Suspending Voting Rights

PeggyH

I can’t say, with any certainty that you should, however I would think it would be in your best interest to mail a standardize letter notifying the HO that h/she isn’t eligible to vote until they are current on their assessments.

Perhaps, quoting the covenant in which the BOD is substantiating their claim to suspend their voting rights. I would think by doing this you would also be protecting the BOD/association “IF” the suspension was never official/legally confirmed.

Just my opinion though.
Chuck W

Peggy:

Usually a Hearing before the board comes before the right to vote is suspended. Read your CCR's to make sure the board can suspend their right without a hearing first.

This subject came up recently at our HOA meeting, and our President stated that you could not suspend voting rights for failure to pay regime fees or dues. The Federal voting rights act puts that in the same category as a "poll tax", and is now illegal. Is it legal or illegal?

Dennis, your president is dead wrong.

the federal voting rights act does NOT apply to businesses, and an HOA is a business. You can suspend the rights of your shareholders (owners) freely (within the confines of your shareholder's agreement, the covenants and by laws). The Federal law applies to government entities, and political elections.

Your HOA can CERTAINLY ban people from voting. for instance, can I cast a vote in Your HOA elections? Your HOA bans 300,000,000 Americans or so from voting already.

As for the other, follow the advice given here: read your rules, follow them, and suspend the right to vote. I too would send a letter, just for effect, even if my rules didn't say i had to. It just makes it official.

In my experience, you can deny the right to vote even in those matters, AND, you can often lower the number of votes needed to pass. Many by-laws are written to require a quorum of "eligible" voters )not of all voters/owners), and for every member suspended, you need a little less votes to win. If you suspend enough people, it's possible to change your covenants with very few votes, if your rules are written in that manner.

I do agree with you harold, that this type of thing doesn't seem "fair", but it can often be done.

Your docs should state that if you are in good standing you have the right to vote. Therefor if you are not in gooding standing ie. nonpayment of dues you are not in good standing.

Glen,
This is part of Floridas suspension statement.
720;305
(2) If the governing documents so provide, an association may suspend, for a reasonable period of time, the rights of a member or a member's tenants, guests, or invitees, or both, to use common areas and facilities and may levy reasonable fines, (ETC)
(a) A fine or suspension may not be imposed without notice of at least 14 days to the person sought to be fined or suspended and an opportunity for a hearing before a committee (etc).

(c) Suspension of common-area-use rights shall not impair the right of an owner or tenant of a parcel to have vehicular and pedestrian ingress to and egress from the parcel, including, but not limited to, the right to park.

(3) If the governing documents so provide, an association may suspend the voting rights of a member for the nonpayment of regular annual assessments that are delinquent in excess of 90 days.

Glenn,
If you went to court on this, it would not be a valid vote as it was not in the proper hands on time.

Peggy
Just to protect yourself(because as a board member you are open to a personal lawsuit for not following the rules) and to cover yourself. I would send all people who you are not allowing to vote a cerified letter to ensure that they received the information. Do not take any chances that way eveyone is on the same page. This information was backed up by our association attorney but you do what you want.

Oh boy. This must be a really, really important and closely contested election item if you are going to nitpick over whether the ballot was signed before or after payment of delinquent dues. Sounds like someone is still looking to find a way of not counting that ballot.
How did he get a ballot in the first place if he was delinquent? Who allowed him to sign the ballot before he paid up? (Two witnesses and a notary for God's sake.) Can he get his delinquent payment back because his vote might still not be counted? False Pretensions!
Do let us know what is so all fired important about this vote. Two witnesses and a notary..............is that really in your documents?

Glenn, you would need to examine your governing docs a little further.

In our HOA, the right to vote on any item up for vote is available only to those members who were ELIGIBLE (in good standing) as of the DATE of the required notice of the item to be voted on.

In our case, the date of notice must be not more than 10, and not less than 3 days prior to the date of the meeting called for the vote.

So if the person were NOT eligible on the DATE OF NOTICE of the meeting for the vote, then even if he/she paid 2 days prior, 1 day prior, or the date OF the vote, his/her vote could not be accepted.

Our documents do not require a hearing to suspend voting rights.

But I'm still curious where this "two witnesses & a notary" requirement came from.

Well Donna - how do other creditors get paid? There are legal means to collect HOA dues. I've never understood why you need this "in good standing" hammer. Anyway, as I stated before, most people being denied voting ability could care less, unless there is a pivotal issue like what is here.

I read Jon's post. I too would like to see the exact statute.
My question to you was because of your statement "How do they think the HOA bills will get paid?" My suggestion is - the same way all other creditors get paid. There are legal means. Why does an HOA have to have a hammer such as this not available to other creditors?
As you might ascertain, I am not in favor of messing with a person's right to vote. And as you can see, doing so can be used for someone's advantage.

LOL - be my guest!
So what is your point? Because an HOA can't pay their bills if some don't pay? They are entitled to withhold voting rights? What do other businesses do if their customers don't pay? Duh!
What do cities, counties and states do if you don't pay your taxes? They have legal means they can follow. But you can still vote! So what is your point?
I have no problem denying use of amenities. We were talking about voting - where did these amenitites come from?

I can't get behind your argument, Harold. The suspension isn't necessarily a means to "encourage" payment. But the vote is a privilege of membership. As long as the membership is in good standing, the member can vote. If the member decides not to pay, he/she forfeits his/her good membership standing, and therefore his/her privilege to vote, assuming the governing documents of the organization tie voting privileges to payment of assessments.

I can promise you most who don't pay don't give a rat's behind about voting, either. So my question back to you is, what's YOUR point?

I'm sure that in those organizations that allow for suspension of voting privileges for non-payment, that they also have other means available and in use to collect outstanding assessments. If they don't then shame on them.

We suspend voting privileges, because we can. We also place liens. Because we can.

But then again, we also can and do suspend voting privileges when a member is "not in good standing" due to CC&R violation. Those who are violating the CC&Rs probably don't give another rat's patootey about voting, either. But that works out in everyone's favor then, because they will not be allowed to vote until their property if brought into compliance.

I can assure you they don't comply out of a desire to vote, either. They comply because, in the end, they want to avoid a lawsuit compelling compliance.

Anyway, I don't have a problem, philosophically, with denying a non-payer voting privileges. If a member can't "buy into" the organization with their duly required assessment fees, then they should not be allowed to "buy into" the shaping of the organization with a vote at any level a vote would be required.

Jon I would ask the person that claims this "law" is in effect to show you where and what it is. As far as the past due members go; file liens on them and if that doesn't make them pay up, start foreclosure procedures and see if that doesn't make them anti up. BTW in Ohio the refusal to pay over services doesn't fly, at least in condo communities:

5311.18 (6) In any foreclosure action, it is not a defense, set off, counterclaim, or crossclaim that the unit owners association has failed to provide the unit owner with any service, goods, work, or material, or failed in any other duty.

I will add a different perspective. The HOA had rules that allow for suspending voting for not paying assessments and fines. There is a process to appeal the suspension of voting rights as well as appealing the fines. This is probably similar to everyone else.

However, the difference is the reason why the board wants to suspend voting rights. They want to reduce the number of votes that are required to pass some controversial changes to the documents. If they have fewer members in good standing, the number of aye votes required goes down. In other words, they feel they can get something passed by reducing the voting pool required to get the necessary percentage.

To me, this sounds like using a rule for the wrong reason.