Board Member but not Property Owner

State: Florida
We have a woman who lived in the HOA for 17 yrs. She sold her home and moved to a different HOA 4 months ago, but then she was allowed to be nominated and put on the BOD to fill a vacancy just after she sold her home, and was made Vice President. She has no financial interest in the community, and in my opinion I think she wanted on the board to exact some revenge upon some of her former neighbors, some of which she was able to accomplish.

I am trying to determine what voting rights she has. I know she is not a 'voting member' of the association because she owns no home here, so I am thinking she shouldnt be able to vote on amendments and elections, etc. I find nothing in the bylaws stating a homeowner must be a homeowner in the community. I also find nothing in Statute 720. However as a member of the BOD, and VP, she can make motions and it appears vote on issues that affect the homeowners.

She is coming up for reelection, and is actively collecting proxies for our upcoming Annual Meeting, and is specifically asking people to fill her name out so she can vote their proxy (and giving false information about another homeowner who is running for the same BOD spot)

Can anyone point me to how I can determine if we have any recourse to either not allow her to vote those proxies, or if she has a right to be on a BOD where she doesnt own property?

Thank you so much!

I like to add this little note... Often a HOA will rewrite their documents AFTER the Developer has left the building. They will write out references to developer and change the "A Party and B party" voting that is associated with the Developer keeping majority. However, a small detail is overlooked either by mistake or intentional. The reference to must be on the title/owner in the HOA. It is usually just one or two sentences kind of buried in the documents.

The reason this exist is many Developers are so large they hire their employees or a PM to handle the Board duties. The employees or hired PM would not be on any titles or owners in the HOA. Plus the owners don't own the HOA yet. This allows the Developer to be flexible when running the HOA.

However, when a HOA takes on the task of eliminating the Developer references and other changes, this can be overlooked. It then becomes a "rule" because it is still in the documents. This may NOT be the case in ALL HOA's in the entire country. State laws apply of course. It is something the HOA can change and in my opinion should if they own the HOA. There are times this is a benefit if the HOA wants their Accountant/PM to act as Treasurer. Otherwise, not sure I want a person without ownership rights to be on my board.

Thank you Douglas. I compared the original to the second version - the Association 'filed their notice of preservation' at the 30 yr mark and lined out the original stuff from the developer about different classes for voting etc. There is definitely a brigade of neighbors out trying to make it known to those who arent involved in HOA activities what is going on and gathering proxies. Appreciate your input and help

Thank you for the input Kerry. We have 9 slots, and they expire on a rotating basis (3 per year) so there are always some old timers staying on the board when new ones come onto the board. And you are correct, there's 3 spots and more than 3 candidates, however the non-owner is targeting one particular candidate in her 'speeches' to the owners she visits. I had the property mgr describe to me how he was conducting the election process, and it sounds like a fair process. There are now several owners out canvassing to inform what the power of proxies are and collect from those who wish to give one. And the candidate did as you suggested with a letter, and left the negative out. Thanks again for your help.