 |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Community Living: Quorum not needed for condo election
By RICHARD WHITE Question: At our board election last night, 10 people were running for 9 seats at our 55-unit condominium. Twenty ballots were submitted. Someone said the election is illegal because 51 percent of the owners must vote. Is that true? Answer: No quorum is required to conduct a condominium election. (Homeowner associations do require a quorum.) FS 718.112 (2) (d), Unit Owner Meetings, gives the procedures for elections. It says that 20 percent of the eligible voters must cast a ballot in order to have a valid election. Vote countersQuestion: The votes were counted only once at our recent elections. Is that legal or correct? Should the condo secretary be at the counting table while votes are tabulated, and should she instruct the counters how to do it; or should she excuse herself from the table as soon as she has marked off which apartments have turned in their sealed ballots? Answer: The question is not who should be at the counting table. The question is who will count the ballots fairly and accurately. If the secretary is up for re-election, it could be improper for her to participate in counting. The tally counters should be independent from the members up for election. They should control the count and should be committed to certifying it as correct. They may be able to do that after only one count, or it could take several. Rules vary for recordsQuestion: Our small homeowner association is about 10 years old. Record retention and storage are beginning to be a problem. Can you guide us? Answer: Homeowner associations and condominiums have similar requirements. For specific information check FS 720.303 for HOA and FS 718.111 for condominiums. In general, annual meeting records are required to be stored for only one year. Insurance policies, minutes, financial and operational records must be maintained for seven years. Bids that are not accepted must be stored for only one year. Your documents, including the covenants, articles and bylaws, along with any amendments, are permanent records, along with any deeds, copies of plats, permits and warranties. All of these must be permanently maintained. I suggest you keep a filing cabinet with the past year's records along with the current year's records. Just after the first of the year, pull out the oldest previous year's records and put them in storage boxes clearly marked as to the year and the type of records. In most associations, fewer than four boxes will hold the annual records. If you do not have storage in the community, find a public storage facility nearbywhere you can store the boxes in a dry, protected area. The storage cost will become an annual expense on the budget and should be considered a cost of doing business. Each year, take the new boxes to storage and remove the boxes with records over seven years old. I suggest that you review the records prior to discarding them. - Write to Richard White, c/o Community Living, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Sorry, he can't take phone calls or provide personal replies by mail, but you can e-mail him at CAMquestions@att.net. Please include your name and city. Questions should concern association operations; legal opinions cannot be offered. For specific legal advice, contact an attorney. Readers may call the state Division of Condominiums Bureau of Customer Service at 1-800-226-9101 with questions or requests for materials. Or write to Bureau of Customer Service, 1940 N Monroe St., Northwood Centre, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1032. You can access the Bureau of Condominiums Web site at www.state.fl.us/dbpr/lsc/index.shtml.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Home&Garden page |
