Annual Meeting No Quorum Subsequent Reduced Quorum Met

Hello everyone,

Need help with a issues regarding our annual meeting. This is a complicated one where there’s is impropriety amongst our board members and property management company. We had our annual meeting on August 3, 2020 and failed to meet our quorum of 109 ballots and had only 61 turned in. Here’s what happened;

During annual election no board members were present on August 3, 2020. Required quorum of 109 was not met due to only 61 ballots being turned in. Bylaws state, if quorum is not met then the subsequent meeting shall be one-half (1/2) of the required quorum the following month to 55 ballots which was met. Our association manager would not allow the representative from the election company answer concerns, and simply stated the current board members will remain in place without any of them being present. September meeting cancelled every year due to Labor Day falling on the first Monday of the month. Petition was signed by members regarding the election and the board members failed to address it and abide by our CC&Rs and our association manager simply re-elected them on August 3, 2020.

I have a court hearing regarding the unlawful election in July and we need to take our community back due to the impropriety amongst the board and management company which also appear to be mismanaging and misappropriating our corporate assets. Here are our concerns below on why this election was so important:

- 2 board members are partners residing under the same unit and serving on the board which is a conflict of interest in our 212 unit community. In addition, our previous association manager assisted these board members buy 2 additional short sale properties in the complex while current association manager stated their management company manages their rental properties.
- Not unlawful but 2 board members (Treasurer) & (Vice President) live offsite and are unable to do their fiduciary right in overseeing day to day occurrences.
- Failed to allow the inspection of records and went to small claims court on July 27, 2020. HOA and Management Company failed to allow the inspection of records and a judgement was ordered.
- Our Association Manager minimized and deflected concerns after discovering a guest space was changed to a private parking spot for several years. The President of our HOA denied any wrongdoing and used a scapegoat to hide the egregious act, stated the stencil to change the sign was stolen, and would not comment any further on these concerns stating it was an honest mistake.
- Unlicensed vendors and plumbers doing repairs in our community with a significant increase in plumbing expenses, general maitenance and consecutive annual deficits year after year.
- During small claims court hearing on July 27, 2020, association manager stated that unlicensed plumber did not do plumbing repairs costing over $500 while unlicensed, and it was due to marital affairs. Have invoice while unlicensed for over $3000.
- Confirmed by a resident that the electrician for the Association is the tenants son in law of the (President) & (Member at Large) rental unit. The board members nor association manager would not confirm or deny these allegations during a monthly meeting, and association manager stated that the board members would not know this because the management company manages their rental unit.

Please reply regarding our annual meeting. Attorney helped me prepare my small claims courts hearing pursuant to SB323, however would like more input,

Thank you!

I was able to rally up some neighbors to run for the board, however what about the annual meeting? That is my main concern here. Did they violate the law regarding out annual meeting and not dropping the quorum. Technically, they shouldn’t be on the board if there was no election and we did meet the quorum if the dropped it no less than 5 nor more than 30 days as described in our bylaws.

Thanks for your reply!

I say let them go to court and may the chips fall where they fall.

Based on experience in California, if this went to Small Claims, you will find a glass of cold water in hell before you will get a judge or commissioner that knows what they're doing.

1) No law was broken in regards to not holding a second meeting where quorum would be reduced. That's is on the members themselves.
2) If the association has no election rules, or the property manager conducted the election, then California Civil Code was violated.
3) If the association ignored a proper petition, then the members were legally allowed to call and run their own meeting.

Sorry, as you stated, there were no board members present, so this unfortunately falls on the owners.

Since the Board wasn't there, who ran the meeting?

In CA, Edward, since 2006, the Davis-Stirling Act, which governs all types of CA HOAs permits voting by mail. This law supersedes your Bylaws. When voting my mail is done, it's far easier to reach quorum.

Visit davis-stirling.com, index, Elections. Some of your complaints are valid, some are not. For example, unless your Bylaws state that directors must reside on the premises, they simply do not need to. With SB 323, non resident directors are OK so you cannot make a Bylaw precluding them.

sorry, no more time