Vote 4 to 4 for appointment to board

HOA in Florida. We have a board of nine members. One member resigned and there are two candidates up for appointment to the board. There have been two board meetings and the board can not appoint anyone to the board. The vote is always 4 to 4. Our Bylaws do not provide an answer and neither does the Florida Statues. Any suggestions on how to break the tie?

You may have to wait until someone changes their vote to break the deadlock. You still have 8 directors and that is (most likely) enough for a quorum, and if you have enough for a quorum there's no state law that mandates vacancies on the board be filled.

For example, if your documents say there should be 3 directors, 1 resigns and the remaining 2 cannot agree on a replacement, you're stuck and if the 2 remaining directors can't agree on anything then nothing gets done and the state doesn't care because 2 is enough for a quorum. We have heard stories from our association attorneys that he has encountered this exact situation. More than once. He described it as a nightmare scenario to deal with.

If your board is getting routinely deadlocked with 4-4 votes then you have my sympathies, and I wish you good luck.

We're the exact opposite. Our bylaws say nothing about the president voting only to break ties, but that doesn't stop one vocal homeowner from complaining every time the president votes in a non-tiebreaking situation. I think he used to live in an association that had bylaws like yours, and thinks that's how it should work everywhere.

Why is there a "tie" about these candidates? Politics should be out of the question.

Split the time up between the two.

It will be for the remainder of the term, anyway.

Ask the two would they feel comfortable ending the tie. Coin toss, cutting a deck of cards, length of their.....you get the idea.

The issue as I see it is political. It was noted that there is a 4-4 tie on two different candidates, each representing one side or the other.

How is a coin toss going to resolve things. It will shift the balance of power one way or the other.

Tim

It would be a 4-4 tie to even allow a coin toss. If it was that easy, we would already have 9 justices on the Supreme Court.

Charles,

One other option is to remove the vote from the Board and hold a special membership meeting to vote on a replacement.

1. The Candidates can get together and discuss whether or not one or the other could better serve and one withdraw.
2. Put the vote to membership as noted above.

These are the most fair and viable options. This goes to show why most BOD's are an ODD number of members to avoid difficult situations due to a tie.