Notice?

At our annual meeting the owners present were asked to vote on the "approved" agents. This vote was not part of the meeting notification or agenda (it came under new business but was not specified on the agenda) nor was it ever a part of an annual meeting in the past 20 years. All of a sudden it was brought up.
My question is was this legal? I believe based on the master deed the proper notice to the Co-owners was not given and there for this was not legal (owners that rent (using a rental company) and do not rent were not present to vote, nor where they notified)

As per our master deed
RECOMMENDATION OF RENTAL AGENTS: At the annual meeting
of the Council, or such other meeting of the Council as is designated
by the Board, the Board may, upon notice to the Co-Owners, recommend
for the approval of the Council one or more agents for the rental of
apartments during the forthcoming year.

Kerry

From SC Horizontal Property Act:

(d) "Co-owner" means a person, firm, corporation, partnership, association, trust or other legal entity, or any combination thereof, who owns an apartment within the building;

(e) "Council of co-owners" means all the co-owners as defined in subsection (d) of this section; but a majority, as defined in subsection (h) of this section, shall, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, constitute a quorum for the adoption of decisions;

I am not nor do I play a lawyer.

Keep in mind that in SC this act applies to high rise, common ownership buildings as in share halls, elevators, etc. meaning apartment/condo style buildings. It does not apply to HOA's that are not apartment style buildings such as townhomes, individual homes, etc.

I think (and I could be wrong) the issue applies to whom is the "official" rental agent for the building. I would think this does not prohibit an owner from renting to whomever but as I said, I could be wrong.

JohnC46 - what about the notice to co-owners? If they were not informed in the agenda can this vote go through?

Speaking in very general terms, any decision that must be put to a vote generally requires pre-announcement of the specific question with the actual wording to everyone who is entitled to vote. The notice or lack of notice often determines whether people understand fully what may be decided at the meeting and whether people should even bother to come to the meeting to vote. Improper notice will make the vote inoperative on due process grounds.

So from your reference to your master deed we can see that the decision belongs to the council of owners - which means that you should have been fully notified.

But as John said, if the "approved" agent isn't an "exclusive" agent, and you can choose your own agent instead, then your functional rights haven't been infringed on and the vote, while technically deficient, isn't worth fighting about.

New to this site,
I currently moved to a gated community in which does not have a HOA yet. The builder told me that once the community is full the HOA will start. My question is, if i decide to add something to my house (I.e Solar panels to the roof of the house) without having an HOA in place, could the HOA make me remove the panels or this could be consider grandfather in since I place the panels prior to the HOA.

Oh, to start a new topic, simply click on the words "add new topic" located just above the blue bar listing all the different discussions.

The reason to start a new topic is because your question has nothing to do with notice requirements (the heading of this topic). This can make it difficult for future readers to locate the advice provided to you if they have a similar situation.