What law prevails for determining quorum?

Started by NancyC9 • 4 replies • 1627 views

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NancyC9 (Florida)
Posts: 6

Posted:

I am on the board of a FL HOA. We are having our first annual meeting of the membership since taking control from the developer. FL statutes say a quorum is 30% of the membership. Our community Articles of Incorporation say a quorum is 51%. I read in a book that if governing documents of a community are inconsistent with state law, those documents are invalidated in favor of the law. Are we safe in assuming a quorum is 30%?

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767

Posted:

In California, if the governing documents are silent, THEN Corporation Code would take over. In other words, our Bylaws, (this is where you should find quorum requirements for Annual Meetings) is a majority of the voting power, or 50% plus 1, whereas Corporation Code is 1/3 of the membership.

Generally speaking, quorum requirements are set by the Association's governing documents and state statues are written to take effect if your docs were silent or missing the language.

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Nancy unless your documents allow for a lower quorum than 30% (which yours doesn't) then the FL statute would prevail.

720.306 Meetings of members; voting and election procedures; amendments.--

(1) QUORUM; AMENDMENTS.--

(a) Unless a lower number is provided in the bylaws, the percentage of voting interests required to constitute a quorum at a meeting of the members shall be 30 percent of the total voting interests. Unless otherwise provided in this chapter or in the articles of incorporation or bylaws, decisions that require a vote of the members must be made by the concurrence of at least a majority of the voting interests present, in person or by proxy, at a meeting at which a quorum has been attained.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

SureshD
Posts: 268

Posted:

+1 with Glen.

As a fellow Floridian, I can tell you your assn. docs. are "trumped" here.

Your NEW Quorum is now 30%.

The ONLY exception is if your docs. state LESS than 30% (and your's apparently don't).

Sam

WilliamC8 (Florida)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Thank you all for your quick (and helpful!) responses. This is the first time I've used this website and I am very impressed!

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