Florida annual meeting

Your friend should have received a copy of the bylaws and CCRs when she bought the house, so she might want to pull out the documents she got at closing and look through that. If she didn’t get anything or can’t find them, check with the county recorder to get a copy. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard people not getting the governing documents (they’re also stunned to find they brought a house in a HOA!) Since there is a property manager, it may be faster to contact them and request a copy – there may be a charge for it (pay it anyway).

When you get the bylaws check what it says about annual meeting quorums vs. those required to amend the documents – I wouldn’t be surprised if the annual meeting quorum is much smaller (it’s 10% in mine). A 51% threshold for amending documents, on the other hand, is quite reasonable (better than my community’s 75%). I suspect someone’s gotten the quorums royally mixed up.

You usually have to have an annual meeting quorum to have a board election, so if you get them, the people currently serving would stay on until they’re voted back in – or out.

As for the property manager, why is he or she running the election? In my community, proxies are sent to the manager for convenience, but they aren’t opened until the meeting date at the building and then other homeowners volunteer to count them in front of everyone. They also sign in the homeowners who attend and check that against the owner’s roster, which notes if someone’s current with assessments, so if you don’t have a star by your name, you can’t vote or run for a spot on the board.

Tell your friend to get together with other like-minded homeowners – if this has been going on for 4 years and they’re really upset, it’s past time for them to get up and rally together to fix it.

With Sheila, I also suspect that someone's confused. Our required quorum is 25%. If it's the PM who's infused, your friend's HOA needs a new one.

We also must put our name, complete HOA address and signature on an outer envelope. Our inspectors have never allowed re-dos and every year we have a handful-3-4--who just can't get it right.

I don't know if Bylaws must be recorded in FL; they aren't here. But, as suggested, surely she can get them from the PM or a neighbor.

You didn't state whether this is a condominium association, or a home owners association
of individual homes. You mentioned a "unit number" so I'm guessing it could be a condo.
The FL statutes regarding annual meetings are different for each - in 718 for condos and 720 for home owners associations.

(@ Geno: I checked you!)

The quorum requirement is the # of members who must be present in person or by proxy in order to transact business. The quorum difference between Condo and HOA is quite significant:

CONDOS
718.2(b) Quorum; voting requirements; proxies.—
1. Unless a lower number is provided in the bylaws, the percentage of voting interests required to constitute a quorum at a meeting of the members is a majority of the voting interests.

HOMEOWNERS
720.306 Meetings of members; voting and election procedures; amendments.—
(1) QUORUM; AMENDMENTS.—
(a) Unless a lower number is provided in the bylaws, the percentage of voting interests required to constitute a quorum at a meeting of the members shall be 30 percent of the total voting interests.

There is no condo or HOA quorum exception for election of boards. A quorum is required to conduct any business period.

I agree with other posters that a 50+% quorum is quite high but that is the default for condos in Florida if the Bylaws are silent (and I have never heard of a Bylaw that does not specify a quorum.) The statutes for both Condos and HOA FIRST defer to the governing documents and, if they are silent or out of statutory restrictive guidelines, then the statute rules.

It seems unreasonable (and possibly unlawful) to discard ballots if there is sufficient information with the submission to identify sufficiency of the voting interest. Forgetting to put a unit # on the outside of an envelope should not invalidate an otherwise valid ballot with identifying proxy information inside the envelope(s). If that is what the Bylaws require, I would amend those Bylaws yesterday. If this cannot be found in the Bylaws, I would ask the Management Company to cite the authority for such a requirement.

The Bylaws are REQUIRED to be recorded with the Declaration (CCR's) for Condos. This is not the case with HOA; however, nearly all Associations record their Bylaws in the public records which are free to access in most county government websites.

I see this under 718.112 2(d)(4(a)

"...Elections shall be decided by a plurality of ballots cast. There is no quorum requirement; however, at least 20 percent of the eligible voters must cast a ballot in order to have a valid election..."

IMO, this does not qualify the meeting quorum requirement; it clarifies the % of votes required to decide an election. Here is the example I would use to illustrate how I think this might work:

100 condo voting interests
By statute 50% + 1 for a meeting quorum to transact business=51 units by proxy or in person
# of ballots to have a valid election = 20
# of voters who cast filled out a proxy (to fulfill the meeting quorum) and a ballot vote (to fulfill the election quorum): 51
# of voters who cast invalid votes: 6
# of valid votes: 45
The meeting quorum was met with 51 people executing proxys and/or casting votes

# of candidates running for 1 position = 3
(Def Plurality: the number of votes cast for a candidate who receives more than any other but does not receive an absolute majority.)

Candidate A gets 14 votes
Candidate B gets 13 votes
Candidate C gets 18 votes
TOTAL votes= 45

Candidate C wins even though C did not get a majority; Candidate C got more than any other--a plurality.

Let's say that of those 51 voting interests, only 12 people actually filled out a ballot and the other 39 just showed up for the meeting for coffee and donuts. Whoops! No election possible! Even with a meeting quorum.

The tipoff to this somewhat confusing language is that it is a sub-sub paragraph and must be read in context of the election--not the general quorum requirements for a meeting to transact business.

So, a condo can have a properly-quorumed meeting but if enough parcels do not submit a ballot and vote for a candidate, there cannot be a valid election. Does anyone else read it like this ie as an elucidation of validating an election versus quoruming a membership meeting for the conduct of business of the Association? (I am the first to admit that I do not work with condo law and am less familiar with it than HOA law.)

For a FS 718 Condo Association, no qorum is required to hold an election. The election must be held in conjunction with the annual meeting. If there's no quorum for holding the annual meeting then the election still happens. If 20% of elgible voters cast ballots then the election results are valid, quite outside and apart from any quorum that may or may not have been achieved.

As for electing board members, the quorum requirement has no bearing, Frankel says. Florida law provides that a membership vote is valid when 20 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

NormanD, I agree with your understanding of the statute. By statute, FS 720.306(1)(a), 30% of the total voting interests constitute a quorum at members meetings UNLESS the bylaws specify a lower percentage.

The way I read that is there is different requirements for either an election or an annual meeting. In some cases you could have an election without having a meeting quorum.

Thank you Geno. That was a very clear explanation. Apparently, there are many things in condo law that are enhanced over the decrepit HOA laws. Really appreciate the distinctions and rationale.