RobertJ Posted August 29, 2015 at 11:15 PM Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 at 11:15 PM An HOA holds a special homeowners meeting to vote on a special assessment for earthquake insurance. The governing documents (Conditions,Covenants, and Restricitions - CC&R's) state that a majority of the homeowners must approve a vote for obtaining earthquake insurance. The first meeting does not meet quorum requirements and the meeting is adjourned to 28 days later. The bylaws state that the quorum requirement drops to 25% for an adjourned meeting. At the adjourned meeting the quorum requirement is met but there are ballots for less than 50% of the homeowners so there couldn't be a majority of the homeowners voting yes with less than 50% of the votes cast. At the adjourned meeting, it is moved and approved by a majority of homeowners present to not count the votes since there won't be enough votes to approve the special assessment. The election rules adopted by the HOA as required by state law state that the results of the special assessment vote must be disclosed to the homeowners within 15 days of the homeowner's meeting. The adjourned meeting was three days ago. Can the homeowners and Inspectors of Election present at the adjourned meeting reconvene the homeowner's meeting to count the votes and then have the result mailed out within the 15 day time limit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted August 30, 2015 at 12:19 AM Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 12:19 AM Can the homeowners and Inspectors of Election present at the adjourned meeting reconvene the homeowner's meeting to count the votes and then have the result mailed out within the 15 day time limit?No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJ Posted August 30, 2015 at 12:49 AM Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 12:49 AM Assuming that the adjourned homeowner's meeting can't be reconvened to count the votes and the special assessment vote has failed due to not receiving the required number of yes votes, is there any reason why the unopened ballots couldn't be opened and counted at an HOA Board meeting? The election rules state that the votes can be counted at a homeowner's meeting or a homeowners association board meeting. Thank you for any and all responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted August 30, 2015 at 01:31 AM Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 01:31 AM An HOA holds a special homeowners meeting to vote on a special assessment for earthquake insurance. The governing documents (Conditions,Covenants, and Restricitions - CC&R's) state that a majority of the homeowners must approve a vote for obtaining earthquake insurance. Robert, can you quote EXACTLY what the bylaws say about the vote requirement to approve the special assessment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJ Posted August 30, 2015 at 01:40 AM Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 01:40 AM The HOA Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&R's) governing document states the following: ... the Association shall obtain and maintain earthquake insurance covering the entire Project upon the vote and approval of a majority of all Owners within the Project... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted August 30, 2015 at 03:07 AM Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 03:07 AM Assuming that the adjourned homeowner's meeting can't be reconvened to count the votes and the special assessment vote has failed due to not receiving the required number of yes votes, is there any reason why the unopened ballots couldn't be opened and counted at an HOA Board meeting?Yes. The membership adopted a motion explicitly stating that the votes would not be counted. Only the membership - not the board - can change an action of the membership.Your best option, if it's possible to give enough notice and to get a quorum, is to call a special meeting (not a "reconvened" meeting, but a new meeting) of the membership to resolve the issue. If that's not possible, the other option is for the board to go ahead and count the votes, notwithstanding that it lacks the authority to do so, and pray that the membership ratifies this action at its next meeting. Considering the legal requirement, it seems like a reasonably safe bet, but there's always some element of risk in the pray for ratification strategy, so if should be saved as a last resort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJ Posted August 30, 2015 at 04:06 AM Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 04:06 AM Well, it's probably not feasible to call another membership meeting to decide what to do with the votes that weren't counted. A quorum for that decision probably would not be attained even at an adjourned membership meeting with a 25% quorum requirement. I like the idea of counting the votes at the next HOA Board meeting and having that action ratified at the next meeting of the membership which would be the Annual Meeting at which Board Members are elected next March. FYI, the adjourned membership meeting held a few days ago was only attended by the HOA Board Vice President, the three homeowners who volunteered to be Inspectors of Election and the Management Company Community Manager. Of course, they all should have known better that the votes should have been counted at that meeting. Those homeowners who volunteered to be Inspectors of Election would be counting the votes at the next Board meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nancy N. Posted August 30, 2015 at 10:01 AM Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 10:01 AM These homeowners do like having homes, don't they? You might ask them. (Ref. RONR, 11th Ed., 2011 E. D., p. 347, line 30 & 32. Yes I memorized all those numbers, because they felicitously add up to the cube root of Pi taken to the 30th digit, which is so cute a number that it makes me think that Pi is a cadet-member of the Kardashians, but my copy of People Magazine didn't arrive this week so who knows.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJ Posted August 30, 2015 at 05:51 PM Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 05:51 PM Well, yes, we did ask them in regards to whether or not to obtain earthquake insurance. Less then half of the homeowners responded with their vote. In regards to the RONR reference regarding obtaining quorum, we did have a quorum of 25% of the homeowners at the adjourned meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted August 30, 2015 at 08:44 PM Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 08:44 PM Robert, can you quote EXACTLY what the bylaws say about the vote requirement to approve the special assessment? The HOA Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&R's) governing document states the following: ... the Association shall obtain and maintain earthquake insurance covering the entire Project upon the vote and approval of a majority of all Owners within the Project... Based on your response to my question, it appears you are properly interpreting the vote requirement. I was thinking that maybe....just maybe.... the bylaws required only a "majority vote" rather than the vote of the majority of all owners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJ Posted August 30, 2015 at 09:06 PM Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 at 09:06 PM Yes, there's no getting around the vote requirement. We'd probably never get "a majority of all owners" to approve earthquake insurance, but we wanted to at least put it to a vote so that when the "Big One" hits (we're in California) the homeowners wouldn't blame the Board members for not at least putting it to a vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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