Texas Condominiums can suspend voting rights of delinquent owners

It is what your documents say. Each HOA is separate entities. So what does your By-laws or CC&R's say?

Your attorney is correct. The portions of the Texas property code that protect an owners right to vote and serve on the board regardless of delinquency status only applies to single family HOAs (which includes townhomes).

Condos are governed by the Texas Uniform Condominium Act, the full text of which you should be able to find online. I am not familiar with chapter and verse of TUCA because I stopped managing condos a long time ago - they are frankly, the worst.

You are correct except that townhomes also fall under condominiums.

Nice post, BillH10.

LaskaS, from Texas Property Code Chapter 82 applicable to your condominium? For one thing, was your condo's declaration recorded in 1994 or later? See the applicability section at https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.82.htm

If Chapter 82 applies to LaskaS's condominium, then what is leaping out at me is the following:

Section 82.103
"(b) The board may not act on behalf of the association to amend the declaration except as permitted by this chapter, to terminate the condominium, to elect members of the board, or to determine the qualifications, powers and duties, or terms of office of board members. The board may fill a vacancy in its membership for the unexpired portion of a term."

The way I read this is: 'The board may not act on behalf of the association... to determine the qualifications, powers and duties, or terms of office of board members. ... ' Instead, the Bylaws determine the qualifications et cetera.

LaskaS, as I read Chapter 82, I think it's clear enough that only the 'voting privileges of a member' may be suspended. I think the statute distinguishes between a member's voting privileges and a director's voting privileges. Or at least this is a fair interpretation of same.

Why do you think condos are so terrible vis-a-vis non-condos?

I'm interested in Barbara's comments as well as she spoke from the perspective of managing condominiums and not so much from the perspective of residing in one.

As I have indicated previously, we manage small condominium associations without significant common area amenities: we will not consider a client with a pool, we may consider one with a club/meeting room. We also will not consider a client with an elevator. We modified our business plan to this approach after managing Section 209 HOAs for some years.

So, Barbara, please share your thoughts.

Doh on me. LaskaS said in her first post that Ch. 81 applies. Some sections of Ch. 82 apply to Ch. 81 condos, but apparently not for the topic under discussion here.

Pretty much this, yes.

I had a lo-o-o-ong answer written out and the board ate it, so I'll do the shorter version which is everything above AND:

In my experience, condos are chronically underfunded, and as a result, chronically poorly maintained. Board members never like raising dues or levying special assessments but condo boards seem especially loathe to do this. Especially when you get an investor on the board who owns multiple units.

And the deferred maintenance in condos has much higher stakes! Staircases, balconies, fire suppression sprinklers, foundations!

Monthly dues means an ongoing collection cycle. You get one owner caught up one month and a new owner is late the next month.

And frankly, condos are very vulnerable to corruption. The most common method of embezzling from an HOA is through maintenance. There are three main schemes: using HOA funds to repair an owner's unit, having the vendor pad an invoice and give a kickback to the board/manager or just plain creating fake companies that do imaginary work on the property. These are all much easier to do with a condo than with a single family HOA because condos have so much more maintenance, a wider variety of maintenance, and the line between owner's property and HOA property is finer. A typical SFH community with no amentieis is going to have five bills a month - anything unusual will be instantly spotted. Condos have an ever changing list of maintenance needs, you can slip just about anything in there.

And in Texas,condo owners have few protections, since condos are not subject to 209. Condo boards don't have to give notice of their meetings and they can use non-judicial foreclosure to collect delinquencies.

In every HOA there are owners who do not understand that the association's only source of income is assessments, that the smaller the community the larger the assessment because MATH. And there are always owners who want to pay nothing but have the property kept pristine by... I guess magic? And who want the freedom to do whatever they want because America! but their neighbors can't make any noise after 6pm. That happens everywhere. But somehow it happens times ten in a condo.

Couldn't agree with Barbara more.

wow. thank you all for your input.
Augustin , how in the world did you find my very first post. I can't even find it. LOL

Yes we are governed by 81 not 82. as we are pre 1994.

I will for sure use condo association from now on.

I know that our documents say somewhere that a member must be in good standing(account paid up) in order to be eligible to vote.

