2/3 Bylaw Voting Rule

A 2/3 voting rule to change, amend or add to the bylaws seems very common. I'd like to know if anyone has tried to change it to a majority vote of 50% and what are the pro's and con's of doing so.

The biggest problem with 75% approval requirements is that it's very difficult to get enough people to participate . Apathy is a huge problem in HOAs and if you have a lot of people who simply choose not to do more than pay assessments, getting the numbers you need can take a long tiall.

It's more difficult if you have a lot of off-site owners because you extra time 5o send them the information and they may not care about the issues at all. Some feel the amendment percentage should be higher because efficient operation of the community is at stake (bylaws) and the CCRs run with the land, so everyone should participate in deciding how the common areas should be used (which everyone co owns and pays for.)

A smaller percentage like 51% can help in getting document amendments passed, but there's no guarantee because you still have to gather the ballots and people will forget, lose the ballots, not sign them, and in some cases, delinquent homeowners might not be eligible to vote. However, that's rare, because a delinquent homeowner usually can't sit on the board or use community amenities, but are still allowed to vote for document changes.

There are several conversations on this website about document changes and the drama that ensued. Don't respond to the older ones, but bring your questions to this conversation to get current information . You can use those experiences to take a good look at your community and its current participation rate to see how much work you'll need to do - spoiler slert: you'll have to put in a lot, especially if you have a large commun8ty.

I think a simple majority, and possibly only of those attending an owners' meeting where quorum is met, is more common.

I recommend a simple majority of those attending an owners' meeting where quorum is met.

Bylaws should not be so hard to change. Too many reports here speak to grave problems with a HOA's bylaws and the difficulty of amending.

NC 55a non profit act says all you need is the majority of quorum. if your quorum was 10% of the neigborhood that means only more than 5% would be needed to change them. You want it to be relatively easy to change the bylaws. if your bylaws state sommething different than go with that, but otherwise it's not that hard to achieve.

The pro's is you can make it easier to get rid of corrupt boards,
force specific times and number of board meetings and force them to be open to the public since nc law only requires one per year be open to the public.
You could force that HOA to have an annual survey.
You could make sure that any corporate rental company would have to live in the neighborhood to join the board.
You can incorporate an ethics and conflict of interest agreement into the bylaws to be signed by any board member.
You could even have parts that address how much owners are in arrears before they are fined.
you could make a rule that allows anyone to record any hoa meeting.
heck you might even put a clause in there that allows home owners to sue the HOA in small claims court for not holding the annual meeting or holding elections. the possibilites to even the tables are endless.

Yes that is true, but our HOA bylaws do not mention how they are to be amended and I've seen other's in my state with the same issue.