Must Bylaws be Amended or restated if No longer Legal in State

Hi. We were debating whether our bylaws must be amended or restated if a section no longer complied with recent state HOA LAWS. Specifically, state law (according to attorneys) will no longer allow representational voting (neighborhood member submitting all votes for that neighborhood). Votes are now to be submitted by each individual homeowner. Do we therefore have to spend the money to revise the bylaws, or can we simply send a letter out explaining the new mandated “legal” process, and amend the documents in a year or two without having to rush things for a near term election. Since state and federal law supersede HOA bylaws, seems like that would suffice (at least short term). Thanks much.

This would be the best course of action.

When you say “have one master copy... that changes to current laws are referenced in” - would that entail restating the documents?? And again, if laws change (like our voting issue, and others which have changed in the past 15 years) how often would one have to do this. Not cheap for a small association. Thanks.

Thanks. Very helpful. We were quoted a lot more for restatement. And yes, if we ever tried an addendum or amendment, we could never pass it now that representative voting is not allowed. The most we ever get back is 40-60% of ballots/votes. We could win powerball, and just need 75-% of votes to colllect, and wouldn’t get it. Resort living with low occupancy.

Representational voting is not uncommon in Florida, and applies to certain master communities with numerous subassociations. With this method, the subassociations (housing or condos) typically elect a voting member who submits all the votes for their subassociation. Kind of like electoral college. It can get complicated, as some bylaws allow the voting member to vote as he wants, some allow only votes as returned, and others allow the voting member to do as he wants with unreturned votes. The purpose was to allow things to get accomplished in a resort community with very low homeowner votes ever returned. This was our bylaw going back to 1992, which was recently disallowed. There is absolutely nothing about representational voting in Florida HOA laws, or almost any state, but they have been allowed forever. Until something untoward happens.

We don't have to have owner approval to make changes to comply with state law and it isn't an onerous or expensive process. When I review our governing docs, there are three instances where a simple resolution by the board was done stating an amendment to comply with (in our case) Federal law. Filed at the county, and made part of the governing docs. Easy-peasy.