Roger, Please elaborate

Paul, I am saying there is a difference between a MEMBER and an OWNER. A member who is delinquent can be restricted from voting at membership meetings and use of common area facilities. But CC&RS require a percentage of ALL OWNERS to amend. So yes, it is because it is a major decision since the CC&Rs are part of the owners deed to their property. By comparison, the By-laws can sometimes be amended by as few as a majority of a quorum of MEMBERS present at a meeting.

This post conjures up all kinds of scenerios, especially in view of the increases in foreclosures seen across the nation.

Explain, please, if you will, some more about how votes are concidered. Our Board and most owners consider the vote in our condo to be one man/one vote and majority at an annual meeting can prevail and change the CC&R's by a motion to suspend the rules. I say we are not a majority vote society, we are an apportioned society, hence majority does not rule. I also believe proxie votes should only be counted for a specific vote, not a blanket permission for the holer to vote on all issues. Anyway, it would be appreciated if you could expand your post.
Thank you

Melissa,
Should have specified that the explanation be for condominiums.
I think your explanation may be for HOA's.

I had another thought you might want to consider. If it requires 75% of all owners then the total number of owners can be greater than the number of lots. An owner is the name on the deed and you can have more than one per lot.

If you want your amendment to be ironclad and stand up in court you will need to make sure that you have addressed everything that someone might throw out as an argument for why what you did was invalid. Amendments typically cost thousands of dollars and so do taking things to court. If you loose because the amendment is ruled invalid, then you are back to where you were prior to the amendment and you have the legal fees of both sides to pay. If you are going to do it; you had better do it right.

Brad, this method sounds like the right way to do it. It's a hands on experience with those voting for an amendment change, and no proxies are needed. Sounds on the up and up and legit to me.

Please excuse my lousy tying Brad

Hi Brad:

It's one vote per lot/unit. Some deeds may have a husband or wife only listed on the deed (best to make sure the right person signs the proxy).

It's also wise to consider amending your documents so that only one owner of a lot can be on the board at any given time (no husband & wife teams on the board).

Melissa, I've seen documents where it's not required that board members be lot/unit owners.

In Oregon I've seen proxies that have three categories:
1) Proxy for quorum only - no voting power
2) Directed proxy - tells how to vote; directed to Board or individual
3) Proxy to either person or board to vote as they please.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

Check both your documents and state law for the definition of "owner". Very often it will mean one individual regardless of how many names are on the deed. In that case you will need a "designated voter" form indicating who has the actual voting privilege for that home/unit. I've almost never seen documents that allow for multiple votes per unit.

Joe

To all,
Maybe it would be a good idea to start a new subject to avoid confusion.
It seems to me that what we are talking about, in part, is:
How much should the BOD involve the Association in Property Documents.
Certainly for a Condominium, I believe the BOD is responsibility to the Real Property and all that pertains. Our documents explicity explains that. Our Board refuses to accept that mandate and we suffer untold problems because they want to make Ownership a Democratic Function with majority rule. Example: We just held our annual meeting and maybe there was fifty in attendence. The president ask the attendees if they wanted to do specific repair work (50K) or add to reserve fund and do another special assessment in adition to the current one. Then he asked for a show of hands and declared the majority wanted to do the repairs and not add to Reserve, in fact the plan is to take money from the Reserve account. There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin. There were multiple owners there(more than one owner of a unit), there was husband and wives present, and for all I know there could have been some guy that just happened to walk by and thought he would drop in. Our presidents view is that the Board should not get involved in items such as what the deed says, who owns what, what and who the mortgagor or mortgagee is and what kind of mortgage they have, and whether there are mortgage riders or restrictions involved. They also give information out to lenders about the association over the phone. This is all wrong in my view but in my opinion our documents assign resposibility of the Board and the owners to the REAL PROPERTY, and anything else is of lower rank.

You are going to have the check your documents. For mine there is a slight distinction but the Owner is the one on the deed while a member is an Owner that is not just carrying out their duty. The only thing I can think that means is that the bank isn't a member. We have never made a distinct as we expect them to pay the dues until they sell it.

Our association became self managed recently and we are in the process of drawing up policies and rules/regulations for everything. As the President I am drafting the first few versions which are then discussed by the board and revised. Both Florida law and our governing documents are very clear to say "Owner" and under the definition of Owner for both specify the name on the deed. As such the Owner is the one listed in all correspondence from the Association, is able to sit on the appeals board and can vote at Member meetings. There is nothing that would prevent anyone else in the household from running for the Board of Directors, volunteering in the neighborhood or sitting on another sub-committee but since the rules specify "Owner" we are careful to note the difference.

I don't want a court or arbiter ruling to not be in our favor because we didn't note that distinct. You have to read and then reread your governing documents and state statutes to see what it really says. When you begin to set up policies or make community wide decisions you can’t assume you know what it is in the governing documents; you have to make certain that you are complying.

Brad,
Also your documents as you describe the difference between member and owner could well mean: Owner appointed by members of single unit to hold vote (duty) and other owners are members are just that (Members that have assigned their share of single vote that each unit holds.)

JosephW is correct in my 25 years of managing I have never seen documents that allow multiple votes. The norm is one vote per household, no split votes.