It doesn't really make sense that someone would be prevented from voting, but it's ok to serve on the board. Where they would be voting on things that affect the condo association. KWIM

However, as I've learned, it all depends on what the documents say. What I've also learned is that an many bylaws and declarations aren't as specific as they could be.

I was hoping to find a way to argue my point. That if a owner is prevented from voting in the annual elections. It seems to follow that could be also interpreted as can not participate in the annual elections. If I'm hoping to can a way to argue that convincingly. If our documents are silent to the specific issue of running for a board, and there is no state law that specifically covers condominiums pre 1994on this specific detail. But our documents do require a member to be in good standing to vote in the annual elections.

The potential board member in question would not get enough votes. however. There were 5 seats up for election and 5 people submitted their bios. So unless I can find some kind of precedent for what i'm saying. I guess he gets to be on the board. I'm just hoping I can find something.

I am continually amazed at how our coa documents are silent on many issues. This fact allows for more than one legitimate interpretation to be argued. I'm not going to argue something that I can't win. But If i can find precedent or a convincing argument that running for the board in the annual election , like voting in the annual election, can be considered participating.

I haven't been able to find anything in texas law or the cases i've searched.. There are plenty in other states. But there are none that I can find where a court interprets a condo's documents that are silent on the running for the board issue., to mean that running is considered the same thing as voting..i.e. the restriction is supposed to limit a delinquent owners participation in the annual meeting after all.

I'm not going to repeat my above Laska, but despite what's logical or sensible, your docs prevail. They are silent on that "qualification, because there IS no such qualification. If it's NOT stated, it is meant to be silent.

The Bylaws will not say: It is all right to run if you are a woman, if you are late in your dues, if you disagree with the current board, blah, blah, blah.

Give it up.

ok kerry, thanks for the explanation. I was afraid i was reaching.

Kerry, It might seem like this is a small issue. However. the reason I am asking is because the owner in question was a board members when all the money was paid out without work having actually been done. While he wasn't one of the boar members that was perpetuating the fraud, I still believe that he failed the hoa and owners and his responsibilities by not insisting that the bylaws be followed with regarding to hiring contractors. getting bids.. transparency . etc. .. In addition, he does absolutely nothing to help the current board uncover exactly where all the money went, how it happened etc.

I really am thinking big picture. I want the board to have internal controls in place so that after I leave the board, there will be clear procedures put in place for all boards to follow. . I don't see how a member who was front and center in the last board where no one stopped the money from being paid out. No one verified that a certain percentage of the work had been completed BEFORE the president falsified board approval and paid out the money. Noone confronted her when it was revealed that they didn't have any meetings. they hadn't kept any minutes. They were acting outside their legal authority..

anway,, thank you for your explanation regarding being able to serve on the board is not the same as the restriction from voting for the board.

george21, I do often interchange bylaws with declaration when i'm typing. I do know the difference. Thanks for reminding me

There are potentially two major areas in most states where owners should not and in most cases cannot be denied voting rights. 1) Voting on documents which will be attached to everyone’s property such as CCR revisions and 2) Running of the HOA BOD of Directors.

I would contend NO you cannot prevent anyone from running for a BOD position. Mainly per: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/property-code/prop-sect-209-00591.html

(a) Except as provided by this section, a provision in a dedicatory instrument that restricts a property owner's right to run for a position on the board of the property owners' association is void.

The exception in TX appears to be if an individual has been convicted of certain Felony / Crimes:

(b) If a board is presented with written, documented evidence from a database or other record maintained by a governmental law enforcement authority that a board member was convicted of a felony or crime involving moral turpitude not more than 20 years before the date the board is presented with the evidence, the board member is immediately ineligible to serve on the board of the property owners' association, automatically considered removed from the board, and prohibited from future service on the board.

Single family homes are also allowed to have specifications in their governing documents also. If that same provision is not in condominiums yet you can bet will be in near future. Keep in mind the reason most states do not allow for example to not allow deliquent owners to be excluded from voting on CCR changes because in most states it is against the law to attach documents to anyone’s property titles without their knowledge and can violate other areas of law such as Real Estate Fraud. Yep laws which are outside the HOA or Condiminum Laws. Some states such as mine while has a different condominium section for additional statutes, that section is also governed by certain sections which pertain to single family homes and all HOA’s generally.

To get a definite answer you need to hire an attorney who knows your HOA/Condominum Laws and your other Real Estate Statutes.