Changing the name of an HOA

Our HOA has the word "Plantation" in the name. Some homeowners have raised this as an issue and have proposed dropping the word.

Has anyone had experience with a name change? It seems to be there are three levels you can do this:

1. Change the name on the web site, communications to homeowners, anything else publicly visible

2. File a DBA to do business under a new name

3. Change the name of the corporation

Each has their own ramifications and costs.

What has been your experience?

Since they have their own costs and ramifications, why not pool all the homeowners to see how they feel and what might be the most cost effective. You'll definitely need to do #1, but it may but be easier to do #2.

There may also be ramifications related to your association's tax ID number so a chat with your state tax department and perhaps the IRS may be necessary

Ditto what CathyA3 posted, except I know this is a big legal process. This site indicate you do not have to amend the governing documents to reflect the new name. To me, this is good news: https://wisepropertysolutions.com/hoa-change/#:~:text=Changing%20the%20HOA%20name%20is,process%20that%20can%20be%20costly.

I find this problem a little amusing and yet I am serious about the situation (from across the internet miles). Despite the expense, and despite my expectation that no one could, say, sue over the name, if I were on this board, I would vote to take the steps to change the name and amend the governing documents to reflect the new name. One reason I would so vote is to help ensure property values remain as high as possible.

A corporate HOA's name that has the word "Plantation" in it is so staggeringly unbelievable and offensive that I can take no other position.

You will need a corporate lawyer. HOA's are not Real Estate. It will effect your Documentation not just taxes. Plus you may have a corporate stamp. Which would have to be changed as well. There are many small details. It is best to deal with a legal expert in "branding" or "corporation" laws.

I just was looking for some real estate myself. Came across a HOA with the word "Estates" in it. For some reason it made me think of "Estate sales". So now I am kind of re-thinking the word "Estate"...

We have a large condo property across the main state road from us. It's called "something Plantation". I don't find the name objectionable at all. Next thing you know people will want Lee County in FL to be renamed because it was named after Robert E.

Plantation: "an estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are cultivated by resident labor."

"Resident labor" That's a hot one.

I am not asking if you personally find the name objectionable. The point here is that we have homeowners who *do* find the name objectionable and that's all that matters. I would prefer not to get into a debate in this particular forum about the merits of the name (or of naming things after Robert E. Lee).

Sorry, the above was not posted by SheilaH but by the Washington Post.

Exactly. The board will require a homeowner vote for a name change after we have provided information about the effort and costs that would be incurred. I am trying to find out what would be involved so the body of homeowners can make an informed decision.

I handle this kind of request pretty often for companies.

A DBA filing is just a short document that is filed usually with the state Secretary of State's office for a modest fee. That's the easiest way to handle this, and you could then change the name on the website and in communications.

Changing the entity's name would likely require a member vote and a board vote and then filings with the Secretary of State's office and the IRS.

I'd just do a DBA filing. However, even if a DBA filing, by the terms of the HOA's governing documents, doesn't require a member vote, people ought to have say-so over the name of where they live, so I'd submit it to a member vote anyway. And I'd be prepared to have some pretty upset people no matter what the decision is.

I wasn't thinking that reactionary HOA members would get upset; it's just a sensitive topic and doing a DBA only could be seen as not going far enough, and it could open up all sorts of issues--ones that ought to be discussed, but ones that could cause people to be upset.

Most likely changing your name is going to require you to vote to amend your covenants, which requires A LOT of homeowners (our percentage is either 66 or 75%). So it’s a huge pain. Plus side, while you’re trying to get the required number of votes you will find out if people really want it.

I would guess it depends on your documents. Ours would require a vote. That would be where I started. It’s probably going to require a vote so I would probably send a survey to homeowners before spending their money.

Yes, this is not a board decision, it will require a community vote. One of our homeowners is a lawyer and is looking at what it would take. There are inconsistencies in the by-laws; none state directly what vote is required for name change. Some changes require 2/3, some require 75%, sometimes it just gives a proportion and sometimes it says "75% of votes cast." So it's not clear if we need 75% of all homeowners to vote "yes" or 75% of all those who show up and vote.


Don't worry, you can call your shutters whatever you want and nobody will care.

I would also task the committee to research on how to do it and the costs.

Excellent idea.

One of the problems we are having is determining what vote is required to make such a change. There is nothing in the by-laws or state law that specifically addresses a name change, but we have found related items that variously require:

75% of members
75% of votes cast
2/3 of votes cast

An update to my previous post about our sub-HOA potential name change. Last night, we had our annual meeting. We had a quorum (though mostly through proxies). At the end of the meeting, our property account manager decided to bring up the subject about officially changing our name. The property management company represents several other sub-HOAs in our community and he says 1 or 2 are looking into legally changing their name. Luckily, those of us attended said it wasn't worth the cost or effort it would take to have a vote especially no one has even brought up the subject (except for the PM). He did say he could just leave off our name from the agenda, minutes and other communications because they are not legal documents. I think a few board members said that would only cause confusion if he did that.

Minutes are the official record of action taken by the Board.

Only agenda items can be voted on.

Anything can be discussed.

Discussion is never entered in the minutes.

Minutes are to be written during the meeting, not from notes and written at a later date. Easy when using a template that just needs the blanks filled in.

Too many HOAs mistake the minutes with a newsletter. Our minutes are less than 100 words. My newsletter is several pages.

Is this true of annual homeowners' meetings as well as board meetings? Our board meetings infrequently have board action, such as approval of annual budget or approval of an expenditure. So our board meeting minutes should be, like, one line? Our annual meetings don't have any action except electing board members. Does that mean the homeowners minutes should be one line?