Rescinding amendments to covenants

In 2009, amendments were drafted and voted on in our HOA. The initial board at the time made an honest mistake, and assumed the amendments had passed. They filed them with the register of deeds. Then months later a board member was doing research and found out they were short 5 votes. Long story short this caused a lot of turmoil and division within the neighborhood. The next board knowing the amendments were not valid just decided to do nothing and I mean nothing because of all of this. I believe quite childish but, we didn't live in the subdivision at the time. Anyway, it's 2013, no one manages nor enforces any type of restrictions, not even the original. So, what to do? There will be an election or appointment soon and I'm doing my homework. I'd like to get the HOA to start over. There are many members who want this as well. Tired of a dormant HOA, wondering what there dues are being spent on. That being said, my first few questions on this forum, how do you rescind amendments? What document would you file in the register of deeds for this project? Has anyone ever rescinded amendments? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Kelly

Kelly,

First read your declaration about how it may be amended. Many require that a certain percentage of owners indicate their approval of an amendment by signing a document that is then recorded. Some seem to authorize amendments by voting. What you need to verify is that voting is even a valid means of amendment and, if so, what must be recorded. That is, must the names of those who voted in favor be recorded or just a certificate from the secretary that enough members voted in favor of the amendment.

As to the more immediate problem of correcting the mistaken recording, you cannot remove recorded documents but you can record a corrective document. Best would be to pass a board resolution signed by all directors and the corporate secretary stating that the amendment recorded on page 123 in book 456 was recorded in error as there were insufficient votes and record that document with the county recorder.

MatthewW4, Thank you for the recommendation. All of our documents are easy to interpret. It seems most HOA's hire an attorney to do all necessary paperwork. Do you feel this would be necessary? -Kelly

We're in Summerville, Dorchester County, SC. I would love to have a functioning board. Got to believe in HOPE.

Kelly

Is your association owner controlled?

Is there a present BOD?

Basically there are two ways to change a BOD. The easiest is method get like minded people to run for and get elected to the BOD. It might take two election cycle to bring about a complete shift.

The other way is to recall some or all of the BOD and replace them with chosen people. This can get very sticky and very legal very fast. Not the best method.

Back to electing like minded people. You have got to read, reread, reread, your Bylaws as they will explain how people get elected to the BOD. Become familiar with the Quorum (people voting) needed to hold an election. Also how to adjourn and reconvene the meeting if a Quorum is not reached. In many cases the Quorum required gets cut in half when the meeting is reconvened. Typically 2/3rds of the owners are needed for an election meeting (in person or via proxy) to establish a Quorum. So let us say 133 out of 200. The reconvened meeting will need 67. The next time you will need 39 people. Several times my HOA in Mount Pleasant had to reconvene the Annual/Election Meeting twice (total of 3 meetings) to have a Quorum and get new people elected. Only once in 12 years did we have a Quorum at the first Annual Meeting.

Hope this helps.

Correction. As John pointed out (not Glen).

Fix this problem the same way that was used to create the issue. Re-file the old covenants with todays date. The old, incorrect, covenants cannot be deleted. You can only file new ones.