Does a board member/officer have to be a property owner

Started by PeggyH • 9 replies • 1955 views

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PeggyH (South Carolina)
Posts: 36

Posted:

We have a board member /officer who is selling their property and moving out of the Association, can they still be on the board and be an officer?

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Peggy,
Do your Documents allow non members to be on the Board? You will have to look in them to see if it is allowed for a non owner to be on the Board.
My questions is "why would they want to be?"

HaroldS (Arizona)
Posts: 906

Posted:

Depends what your documents say. I'm not sure why they would want to continue with the headaches if not a member any more. If they don't sell and rent the property, that would be different.

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

I agree: why would anyone want to be a board member if they didn't have a stake in it?

I know there are folks, but why?

to paraphrase groucho: I wouldn't want anyone in my club who was dumb enough to want to join.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Our documents allow non-residents to be on the board of directors.

The subdivision right next to us does not.

HaroldS (Arizona)
Posts: 906

Posted:

"Our documents allow non-residents to be on the board of directors." Do you actually have non owners on your board?
Can this be a hangover that was inserted so the declarant could appoint associates as board members while he's in control?
Seems an odd situation to allow someone to create rules and raise assessments they needn't worry would affect themselves. It also seems completely out of the HOA concept of neighbors controlling their own neighborhood.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

I don't know if it's a holdover or not, but our documents allow for it.

Currently we have no non-residents on the board.

But 2 years ago we had a real estate agent on our board who did not live in our subdivision. He had no connection to our developer or declarant.

and the year before that our district councilmember was on our board, and he does not live in our subdivision or have any connection to our developer/declarant, either.

I don't know what their reasons were. For the most part, I guess it's a pretty gravy position. Only 3 of us ever end up doing any of the work anyway.

I suppose they just wanted to plump up their resumes.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Harold,
I totally agree that non homeowners should not sit on the Boards and for the reasons that you stated. Most documents that I have read allow for non owners to sit on the Boards as long as the Developer is still in control. That is to insure that the Developer gets his 2 cents worth in and that he still controls the association. But once turnover is completed, then ownership is required to have a Board seat.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Again, I can only speak to what is common around our area.

Our developer turned over control over 8 years ago. Since then we have had a handful of non-residents or non-lot owners on our board.

HaroldS (Arizona)
Posts: 906

Posted:

"Since then we have had a handful of non-residents or non-lot owners on our board." I'm curious how they even found out about running for the board? Someone from your association must have approached them to run? Perhaps no owners would do it? Or maybe an incumbent wanted a friend for a sure vote for his agenda? Just boggles the mind why an association would leave that in the covenants after transition. Harold

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