ELECTION

Oh My God,
Just when you think that you've heard it all, along comes another unbelievable case.

The election should be called illegal and void it out. Number one, proxies and voting should never be on the same piece of paper. Votes are secret and proxies are not. Florida proxies are very specific in what can be done with them.

Have another election. Ballots go into a sealed envelope with only the lot number on the outside of it. Have a roster of all eligable lot numbers that can vote, check them off when the corresponding envelope comes in. You can limit all proxies in when they can recieved, such as 2 days prior to the election. That way, you can verify them. If they are not in the hands of the secretary or management co, then they do not get counted.

Do your documents state anything on Proxy use? How old is your community?

What was the reason that the HOA is in Administration Dissolution? Even so, there needs to be some body in place to run the business of the HOA so you still need either a Board or an administrator to run the association.

Ward,
Who put you into dissolution? The State would not ordinarily do that for lack of 1 or 2 annual reports. They just send a couple of threatening letters and the HOA files some catch up papers. (You are now in compliance--good)

No workmans comp is not your responsibility, it is the landscapes job to keep that up to date BUT it is the Boards job to check and see if the landscaper has the insurance. You need someone to come in and clean house.

I think that you may have taken a step in the right direction by hiring a new management company. Hopefully they can get this train back on track.

Who caught the fraudulant proxy? Board member or the manager?

Normally, you would have to show that these proxy errors would be made a difference in the election to get the election declared null and void.

So, verify each porxie (hope you kept them)

The time to complain was at the electtion; it may be too late now.

Dwight,
I did say "not normally" Don't forget that the State of Florida has zillions of HOAs and to fall thru the document crack is not unusual. I am aware of an association or two that has gotten behind in their annuals and the State sent them an "official" notice to comply. It costs the State much more to disolve a HOA corp than it does to send a letter so this particular HOA must have been on the radar screen. But there is no excuse for them to not file the annuals. The filing fee is under $20.00 and dissolution and reinstatement will be in the hundreds.

Does the Board know who had submitted the fraudulent proxy?

The State would not "dissolve" the corporation - just put it into an inactive stage.

The Members are the only ones who can dissolve the corporation.

Unless you can show that the forged ballots/proxies would have made a difference in the elction, the election would not be able to be null and void.

It's really an "administrative dissolution" and it's the term used by the Corp Commission, at least that's the case here in AZ. When a corp fails to file their annual report (n $10/yr), the Corp Comm will administrative dissolve the corp, but the corp has 6 years from the delinquency date to correct the deficiency. All they have to do is file the necessary documents, pay the fee (only $25 for nonprofits)and the corp (HOA) is reinstated. While the HOA is under the dissolution stage, technically, they are not supposed to be conducting business; however the Corp Comm is not a policing agency, so the dissolution really doesn't have much teeth. The only drawback is that the corp's name is only held for 6 mos after the date of delinquency so your corp name could be assigned to a new corp. I doubt this happens with HOAs.

Every state has their own laws and procedures; what I've described above applies to AZ.