board business by e-mail

If you are talking about communicating amongst the Board, you can do that to a point.

You may e-mail proposals and information.

YOU MAY NOT discuss the issue. Discussing the issue, in my layman's opinion, would be violating FL 720.303 (2).

If you are discussing the issue, you are conducting business. Per that statute, click the link, "A meeting of the board of directors of an association occurs whenever a quorum of the board gathers to conduct association business. All meetings of the board must be open to all members . . ."

One could argue that a quorum is meeting via e-mail, hence denying the right of members to attend the meeting.

If it doesn't violate the letter of the law it would certainly violate the spirit of the law.

See the following for more info:

Do HOA board's emails violate the Sunshine Law? October 2013 article in the Herald-Tribune

Community Association Sunshine Law a pamphlet written by a legal firm.

HOA Email: Does Your State Permit Email for Handling Homeowner Association Business? a 2010 article written by an attorney

As per our Bylaws, it states that we can take actions without a meeting if they were actions that we would take at a board meeting, as long as we have written approval from all directors. Our board is only required to meet four times a year, and since we are also the ACC, we rely on email to do some of our business. We have chosen to have discussions via email in lieu of a meeting, Our most recent action via email was regarding the past due notices that the previous manager failed to take care of. (in fact, he tried to get us to sign a new agreement so that he could get paid for collections, which as per our contract with him he was already supposed to do.)

Reading Tim's advice is thought provoking and it is important to remember there is a difference between what you discuss in an open meeting and what you discuss in a closed one. Who was behind in dues would have been discussed in a closed meeting as it pertained to personal information about members.

ps. another lesson to be had, I was about to quote one of the Maryland codes that said we were allowed to use email or electronic methods to do some business, but I went and pulled it out to confirm it, before I wrote it,and it wasn't in that particular document, it was in our bylaws.

Just when you think you know the correct rule, law or code, it's always best to double check and I hope that everyone reading these questions, does go and find their own answers, it's a great way to learn all about your governing documents!

Maryland law allows for electronic transmission of notice(s) and for voting and proxy. There is no other reference to electronic transmission in the MHAA, therefore the Bylaws would trump the state code for this particular question. It is interesting to see how you have to volley the question around your documents. Some are referenced in all of them, in our case four of them.

I am in Texas. Does this Sunshine Law apply to Texas? Or if not, does Texas have some sort of "Sunshine Law"?

I am on the board of directors of our HOA. Been on only a couple of months. Which means I am just now starting to figure things out. I work in real estate, so I have a somewhat better understanding of HOA than the average person, but I realize getting on the board that I am not that prepared for this "job" and I imagine most people who serve aren't.

I am starting to have a problem with the President of the HOA. She has a son that we have hired for several "contracts". He was hired for several on the board term before mine. (I did not know that until I got on the board). Overall, I would not mind that he is her son and that we are paying him for jobs, but I have issues with his work, it's sub-par. And issues with how she goes about it, such as presenting bids for jobs for him that we (board) haven't even discussed a need for and no one has requested (that I know of). She appears to me to be running around looking for more jobs for him to do. She puts in his bids for things that are of less need (that he can do) rather than things that are more urgently needed(things he probably can't do). Recently I have noticed two invoices that MC paid for his work that I don't think were fully approved (we approved him to do them, but we hadn't approved the check payment). I don't delete any of my HOA emails and I only found one approval from one person for both of these two instances. Seemingly she should not even vote to approve since it's basically a conflict of interest. (This evening I stumbled on to the latest Texas legislation that addresses this, that there are rules for board members who contract, or their relatives who contract and I am glad of that, if I can figure out if he qualifies as a contractor. I assume he would as he is not an employee.) I think she emails the manager about things we don't know anything about (based on gaps in my understanding about certain matters, the gaps tell me I haven't heard it all.)Sometimes everyone is not cc'd. She (and only she) gets the email from the community (it goes to her personal email address). I notice some of the email that she forwards to us from the community -- she has censored parts of it. I suspect she emails the manager about things we don't know anything about. If she feels free to censor a specific email, I feel she probably feels free to consor "period", such as what she might choose to not forward to us. If there are complaints or concerns, that she can just ignore them or give her own reply. I think this is inappropriate, I think everyone on the board has a right to know everything that is said through email and that goes on period. Anyway, I think email is great but in this instance it is causing problems. (Yes, we do make the major decisions in executive session, but I think some decisions are slipping through via the email).

