You will need to have to meet a quorum (I would expect it would be the same quorum number as needed to elect)
You will need to have a simple agenda

Again, just like any other meeting the Association would hold of the general membership.

Order of Precedence is typically:

Fed Laws
State Laws
Declaration of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs)
Articles of Incorporation (although it's rare that the Articles and CC&Rs conflict)
Bylaws
Resolutions (adopted by the Board).

However, many State laws defer to the governing documents. Therefore, you would need to read the law to see if it applies or defers control to your documents.

If there is an issue that caused the membership to go through the motions for a recall, I would usually recommend that you run things past your Association attorney. Perhaps even spend the funds to have legal representation at the meeting. Since you already have an attorney involved you are already taking those steps. Therefore, you should heed their advise as they know the specifics that members of this board do not and it's the knowledge (or lack of knowledge) of those specifics that can make advise offered good or bad.

Tim

Susan's comment's, among the others are valid for a number of reasons.

If I read the OP right, plans and activities have resulted in a call for special meeting to recall the Board. In my opinion the only correct way to replace the entire board.
Now, if this is so, I would highly recommend to anyone involved in this process that the entire issue be planned out. This would include, among a host of other things, the complete procedure for the meeting and the steps that follow this meeting. Include who is going to conduct the meeting, who is getting appointed or voted to conduct the transition, and the candidates for the new Board. If any part of this falls apart, chaos my happen and order will not rule. There should be a named and published list of all the meetings, seating of the new Board and a date of the first meeting of the new Board. Be sure you have the fire power and legal authority to carry this all off from beginning to end. Be open and above board and don't print anything you can't produce.

IMHO.........I have been involved in this and I have seen it work other places, including following the procedure on this site.

I need help on this same topic. We have 230 homeowners in our SC HOA.
We have about 8 homes in foreclosure and many others inarrears. Their votes do not count. We have now gathered 116 signatures to remove the Board for major mismanagement. We have set up a meeting for 15 days from today. We have to send out a flyer giving 7 days notice. This has been a very hard struggle since 1/2 the h/o are out of state. We are only sending the meeting flyer to the local h/o. We sent ballots to the out of state h/o with the info last month.
Now our property mgmnt company will not help,or get involved, or show up at our Special Meeting. We are not allowed to use the clubhouse unless we pay $275 to rent the room, as this is not a meeting sanctioned by our current board.

My question is, after we meet and only say 20 people show up for the vote and we have about 110 to remove them and 6 to keep them..... how do we get the property mgmnt company to turn over the books and accept the votes. I have sent the PMC a copy of the by -laws which state the President has to call a special meeting if at least 10% of the community signs a petition on any issue.
We have no access to a lawyer. However,the board is looking to hire one to fight us with our HOA fees. I was on this HOA talk in early DEC and read every word of advice. Any more advice?

The board has access to all the hoa funds to hire a lawyer. We are just 5 people who want them out. We petitioned the neighbors but have very liitle attendance at the board meetings. (people like to complain but do not get involved).
Again I posted on here in Dec. our board went to a mediation and signed our pool/clubhouse over to a neghboring hoa 'by mistake'. We get to rent the clubhouse now (hence the $275 for our special meeting) and pay $270/yr to swim. They did not want to disclose the mediation until 2 days before election and the ballots were already in.
I THOUGHT I DID NOT HAVE TO GO TO COURT...But I do know how to file at smalls claims court. Should I?

I thought a Small Clms Court Judge (is that the same as a Summary Court decision?) could enforce the will of the homeowners' petitions and our vote after the special meeting.
So basically this is not going to work after all this work unless we go to court.?
After we count the ballots at next weeks 'special meeting' and claim victory what do we do? Will the property mgmnt company have to accept tis?

If this is an organizational meeting great. However, if you intend this meeting as your recall meeting, failure to send notice to everyone (including those out of state) can invalidate any results as not everyone was notified.

Typically the following steps would be required to recall a board (but check your documents):

1. Petition is circulated to the membership for the purposes of calling a special meeting to recall the existing board or individual members of the Board.

2. Petition is submitted to the board, copy to the management office, copy to the registered agent. along with a letter basically saying that in accordance with the governing documents the members whose signature appears on the attached petitions call for a special meeting to by held within x days for the purpose of recalling the Board of directors and, if successfully recalled to replace directors with a new election.

NOTE: x days should be the minimum time required to verify signatures, print information and mail notices. I would recommend 1 wk + required notice time.

3. If the Board refuses to answer or refuses to hold the meeting (and all signatures are valid) then the recall people need to arrange the meeting doing all the work the Board would typically do.
This would include the following:

a) Have a list of replacement candidates
b) Arrange meeting time and place
c) Get membership list and mail notices with cover letter and proxy form (if proxies are allowed)
d) Print agendas, ballots
e) Send special invitation to registered agent, individual board members and management company
f) Hold meeting (giving each board member the right to make a statement and answer questions)
g) Hold Vote for recall
h) Count the votes and announce results
i) If successful hold vote for new directors
j) Count the votes and announce results
k) By certified mail, send meeting results to each existing member of the Board, the Management Company and the Registered agent stating when books are expected to be turned over, date/time of next board meeting, etc.
l) If Board refuses to step down and/or turn over records -legal action may be required to force the turnover

Hope this helps.