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ELECTION TIME IS HERE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
October 22, 2012
Last week, I received an e-mail from someone
who was complaining that her HOA was using the voting and
election procedures required by the condominium statute, instead
of the HOA statute. In other words, using the Florida Statute
718 laws instead of Florida Statute 720. She wanted to know if
this was O.K., since the Board of Directors claims the condo
statute is actually a higher standard. As much as I wanted to
write back that your Board is correct and smart, and that you
should be happy they want to use the condo laws instead of the
HOA laws, the problem is the HOA is stuck with the pitiful sham
of election laws that currently exist under 720 and must use
them.
With all that may be wrong with the Florida
condominium statutes, they far outshine the homeowner
association statutes when it comes to voting procedures. The
condo statute contains strict timelines regarding when an owner
must decide to run, when the association must send out notices,
how the ballots are prepared and how ballots are determined to
be authentic. They also allow for monitoring of the condo
election if 15% of the owners demand it. The HOA statute is
basically silent on all of these matters and instead says that
whatever your governing documents say is perfectly fine. If you
thought that after Florida was the laughing stock of the country
when it came to hanging chads, we would be a little more careful
about how we conduct elections in our HOA communities, you would
be wrong.
Perhaps the best part about the condo
election statute is that in order to have a valid election, only
20% of the eligible voters must cast their ballot. A 20% voter
turnout is obtained in almost every condominium election I have
ever been involved in. In an HOA however, a quorum of unit
owners must appear in person or by proxy at the annual meeting
in order for the election to occur, which is normally 30%. This
requirement is often times too difficult to obtain, so no
election occurs and the same Board rolls over for yet another
year.
HOA Board members, and rightfully so, often
complain that if the people in the community are unhappy, they
should quit their complaining and run for the Board themselves.
I couldn't agree more. However, what do you say to those owners
that try to get involved, actually run for the Board, and then
are told that there's no election because a quorum of owners
didn't participate? Persons who want to take part in the
political process shouldn't be penalized by the apathy in the
community.
Let's hope that during next year's
legislative session, The Florida Legislature takes a page out of
the condo books and have the HOA laws regarding elections mirror
the condo laws. It allows for more accuracy and more
participation. You would think that the time has come for The
Florida Legislature to appoint a committee to figure out what
are the best and most effective aspects of Florida Statute 718
and 720, and ensure that what is successful in one type of
association, be brought into the other. Instead, we have a
hodge podge of laws that treat the same situations differently,
despite the fact that one law may be a miserable failure. Next
week I'll elaborate on this.
One more thing. In all my years of
participating in condominium elections and campaigning, I have
never seen one person run for the Board and announce their
political party affiliation. Would it matter to the voters in
the community if a candidate was a Democrat, Republican or
Independent? Should it matter?
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