Required Votes For HOA to purchase a golf course in a community

Started by ErnestS2 • 5 replies • 491 views

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ErnestS2 (Florida)
Posts: 1

Posted:

I have live in a gated community since 2000, my son also lives in the community. In the past several years the HOA has been evaluating the purchase of the golf course and assessing the 1163 residents. When I purchased the HOA was required to obtain per documentation filed with the county clerks office, 66 and 2/3 majority to make any changes to the community. Which by the way has never happened. Now the HOA is promoting the purchase of the Golf Course and levying assessments. the documents that the HOA sent out now say only 30 percent of the 1163 homeowners need to vote and a simple majority of 51 percent will enable the board to purchase the golf club.

How can the BOD change the number of votes required in such a drastic way? Is this legal? Do the residents have a class actionable suit since the BOD has gone rouge!

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Take a look at your Bylaws and CCRs (the ones you got when you purchased your home) - have the Bylaws ever been amended to reduce the percentage required to make major changes? If so, when, and was that amendment recorded anywhere (check the dates and your county recorder's office or whoever keeps track of this stuff).

You also said the Board has been pushing this for several years - have they been soliciting votes all this time? If so, it could be that 36% of the owners have already voted in favor of this and they need another 30% to approve the purchase.

You need to ask these questions of your board and see what they say. If they blow you off, you may want to check your documents to see what it says about calling special meetings (usually X percentage of homeowners have to sign a petition calling for the meeting, it's presented to the board and then the board must schedule the meeting). If this board is "rouge" and enough of your neighbors agree, you can have a meeting to bring all this to the forefront - or call for a recall of the board members. This will take some work and possibly take a little longer, but it's a lot cheaper than going to court.

Finally, if you want an answer to a legal question, go to an attorney - we aren't lawyers. Bring your documents with you so he or she can review them to better answer your question.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By ErnestS2 on 06/18/2019 6:28 AM
How can the BOD change the number of votes required in such a drastic way? Is this legal? Do the residents have a class actionable suit since the BOD has gone rouge!

The board probably can't do that on its own. Take a close look at your governing documents. All three - Articles of Incorporation, CC&Rs, and the Bylaws - usually contain provisions that spell out what approvals are necessary to amend any document. If the association is not controlled by a developer, it's unlikely the 2/3 majority requirement for owners to amend was ever changed. Pay close attention to amendments.

NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216

Posted:

I know of an HOA that cut their requirement from 2/3 to 51%.

The mistake they made was that they only got 51% to approve the change.

But there was also a rule that said that any rule that wasn't challenged within 12 months would stand. No one challenged.

In the end, they got to change the rule without the necessary vote count.

Best to speak to an attorney.

Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

Some years before I moved into my HOA there was a proposed amendment to the CC&Rs. The board approved it and the homeowners were asked to vote on it at the annual meeting. A majority voted to approve it. Then later in the meeting a homeowner in attendance pointed out the the CC&Rs at the time required a 2/3 vote of approval from the homeowners. Oops! Incredible that the board went all the way to the annual meeting, after having worked on it for months, without knowing what the threshold of approval was from the homeowners. They weren't evil. They were just morons.

The actual amendment that was passed a few months later was to lower the approval threshold from 2/3 to 50% plus one. They actually got 2/3 approval for that amendment. The amendment that had been up for a vote at the annual meeting was never heard of again.

Read your governing documents closely. Take them out every few months and read them again.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By NpS on 06/19/2019 8:49 PM
I know of an HOA that cut their requirement from 2/3 to 51%.

The mistake they made was that they only got 51% to approve the change.

But there was also a rule that said that any rule that wasn't challenged within 12 months would stand. No one challenged.

In the end, they got to change the rule without the necessary vote count.

Best to speak to an attorney.

I agree. They need 2/3rds approval to change to 51%.

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