By Law Ammendment Not Approved By Entire Board.

Hi Everyone.
One of our board members wanted to make changes in one of our By-laws, and unilaterally had our management company send out letters to our entire community asking for a yes, or no vote, after our attorney drafted the proposed change.
The entire board did not approve this By-Law change, or letter. It is my belief that the entire board must approve such a by-law change, as well as approve that the letter be sent out.
Am I correct in this? This is for a Florida HOA.
What can be done to correct the situation i, assuming I am correct.?
Thanks for any thoughts and input.
Fred.

Don't assume. Start with reading your bylaws to see exactly how they should be changed. Most of the time, this isn't just a Board decision - a certain percentage of homeowners have to approve it.

Could it be the association attorney has come up with a draft, the board voted on the draft and will be sending out a letter to the homeowners for their input and approval? Take a look at previous board meeting minutes to review the history of these changes and if it's not entirely clear, go to a board meeting and ask them.

The bylaws may also allow certain policies to be adopted by the board provided they don't contradict the Bylaws and CCRs. For example, your bylaws might say delinquent homeowners aren't allowed to vote - the board may adopt policies that call for notifying homeowners of their status before an annual meeting in which there will be an election. Or it might adopt procedures on how homeowner eligibility will be checked and who will do it before the meeting.

Now if your board is trying to do an end run around the bylaws, you'll have the citations in hand and can point this out to them. Let them explain what they're doing and if they can't or won't, you could talk to your fellow homeowners and see if you might want to recall these people (read the bylaws again to see how that should be done). If things get to this point, remember, you'll need to have people at the ready to take over.

Fred poses an interesting question. What’s to prevent anyone, owner or not, from mailing out an amendment ballot? What if, say, Attila the Hun, mailed out amendment ballots and they were approved by the membership? Would the amendment be legitimate?

Fred, what puzzles me is that there is something about landscaping in your Bylaws. Can you say the exact name of the document in which you see the landscaping article and section?

Are you on the Board, Fred?

Hello, Kerry,

Yes, I am on the board.
There are 5 of us. I am VP.
Only 2 agreed to amend an article regarding lawn and trimming. Our By-Laws require unanimous approval of any amendments, or changes in By-laws.
The document is part of of The Declarations,. covenants and restrictions regarding Landscaping responsibilities.
.Up to now, the HOA is reponsible for ALL outside trimming of hedges and trees. It is part of our Dues.
The reason that this board member wants residents to be responsible, is because our lawn maintenance guys do not have Workmens comp insurance. (The regular yearly tree trimming company we hire, does have all proper insurance.)
I want all our suppliers to have proper insurance, so amending a by-law so that the one guy does not have to cut anything higher than 8' is not the way to solve a problem.
Hope this clarifies.
Fred.

So, Fred, this landscape article/section is actually in your CC&Rs, what you call "The Declaration of covenants and restrictions," right?

Can you convince the rest of the Board to vote to rescind the so called amendment? Basically NpS' "B" above.

In my HOA, and I think most if not all, the board first must approve an amendment to the bylaws or to the CC&Rs. But it does not usually have to be unanimous. You need to read both of those documents and find out what they say about amending each one. Must the board agree unanimously to proposed amendments?

I also don't know the requirements for voting that're probably in your Bylaws and certainly in FL about elections procedures.

Seconded.

The president wants this because the Association has hired a lawn maintenance company that doesn’t have workman’s comp????? That’s just foolish – does he not know that it’s good business practice to only hire vendors who have the proper insurance, permits and licenses to do whatever the Association wants them to do? If someone gets injured doing work for your association, this could put the Association at risk for being held responsible. Workers can also get injured if they stay on the ground and a branch from an 8 foot tree or higher falls and wallops them in the head.

If the company doesn’t have the right insurance and is too cheap to get it, you need another vendor, not a bylaw amendment. I suspect the real reason the president came up with this nonsense is because he’s too cheap to hire someone with the proper credentials. (Thus making me wonder if he have any financial connection with these people? Maybe you should check)

What really needs to happen is for you and the other board members to consider placing this guy as president – usually the homeowners pick the board members and the board members appoint officers among themselves, so you shouldn’t need a bylaw for that either.. Then, you should establish a board policy that every vendor hired by the association to prune trees, cut grass or whatever MUST provide verifiable proof of insurance and licenses.

While you’re at it, you may want to insist that the Association also be release from any liens from subcontractors (if the main vendor doesn’t pay them, they might go after the Association for payment and you don’t want that either).

Contractors should have insurance and before signing a contract this should be investigated. You would be better off cancelling the contract.

Also, vendors are not subject to By-Laws or rules of the association. Sounds like you need to develop some rules that are not in conflict with the By-Laws etc.

Not sure I understand how the By-Laws expressly determines how you achieve landscaping responsibilities but understand that would be the responsibility for the association to maintain the common elements. It would then be the Boards responsibility to secure a vendor and determine by (rules) how the grounds should look. That would be achieved by writing rules and seeking a majority of Board approval.

Find info on contract components/examples. Your state (Department of professional and occupational lookup) should have a means to check contractors for license etc.