Proxies

The BOD sent out proxies to vote on new mailboxes months ago. The proxy showed an end date to vote. Since they did not get enough votes, they left it open, now for about three months. It’s this legal. We are in palm beach county fl. Can you point me to the statute for proxies in Fl. On this?

Not a lawyer, but...

It will depend on the wording of the proxy/ballot. I'm assuming that in this case "proxy" = "ballot". If they were two separate documents, it's possible to leave the vote open.

That said, it's a nuisance to have an open voting period because you have to keep track of home sales, discard votes from those owners, and have the new owners vote. It's easier to re-do the entire vote.

On the other hand... mailboxes? This vote was probably a poll rather than a binding vote, which means it's unlikely to get into legal issues. If owners can't bothered to voice an opinion, then the board decides with the info they have.

I replied in your other post, but will use this one from now on.

I said “you don't say how long was "months ago" or if "not enough votes" means not enough people voted to create a majority percentage saying yea or nay and/or if everyone who did vote said nay (there is a difference).

Since there was an end date and it appears the response is no, for whatever reason, I would say the board should either start over or drop the idea (apparently not enough people are sold on the idea for whatever reason). They can't count the non-voters as an automatic approval or denial, so if they want something more definitive, they should go ahead and call for another vote with new proxies…”

You said the notice listed a deadline of July 17 when a special meeting was held, and although the documents don’t say how long proxies can stay open, the end date has always been the date of the meeting.

So, what happened at the meeting – did the board say how many proxies were submitted, how many said yea vs. nay and if that was a majority? What do your documents say about the percentage required for homeowners to approve or disapprove anything? Did you or anyone else ask the board why this was going to be left open? What was the response (and if you didn’t ask, why not? You can only speak for yourself, but I suspect everyone would love to hear the response).

You might want to ask how long the board plans to keep this open – it hasn’t been three months if you’re counting from July 17 2024. Proxies usually aren’t open-ended, so if no one wants new mailboxes, they need to stand up and say so. Or do as Cathy suggested and start over. However, if the board wants to ignore what appears to be the community opinion on this, all of you will need to decide if you still want this board to oversee association activities – meaning you’ll have to consider voting them out in the next election or pursuing a recall (keep those documents open so you can read what’s required to have a special homeowner’s meeting for this). That will mean getting together with likeminded neighbors together and start working, finding others to run to take their place (YOU may need to be one of them) and if you succeed, you can review how proxies have been used in the past and perhaps come up with some new protocols that don’t conflict with your documents (unless you want to amend them) and state law.

(and I'd still like to know why new mailboxes prompted a homeowner vote anyway - seems to me this is something the board could have decided to do on its own)

Good question. If just replacement then no need for people to vote. The Reserves should cover it.

The term "capital improvement" in our CC&Rs only refers to new components. Replacing exiting reserve study components isn't considered a capital improvement.

First, proxies are usually good for 11 months, unless noted to the contrary, I believe. That's how it is in So. Carolina. It seems they are trying to reach a quorum due to a change. Second, I live in a property owners association. The builder put in our mailboxes. They all have to be black with a white post. We change our own mailboxes as the rust and age at our own expense. I don't see why the board would need you to vote on anything like that or why they couldn't make a decision on getting new mailboxes, unless it was contrary to your by-laws.

There are duplicate threads on this issue, both have replies on them.

Here is a link to the other thread:

https://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/postid/374082/view/topic/Default.aspx