Condo Association Management Blog

We were told by the attorney who attended our Annual Meeting/Elections that the Board could make the final decision on how they want to run the election itself. Any comments would be much appreciated too. They just tore off slips of paper which we wrote names on for voting. ?? We offered a full ballot printed/ it was seconded and they ignored us totally. They also told us they don't take nominations before that actual meeting. Not good.

You should probably read your by-laws regarding elections. That is the document that states how the Association is to operate and should include how and when elections are to be held, and how long the terms would be. It sounds weird to me, too, that a household can vote more than once for one person. In our Association, we vote once for the number of positions being replaced. For example, if we have three slots, and five candidates, we vote for the top three we want, but there is only one vote per candidate, per unit.

We were allowed to submit all our votes for one person. We had an attorney at the time who did not object to this method.

Check to see if you have cumulative voting or not. We had it and the MIssouri Condo Statues state that is how we vote. However, for some reason our attorney felt it was not proper and we all agreed to have it removed. We have the issue of how the actual voting takes place. We have a new President and hopefully the control issues the past Pres has had will resolve itself finally after all these years.

IMO, the managing agent is giving you misleading info by saying each h/o has 5 votes. He is really saying you have cumulative voting which means you can either cast one vote for each of the 5 positions that are open or you can take the 5 votes and cast them for one person. Check your state laws and your bylaws to make certain cumulative voting is allowed. If so, then you may vote that way. However, if it is not, then you can only cast one vote for each position that is open.

Cumulative voting can be legal.Check your DOCs and bylaws. You can also vote one vote for for one person only and note use your other votes thus depriving the others of votes, and increasing the chances of the person for whom you do vote.

I live in a condo in NYC and we never had a meeting in the 6 1/2 years I have lived there. We have a President of the Condo who is a Doctor that don't even live in the building but has a office there.  
 
Something seems so wrong there. 
 

I am in NJ and going thru this exact thing. Our by-laws clearly state that our election must be held at the annual meeting, which is January. It states exactly what the procedures for the voting process are, yet our condo board decided to do it completely illegally. I brought this to their attention and was told it's up to the discretion of the board how to hold the election. It's not up to the discretion of the board, it's according to the by-laws. So now rather than follow our own by-laws I have to take them to court to make them follow them. Such a waste of time and money that our association cannot afford. That may have to be your alternative as well.

Know the difference between an annual meeting of the members and a board meeting where members are invited. 
The annual meeting is the only meeting where the owners have power. they can vote and they can make motions to discuss. they can even make a motion and vote on it. this is the only meeting where members hold power over the board members. 
unless..... 
The board holds the annual meeting just like a board meeting. An acceptable order of business will not be presented or followed. No opportunity will be given to the members to do anything but vote and you are all screwed for another year. 
The board wants you to spend money on an attorney. They know that chances are , not many will chip in to help. Members are afraid of the board. Many will agree with you but few will actually do anything. 
I rounded up the necessary votes to reject a new by laws proposal 2 years ago. First they ignored it, then tried to go around it and finally they lied and said they had all the votes necessary and passed it anyway. 
I forced them to show the votes and when they didnt have them, they restored the old bylaws. 
 
The lesson here is that, a board will try to get away with what ever it can get away with. 
 
Most of your fellow members will do anything to avoid a confrontation. It's going to be an uphill battle.

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