Developer Control Election

Started by ConchoP • 18 replies • 1268 views

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ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

Per our bylaws are developer 'Class B Member" get 3 votes to homeowners 1.

The developer owns close to 80+ lots. We are voting our first board members, since he never appointed any directors nor held meetings..blah,blah,blah...you know it's an ugly mess.

Anyway my question is: In Texas, who is responsible to give the members running the elections ALL the address the developer owns. We know if he votes he will vote via proxy and has to provide address just as any other member. How are we to validate address if they are not provided? We were provided a list from his sectary, that she pulled from the appraisal district and a few additional ones that were in closing and not online yet.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

The Association should have a members list showing the lots they own.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

As stated above the address the secretary gave us is all we were provided.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Then those would be the addresses.

I expect that the Association is still under control of the Developer.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

Yes and no, yes because he can out vote us. No because he no longer on the board of directors.

If we are unable to verify all his address how can they count as a vote? We were given about 30 addresses because they are listed in the appraisal district website.The other are only plated. Should we be expected to verify by plats?

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Concho,

Are you on the Board?

The Association should know how many lots there are. If they do not, or if you do not, then a trip to the local land office to find out would be in order.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

As stated above, we are electing our board,currently we have no board of directors. The only address we have is what the developer has given us. If the developer wants his address to be validated in order to retain his 3 votes,it would seem that he should provide addresses not found on the appraisal district site.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062

Posted:

Concho,

Are you running the election (an election official, etc.)?

If not, then you will have to live with what the Association (Developer) is providing
or
check it out on your own by going to the local land office
or
wait to see if you like the election results and consider challenging them through the courts if you do not.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

In many developments the Lot is known by a Lot#, not a address until a structure is built on it.

NigelB (Texas)
Posts: 254

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ConchoP on 11/01/2016 6:23 PM
Per our bylaws are developer 'Class B Member" get 3 votes to homeowners 1.

The developer owns close to 80+ lots. We are voting our first board members, since he never appointed any directors nor held meetings..blah,blah,blah...you know it's an ugly mess.

Anyway my question is: In Texas, who is responsible to give the members running the elections ALL the address the developer owns. We know if he votes he will vote via proxy and has to provide address just as any other member. How are we to validate address if they are not provided? We were provided a list from his sectary, that she pulled from the appraisal district and a few additional ones that were in closing and not online yet.

Depending on where you are in Texas, you might be able to go online to your county appraisal district, pull the plat of the subdivision and then get all of the addresses for that subdivision.

I'm assuming that your Class of HOA members have met the amount of votes necessary to pass the HOA from developer control to community control (our governing docs provided for 1 vote per member and three votes for each vacant lot the developer owned). If the HOA used a management company that company should have all of the addresses also.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

Yes I have done that appraisal district and pulled plats. But some address were not on the appraisal district site and not provided to us Should not the developer provided us with address not listed on the appraisal site?

NigelB (Texas)
Posts: 254

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ConchoP on 11/03/2016 5:25 PM
Yes I have done that appraisal district and pulled plats. But some address were not on the appraisal district site and not provided to us Should not the developer provided us with address not listed on the appraisal site?

The vacant lots might not have been assigned addresses, but I would think you could run the developers name and then get the lot count.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

To my knowledge the developor did not have a management company. The HOA was under his control and was nonfunctional. He gave us a list of addresses that we are using to check addresses for quorum and ballots when we vote. I don't think it is a complete list of his properties. If he wants his 3 votes would he provide a list of lots or addresses he owns?

NigelB (Texas)
Posts: 254

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ConchoP on 11/04/2016 1:12 PM
To my knowledge the developor did not have a management company. The HOA was under his control and was nonfunctional. He gave us a list of addresses that we are using to check addresses for quorum and ballots when we vote. I don't think it is a complete list of his properties. If he wants his 3 votes would he provide a list of lots or addresses he owns?

I would imagine that each ballot cast would require an address on it so that the validity of the ballot could be verified. Just have whoever is distributing ballots include a space for the writing in of the address of legal lot description. You can then verify that against the subdivision plat.

ConchoP (Texas)
Posts: 208

Posted:

Yes,we will be verifing ballot address to make sure only on owner voted per house hold, plus we have multi lot owners that get 2 votes per lots. The declarent gets multi votes to our one vote. He also has multi entities that own those lots. Why should we have to cross check his addresses to the plats,the day of voting? when all he has to do is email us those lots number an who owns them so we can do that before hand. Why can't we just tell our ballot counters that if an address is not on the master list, it can't count because we have no way of verifing information, just as we would have to do with a homeowner. Our master list addresses has been verified by the checking the appraisal district or we were provided their name by the declarent because they are not on online yet.

NigelB (Texas)
Posts: 254

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ConchoP on 11/05/2016 12:57 PM
Yes,we will be verifing ballot address to make sure only on owner voted per house hold, plus we have multi lot owners that get 2 votes per lots. The declarent gets multi votes to our one vote. He also has multi entities that own those lots. Why should we have to cross check his addresses to the plats,the day of voting? when all he has to do is email us those lots number an who owns them so we can do that before hand. Why can't we just tell our ballot counters that if an address is not on the master list, it can't count because we have no way of verifying information, just as we would have to do with a homeowner. Our master list addresses has been verified by the checking the appraisal district or we were provided their name by the declarent because they are not on online yet.

The developer has 80 plus lots which equates to 240 + votes. How many Class A votes are there currently?

Generally the developer will turn over control of the HOA to the Class A membership when a certain threshold is reached. In our case it was when the total votes outstanding in Class A membership reached the total vote outstanding in Class B membership - the process should be specified in your CC&R's. When the threshold is reached, the developers Class B membership of 3 votes were converted to Class A and the developer then only has 1 vote per lot. Up to that point, the developer had controlled the HOA and appointed board members. When the term ended we had new elections, and the board was elected from the Class A membership (folks who owned property in the subdivision). Our subdivision was platted for 233 lots, the developer sold those lots during the build out to three different builders over about 5 or 6 years. Our HOA was under developer control from 2006 to 2012 when the build out homes overcame the lot count that the developer had vacant.

You really need to see the Articles of Incorporation for the HOA, the Bylaws, and the CC&R's, usually developers will set up the HOA, appoint the board, set the assessments, etc. Do you actually have an HOA that has been incorporated, and do you pay assessments?

I'm not too sure I understand why a developer would not appoint directors to an HOA if he created one how was business managed, who paid the bills

SueW6 (Michigan)
Posts: 814

Posted:

One of the vital jobs of the Secretary is to have an up to date list of all members and their voting capacity. This should be known way before voting time.

Our subdivision has lots, but only "developed lots" have votes.

NigelB (Texas)
Posts: 254

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SueW6 on 11/07/2016 5:32 AM
One of the vital jobs of the Secretary is to have an up to date list of all members and their voting capacity. This should be known way before voting time.

Our subdivision has lots, but only "developed lots" have votes.

In the case described by the original poster - it seems the developer never appointed anyone to the board of the HOA - there might not even be an HOA which is why I asked above

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Nigel

I think Concho is just kooking for a way around the Declarant 3 to 1 voting margin. Doubt she will find one.

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