If anybody has any advice I'd appreciate it. I thought a group email (shared email box for all board members) would be a good idea, but I can tell you already that she won't go for it. She is controlling and domineering and of course, we could overrule her if I had the other board members cooperation. There are 3 other people on the board. They don't seem mousy exactly, but I am not sure they see through her as much as I do or are bothered by any of this. I have a lot of stress about all this. I am a straight arrow type person and I try to do the right thing when I serve on a board, at work, etc. and I feel that she is taking advantage of our association. Our last president actually cheated the association out of money (through services) and it's a terrible thought to me that we have replaced him with someone who is a little less than honest herself. Sadly, few people want to serve in our community, I don't even know if there is anyone to replace her.
Thanks.

Vicki,

Texas Homeowner Associations would need to comply with the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act (Title 11, Chapter 209 of TX statutes).

Texas Condominium Associations would need to comply with Title 7, chapter 81 or Title 7, Chapter 82 (whichever is applicable) of the Texas Statutes.

Associations that are also incorporated as a nonprofit (most are) would also need to comply with Title 2. Corporations; Chapter 22. Nonprofit Corporations of the Texas Business Organization Code.

You may view Texas Statutes at: http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/

Per TX Statutes Sec. 209.0051 (scroll down to that section):

(c) Regular and special board meetings must be open to owners, subject to the right of the board to adjourn a board meeting and reconvene in closed executive session to consider actions involving personnel, pending or threatened litigation, contract negotiations, enforcement actions, confidential communications with the property owners' association's attorney, matters involving the invasion of privacy of individual owners, or matters that are to remain confidential by request of the affected parties and agreement of the board. Following an executive session, any decision made in the executive session must be summarized orally and placed in the minutes, in general terms, without breaching the privacy of individual owners, violating any privilege, or disclosing information that was to remain confidential at the request of the affected parties. The oral summary must include a general explanation of expenditures approved in executive session.

(e) Members shall be given notice of the date, hour, place, and general subject of a regular or special board meeting, including a general description of any matter to be brought up for deliberation in executive session. The notice shall be:

(1) mailed to each property owner not later than the 10th day or earlier than the 60th day before the date of the meeting; or

(2) provided at least 72 hours before the start of the meeting by:

(A) posting the notice in a conspicuous manner reasonably designed to provide notice to property owners' association members:

(i) in a place located on the association's common property or, with the property owner's consent, on other conspicuously located privately owned property within the subdivision; or

(ii) on any Internet website maintained by the association or other Internet media; and

(B) sending the notice by e-mail to each owner who has registered an e-mail address with the association.

Hope this helps,

Tim

Jim

As you can see there are differences from documents to documents and even trickier, from state to state.

In my HOA we are transitioning from the developer to we owners. While overall it has been cordial and polite, we have one cantankerous owner who moved here from FL and keeps spouting about how it was done in FL. When push comes to shove he does not understand how it is done in SC but also he does not even understand how it was properly done in FL.

I have politely/professionally called him out enough that I have may have gotten him to read our docs and SC Articles of Incorporation. He did, at least one time, admit his prior comments were incorrect concerning SC.

In Florida the Sunshine Laws do NOT apply to condo or homeowners associations. Period.

In Florida Board Members have the right to share information between Board Meetings. They are NOT allowed to make decisions nor vote on issues that will be discussed at upcoming board meetings.

Board Members should be informed and aware of ALL issues (if they're GOOD board members) before attending a meeting of the Board. Sharing opinions on topics with other Board Members is NOT considered to be a violation of the statutes. It's no different than swapping talks at the mailboxes or in the parking lot. That is the only way they'll be informed, educated and able to make decisions, and VOTE at a properly called Board Meeting.

If Board Members didn't share information, stats, price quotes, bids, maintenance issues, etc.; BEFORE Board Meetings, they'd have to have a "board meeting" every, single day. They'd show up at meetings TOTALLY unprepared...and waste EVERYONE'S time.

Common every-day financial, maintenance, upkeep, and day-to-day operations do NOT warrant a Board Meeting. The board is entrusted to "run" the Association on a day-to-day basis. NO Board Meeting needed. They were elected to do these jobs. Let them