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Deliberate No Show to Prevent a Quorum

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  • 02-09-2014, 06:31 AM
    basher1
    Deliberate No Show to Prevent a Quorum
    My question involves a HOA located in the State of: Florida

    Can a President and Secretary of a HOA deliberately not send a proxy to help not acheive a quorum, also this said person did not inform anyone that she would not be attending the election meeting in person and therefore unnamed proxies were void, again a plan to prevent a quorum. In effect 5 proxies were lost because of this action and thw quorum failed by 2.
    Can this be rectified in any way due to the manipulation from this board member. We have had an unelected board for many years and members are feeling cheated due to the actions of this one person.
    There was only one board member at the meeting, so could those unnamed proxies have been passed down to that board member to enable those unnamed proxies to count and acheive a quorum.
  • 02-09-2014, 10:45 AM
    mihamih
    Re: Deliberate No Show to Prevent a Quorum
    I think it is very unlikely that in the case where there are more candidates than positions open, one can just ensure there is no quorum to stay on the board. I'm in IL and if we don't get quorum here, we reschedule the annual meeting. Since I got involved, I go knock on a few doors to get quorum so we don't have to re-mail everything....

    Granted in Florida could be different. Apparently they have different rules for COAs and HOAs. If you are really an HOA, read here:

    http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/...0720/0720.html

    A lot of it is dependent on your bylaws so you have to read them as well to get a full picture of what should have been done. In any event the link above says:

    "c) Any election dispute between a member and an association must be submitted to mandatory binding arbitration with the division. "

    Very painful....

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    I guess if I were you, I'd just sit it out for a year. See if they can allow you to form/join some committee. It's a way to get involved. Then comes next year, start knocking on doors advertising yourself and make sure you yourself have enough proxies to have quorum and to win. This is how I did it... ha-ha. My friend started reading declaration for things like you are now but I told him to stop creating problems and we won by a landslide the following year.....
  • 02-10-2014, 02:47 AM
    basher1
    Re: Deliberate No Show to Prevent a Quorum
    I have read the statutes, doc's etc etc but nowhere can I see any mention of if any unnamed proxies automatically go to the President/secretary and for that person to use those proxies to achieve a quorum and if that person is not present at the meeting, can those unnamed proxies then be passed on to another board member who will be present, if authorised to act as President/secretary.
  • 02-10-2014, 04:33 PM
    mihamih
    Re: Deliberate No Show to Prevent a Quorum
    If the statues do not specifically deal with unnamed proxies, I'd look at intent. The person who was given the proxy can present it. If Joe gave their proxy to Peggy and Peggy did not make it, I would not count it. This is the safest approach. But if Joe just sent the proxy to the association in general blank, I'd just write BOD on it and it counts.

    But just because you got no quorum does not mean the old board stays unelected. Seems to me the election needs to be repeated if there were more candidates than positions open.

    Try calling the division that oversees this. You may get someone who knows how the division rules. Or you may get someone who does not know the division's address....

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    Also check the statues for the other requirements on a proxy. If some of the other requirements are not met, the proxy can be declared invalid regardless of name.
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