Special assessment vote in California

Started by PatrickH • 3 replies • 4216 views

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PatrickH (California)
Posts: 204

Posted:

Does anyone know if the voting requirements for a special assessment in California have changed in the past few years?

About five years ago, my HOA had a special assessment vote. At that time, we needed more than 50% of the membership to vote for approval of the special assessment to get it approved. For example, if the HOA has 100 members, at least 51 ballots had to be cast with a yes vote to pass the special assessment.

Our association is now looking at another special assessment. This Board and property manager, none of who were here back when the last special assessment was approved, say that 51% of the members must return a ballot for the vote to be offical, but only 51% of the returned ballots need to vote yes for the special assessment to be approved.

Using the above example of 100 members, if 51 ballots are returned and 26 are yes votes for the special assessment, then the special assessment is approved.

When I asked my property manager about it, since our documents say that 51% of the total membership must vote for approval of any special assessment, she said that the state laws have changed, so they supercede our documents.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

JoeW1 (New York)
Posts: 728

Posted:

PatrickH - Go to the Davis and Sterling Act governing California www.davis-stirling.com It states as follows regarding the special assessments.

a) Except as provided in this section, the association shall levy regular and special assessments sufficient to perform its obligations under the governing documents and this title. However, annual increases in regular assessments for any fiscal year, as authorized by subdivision (b), shall not be imposed unless the board has complied with subdivision (a) of Section 1365 with respect to that fiscal year, or has obtained the approval of owners, constituting a quorum, casting a majority of the votes at a meeting or election of the association conducted in accordance with Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 7510) of Part 3 of Division 2 of Title 1 of the Corporations Code and Section 7613 of the Corporations Code. For the purposes of this section, "quorum" means more than 50 percent of the owners of an association.

(b) Notwithstanding more restrictive limitations placed on the board by the governing documents, the board of directors may not impose a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year or impose special assessments which in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses of the association for that fiscal year without the approval of owners, constituting a quorum, casting a majority of the votes at a meeting or election of the association conducted in accordance with Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 7510) of Part 3 of Division 2 of Title 1 of the Corporations Code and Section 7613 of the Corporations Code. For the purposes of this section, quorum means more than 50 percent of the owners of an association. This section does not limit assessment increases necessary for emergency situations. For purposes of this section, an emergency situation is any one of the following:

RogerB (Colorado)
Posts: 5,067

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By PatrickH on 08/22/2007 7:12 AM
Using the above example of 100 members, if 51 ballots are returned and 26 are yes votes for the special assessment, then the special assessment is approved.

Does anyone know if this is correct?

That is correct according to the way I read the Davis Sterling Act of 2006. http://www.davis-stirling.com

JaneK (California)
Posts: 175

Posted:

"Notwithstanding more restrictive limitations placed on the board by the governing documents..."

Does that mean that the governing documents override the law if they are more restrictive, ie, requiring a majority of the entire membership rather than a majority of a quorum?

It seems to me that a very small number of people could approve a special assessment.

Looks like apathy could get you into trouble.

CA CC 1363.03 applies to a special assessment 'election.'
Jane

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