Changing Covenants

Started by TomM15 • 5 replies • 694 views

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TomM15 (South Carolina)
Posts: 8

Posted:

My HOA Board wants to change our Covenants but we never get the required 2/3 of voters needed. What my HOA plans to do is send out proxies and retain them endlessly until the get enough to meet quorum requirements. Is this legal? Or aren't the votes & proxies only good for that Annual meeting.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Tom

Not to play lawyer, but I understand Proxies are good for one year unless otherwise stated to expire earlier.

When we did a Covenant change we went door to door explaining the changes and collecting Proxies. You have to be proactive to make to happen.

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

Tom,

This process has been used in many HOAs to get to the number required over some period of time. The maximum period is likely in state law. Further, there are likely precedents for doing this in SC.

John is absolutely correct - if you start this, it is going to take a lot of work to keep the pressure on. I would recommend setting up a few “briefing teams” who would make appointments with folks to explain the rationale for making the changes. Make sure these people are good at convincing - don’t pick the aggressive types or it may cost you the one shot at doing this.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Our rules required a special meeting to gather the votes. It was 90% for the CC&R's and 75% for the Articles of Incorporation/By-laws. Which if you change one, may as well change them ALL. Each may take a different vote/special meeting requirement.

As you can imagine a special meeting to take a vote would be even more impossible. However, to work around this, our lawyer drafted another document to sign. It stated that you give up your right to cast your vote at a special meeting. We could then gather the vote at same time. Which could be going door to door or at our monthly meeting.

Remember there are expenses involved with filing the documents. Plus factor in on if the HOA will provide copies. (Electronic or hard copy). These are some additional expenses involved besides hiring a lawyer to incorporate/draft the changes. We just passed around a document with the 5 changes we changed to make it easier/faster.

It took us a couple of years to gather our votes. Took about 3K in lawyer/filing/drafting fees. I suggest this be done in HOA's every 5 - 10 years. Things change like green energy or how people want to live.

Former HOA President

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

Endlessly? Check your state laws. In Florida a proxy is only good for 90 days past the original meeting date.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Before even trying to do this, I suggest you get a fair idea of the community's opinions on the proposed changes and see how likely it is that they'll be approved. It costs money to have your attorney draft the amendments, and it costs more money to go through the rounds of voting needed to get enough Yes votes. You don't want to spend a couple grand and have a defeated amendment as the result.

Also keep in mind that you can't rely on homeowners to vote for "what's best for the community". They will vote for what's best for them personally. This may limit the kinds of changes you can make - less restrictive amendments will likely be approved, more restrictive ones will not unless the change doesn't restrict them personally.

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