signatures needed for amendment

How do you go about getting a signed instrument? Would a signature on a ballot work?

Section 3. Amendment. The covenants and restrictions of this Declaration shall run with and bind the land, and shall inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the Association, and the owner of any lot subject to this Declaration, including the Developer, its respective legal representatives, heirs, successors and assigns. The covenants and restrictions of this Declaration may be amended by an instrument signed by not less than owners then owning seventy-five percent (75%) of the properties subject to this Declaration or any supplemental Declaration. Amendments shall take effect when they have been recorded with the Auditor of King County.

Did you have absentee ballots? There is no way we could meet a simple 15% quorum let alone 75% vote without them.

Amy,

My own association has a similar amendment procedure and I disagree with Tim's advice. This is not an election and there is no voting.

You should print the text of the amendment, with references to any existing provisions that will be changed. On the same sheet should be signature lines for each owner to sign and date, along with his printed name and parcel number or address. If you have 100 members, for example, all 100 could sign one sheet or each could sign just one or some combination. (Recorders often charge by the page, so keep the number of pages down.)

One of the advantages of this amendment process is that there is usually no time constraint. We have one amendment that we tried for over five years to get enough signatures.

Since your CC&R's require "an instrument signed," holding an election would not meet that requirement, even though the language in some CC&R's allow precisely that.

We have been wanting to change it for years. Our CC&R are from 1980 and still reference the developer. We just revised the bylaws (vote on April 1st) and took out the clause that said we could only do secret ballot(although we will still practice that). We are hoping a signed ballot might help with the signature requirement. We will check with the attorney once we get to that point.

I don't understand why you say it's not a vote. Wouldn't the membership be voting on making the amendment?

We have 499 homes and over 15% of those are rentals. So getting enough people to show in person (and sign) at a meeting would be hard. I like the idea of no meeting. I've read the WA Act 5236 Section 312 (below). Which would give us about a year to get signed ballots back.

(6) Unless prohibited or limited by the declaration or organizational documents, an association may conduct a vote without a meeting. In that event, the following requirements apply:
(a) The association must notify the unit owners that the vote will be taken by ballot.
(b) The notice must state:
(i) The time and date by which a ballot must be delivered to the association to be counted, which may not be fewer than fourteen days after the date of the notice, and which deadline may be extended in accordance with (g) of this subsection;
(g) If the association does not receive a sufficient number of votes to constitute a quorum or to approve the proposal by the date and time established for return of ballots, the board may extend the deadline for a reasonable period not to exceed eleven months upon further notice to all members in accordance with (b) of this subsection. In that event, all votes previously cast on the proposal must be counted unless subsequently revoked as provided in this section.

Ahhh... I see what you mean. I guess I am so used to thinking vote on everything. LOL