Board not following by-laws

Our HOA board has been working to amend and revise the by-laws and covenants for the past year, which the community appreciates, BUT...

They don't allow homeowners to attend board meetings, they don't announce general meetings, this year they skipped elections - the whole process, including canceling the meeting directly in violation of our by-laws.

Tonight the held a vote on amendments to the covenants and by-laws in which the community was not given an opportunity to review and discuss beforehand. They called a vote even though 70 people showed up to protest this "railroading" of the new amendments. One of the worst amendments is changing the quorum to make future changes from 30% of the homeowners to 1% - that means 9 people could make decisions for 900 homes, and everyone who came to the meeting had a major issue with this particular change. Another issue, the board could appoint other board members and they don't have to be community members or even live in the state.

In addition to having no communication with the homeowners about these changes, they violated the by laws in the process of voting. The bylaws clearly state a vote by mail in ballot OR meeting, either of which must have 2/3 affirmative vote to pass. They did both, and the proxy they sent gave owners only the option to vote yes or allow the board president to vote on their behalf (yes or yes) - there was no way to vote no. They also counted the 700+ non-responding as "yes" votes - and they refused to listen to the community members who protested and showed them the current bylaws.

So we have a board operating in secret, refusing to allow elections, railroading a vote through without following bylaws or allowing discussion - or even allowing people to vote no - and trying to add bylaws the homeowners don't want. What can we, the homeowners, do?

Thanks for any advice, we're at a loss here, people are talking about moving out of the neighborhood after this experience!

Probably taking lessons from Washington D.C.

The good news is that everything the board has done is probably invalid. I'm not familiar with GA law but virtually every state has laws in place forbidding this type of abuse of power. Not to mention, it probably violates your CC&Rs. The only option you have, in my opinion, is get an attorney. I would talk to as many owners as you can and try to get them behind you. If you do nothing, it could end up costing all of you a lot more than the cost of speaking to an attorney.

In the meantime, I would not recognize the authority of this rogue board.

Your State Law for Property Owner’s Associations states:

44-3-226. Amendment of instrument; presumption of validity in court action

(a) Except to the extent expressly permitted or required by other provisions of this article, the instrument shall be amended only by the agreement of lot owners of lots to which two-thirds of the votes in the association pertain or such larger majority as the instrument may specify; provided, however, that, during any such time as there shall exist an unexpired option to add any additional property to the property owners' association or during any such time as the declarant has the right to control the association under the instrument, the agreement shall be that of the declarant and the lot owners of lots to which two-thirds of the votes in the association pertain, exclusive of any vote or votes appurtenant to any lot or lots then owned by the declarant, or a larger majority as the instrument may specify. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this subsection, during such time as the declarant shall own at least one lot primarily for the purpose of sale of such lot, no amendment shall be made to the instrument without the written agreement of the declarant if such amendment would impose a greater restriction on the use or development by the declarant of the lot or lots owned by the declarant.

Potentially trying to change to 1% approval would violate the State Law. Amendments are supposed to be hard to obtain with majority of owners approval ... not lowered to such a minority as to allow everyone to be railroaded.

Prior to we owners taking over in 2015, we wanted the Declarant to change several Covenants/Bylaws:

1. Change from no Proxies allowed to Proxies allowed.
2. Remove cumulative voting.
3. Change date of Annual Meeting from fixed in May to BOD decides when in April.
4. Change Quorum required at Annual Meeting to be able to do business from 50% to 25%.

The lawyer said the Declarant could change 1 to 3 by themselves but it would take 50% of owners agreeing to the Quorum change.

It took some doing but were were able to get the Quorum changed from 50% to 25%. We had to explain over and over that it was strictly an Annual Meeting Quorum change, It change nothing else. All % needed for other changes stays the same. To this day some think we changed other stuff where % are required. No matter how much you explain things, some just do not get it.

I recently found out that two of the largest home builders/developers in this area use a 10% Annual Meeting Quorum. Seems the 10% is becoming more common.