Quorum

Started by FlorenceC • 13 replies • 890 views

💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

FlorenceC (Florida)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Does changing the rules for a Quorum mean that if the Board wants to make a significant change to the community, they can lower the necessary quorum so they can pass it through? Our Board is trying to get a gate put in and with that in mind wants to decrease the quorum from 51% to 35%. Would they then need only 35% to vote the gate in?

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

You HOA's governing documents, probably you bylaws, will tell you % of owners votes are needed to change the % needed for quorum on matters that owners vote on. The same document will tell you must be done to amend or change that %..

Some bylaws do permit the Board to change them with no owners' vote needed.

So....what do yours say, Florence?

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

Quorum generally refers to the percentage of voting interests that must be represented to a valid meeting. There are also thresholds that need to be met for document changes that may or may not involve a meeting. Can you clarify which quorum you are referring to? The member meeting quorum might be different than a board meeting quorum, which could differ from the threshold to modify bylaws or Covenants.

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Flo

Quorum aside if the gates are a new as in a Capital Improvement it might take a specific % of all owners approving the expenditure, regardless of Quorum requirements. The two might not be related. Read you docs concerning Capital Improvements.

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By FlorenceC on 02/28/2018 12:41 PM
Does changing the rules for a Quorum mean that if the Board wants to make a significant change to the community, they can lower the necessary quorum so they can pass it through? Our Board is trying to get a gate put in and with that in mind wants to decrease the quorum from 51% to 35%. Would they then need only 35% to vote the gate in?

Just to reiterate, a quorum is not the number of people who need to vote to approve a change, a quorum is the number of people who need to attend a meeting to make it valid. For example, if you have 100 homes, your current quorum would be 51 homes represented at a meeting. If the bylaws say that a majority of the meeting attendees need to approve bylaw changes and you have 51 voting interests at a members meeting, then only 26 of those would need to vote in favor of any change.

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

Could someone translate bylaws for a quorum? We have in school 228 units. Bylaws state 51% of value of the property of votes of the entire membership. How many people / proxies will we need for quorum. The builder put percentage in each unit for each building if that matters. Sorry for my ignorance.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Joni

You say 228 units. What is a unit? If a unit is say one condo, one home, etc. then there are 228 owners thus 114 owners is a 50% Quorum. It would take 115 for a 51% Quorum.

If a unit is owned by multi people, a corporation, etc., they have to designate one person as the unit voter.

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnC46 on 03/01/2018 7:02 AM
Joni

You say 228 units. What is a unit? If a unit is say one condo, one home, etc. then there are 228 owners thus 114 owners is a 50% Quorum. It would take 115 for a 51% Quorum.

If a unit is owned by multi people, a corporation, etc., they have to designate one person as the unit voter.

Joni's situation might not be so clear cut, her post says "Bylaws state 51% of value of the property of votes of the entire membership". This suggests that it is not a simple vote per unit, but weighted votes based on this "The builder put percentage in each unit for each building if that matters."

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

Thank you john! This is what I thought. While reading got confused when bylaws used the percent for the value of each unit,yes condos. While I have you here there is nothing pertaining to annual meetings in the 1/2 members present. If you have any steps We can take regarding annual meeting would be appreciated. We are trying to collect and inform who we can about quorum issue without help from BOD.Guess all we can do then ask for continued meetings to try harder. Thank you again You are very knowledgeable and helpful with new members.

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

Thank you Douglas. Our Master states for special meeting 2/3 member vote. The wording for annual meeting stating 51% of value property which I said each building per unit has a percentage? That is what is throwing me off guess you would call it. Thanks to all for trying to help.Guess we just as said try and gather proxies and inform who we can if issue.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Joni

A Corporation, which HOA's, Condo Associations are in SC, must hold an Annual Meeting. The Association must notify each owner (via US Mail) when and where the meeting takes place. Typically it must be a 30 day in advance notice.

Unless banned by your Bylaws, proxies can be used at the Annual Meeting to establish a Quorum and to vote in BOD elections. It takes time and effort to collect Proxies. It also takes people willing to run for the BOD to replace those presently on the BOD and bring change about. In one HOA here in SC, it took us two election cycles to totally replace one BOD and bring change about.

To repeat: It takes time and effort to collect proxies. Are you prepared to mount such an effort?

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

This what we are trying without a membership list kind of hard. I went to horry county land records got what I needed them teleconferences with deeds and taxes to obtain address if our of state. We know they will call no quorum again We also know even if we ask to continue to later date they will not. Meaning BOD. We have written down letter to send out to owners letting them know severity of quorum issue. We have a stand by management company to replace ours and volunteers for board. How am I doing John? Am I on the right track? Reason why I did this research is our BOD and management will not allow us to have members list quoting a privacy policy! Can you obtain your members list to obtain the quorum? Also I have not found in our documents about the second annual meeting of adjourned with the quorum being 1/2 that sure would help. Again thanks for helping John and Douglas for acknowledging may be more difficult with wording of documents thought I was reading wrong.

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

Sorry crossreferenced. Sorry for typos!

JoniL (South Carolina)
Posts: 47

Posted:

If they BOD walks out again cause of no quorum then I guess I have another year to work on it!! Did I mention Master Deed dates back to 1998 is when we were created. So much to tell hopefully we can be successful in the next coming year. We have to do all mailing and coping ourselves we asked for help but we're denied. We lacked 19 people and or proxies last time while back we tried.So this has been going on since 2004 last quorum! We will prevail one day Thanks

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

✓ Ask follow-up questions
✓ Share your experience
✓ Get expert advice
✓ Access 350,000 discussions

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here