Tie Vote

[Guest psorhead1946]

At our HOA BOD Meeting a motion was made to deny the appeal of a fine. The vote was tied. How do you properly proceed? Or what was the outcome?

[Trina]

Tie vote defeats a motion. That simply means, however, that the assembly did not make a decision to deny the appeal. It doesn't mean that the opposite decision was made (i.e. granting the appeal). So, presumably, the appeal is still hanging around waiting to be dealt with.

[jstackpo]

And next time phrase the motion: "Shall the appeal be sustained" or "Shall the appeal be agreed to" then there will be no logical difficulty if the motion is defeated or tied - since a tie defeats the motion. The consequences of not sustaining or agreeing with the appeal means that the original judgment (a fine I take it) remains in effect.

This is why RONR says all motions should be stated in a positive sense - p. 104 - with a few, very few, appropriate exceptions.

[Dan Honemann]

Tie vote defeats a motion. That simply means, however, that the assembly did not make a decision to deny the appeal. It doesn't mean that the opposite decision was made (i.e. granting the appeal). So, presumably, the appeal is still hanging around waiting to be dealt with.

But the assembly did decide not to deny the appeal (whatever that means).

[Gary Novosielski]

At our HOA BOD Meeting a motion was made to deny the appeal of a fine. The vote was tied. How do you properly proceed? Or what was the outcome?

That motion should have been ruled out of order, since it is phrased in the negative. You properly proceed by making the correct motion to DO something, not a motion not to do something, which can be more easily accomplished by not making a motion at all. In other words, make a motion to grant the appeal, and then if it passes or fails, you'll definitely know the outcome.

As things stand, the outcome was that the motion to deny the appeal was not passed. But it certainly wasn't sustained either. So, you tell me.