CAN EMAIL BE CONSIDERED NOTICE OF MEETING

My HOA has a BUDGET Meeting ONCE a year and we are required to vote to either accept or reject the proposed budget. FOR FOLKS IN THE STATE OF AZ, IS EMAIL NOTIFICATION OF A MEETING CONSIDERED THE PROPER WAY TO NOTIFY OWNERS? Thanks and it is ALWAYS SOMETHING with this current board. They sent out the email notice only 4 days prior to the meeting but say it is ok because the property manager could not get the financials together! Also there was no required quorum present as there was not roll call taken and no owner sign in so I would guess the vote taken is null and void. Thanks.

Larry, Thanks so much for this response. We are going to have quite a fight on our hands over this and the board president has gotten wind that this is going to be challenged and is REFUSING to even talk about the subject at the meeting tomorrow. He is a dictator type. I wish there were something in print because I know that you can do Unanimous Consent things with email but I did not know about notices and that would beg the next question.....could HOA voting ever be done withe email? I would doubt that at this point in time. If you can think of anything written in the statutes about this (I have failed to find something) please let me know because seeing the written word is the BEST proof. Have a great week and Thanks Again.

FOLLOWING up on this......we found out that not ALL owners received the email for the meeting notice was was given ONLY 4 days prior so the board is going to SEND ballot out to vote on an assessment HOWEVER it is telling everyone that the budget vote was legal! I say if a meeting is not noticed properly....then all action is void. Thanks for all the comments on this. This Board President also maintains that he can do all board business and notifications by email WITHOUT even asking the stakeholders if that is their preference. I have sent notification that I want everything in paper format. We had a large insurance claim ($200,000) and the whole matter was done by email and some owners were not aware that they had checks cut and waiting for them. The only thing we got hard copy was a release form that had to be notarized).

Joanne,

If you must use a short notice, you should have everyone who should have received the notice sign a waiver of notice.

Kelly,

I forget if your in a condominium or not. It doesn't matter as the language in both is the same but I'll only add emphasis to one of them:

For COAs:

Per AZ 33-1248:

"Not fewer than ten nor more than fifty days in advance of any meeting of the unit owners, the secretary shall cause notice to be hand delivered or sent prepaid by United States mail to the mailing address of each unit or to any other mailing address designated in writing by the unit owner."

"for meetings of the board of directors that are held after the termination of declarant control of the association, notice to unit owners of meetings of the board of directors shall be given at least forty-eight hours in advance of the meeting by newsletter, conspicuous posting or any other reasonable means as determined by the board of directors. "

For HOAs:

Per AZ 33-1804

"Not fewer than ten nor more than fifty days in advance of any meeting of the members the secretary shall cause notice to be hand-delivered or sent prepaid by United States mail to the mailing address for each lot, parcel or unit owner or to any other mailing address designated in writing by a member."

"notice to members of meetings of the board of directors shall be given at least forty-eight hours in advance of the meeting by newsletter, conspicuous posting or any other reasonable means as determined by the board of directors."

To summarize AZ law as I read it:

For general membership meetings - minimum of 10 day notice is required and the notice must be mailed or hand delivered unless the member requested, in writing, to receive notices by e-mail. Even if the Board has everyone's e-mail address, if the member did not requested to be notified by e-mail then a printed notice must be used for that member.

For Board meetings - minimum of 48 hr notice is required and the method of delivery is at the desecration of the Board (the whole board not one individual on the board). If the board has everyone's e-mail address then using e-mail would be allowed.

Hope this helps,

Tim

If you can, start with the property manager. Tell them you are getting confused and ask that both of you review the statutes together so you can reference it when discussing the issue with other members and have this notice issue resolved. Then when you review it point out, acting surprised, the difference between notice for board and general membership meetings. This will allow the property manager to save face a little bit and, as has been pointed out to me many many times, you gather more flies with honey then with vinegar.

Our HOA has done this notification thru email as well. They have gone so far to say they have sent out a few notices when they merely sent the same email out 3 times in one day .
They also have many getting newsletters and so forth thru emails the newsletters are fine but to trap homeowners in getting to the newsletter on line they have put messages that wont let you get to the news letter until you agree with their message. If you don't agree you don't get your newsletter and their messages may concern some under handed thing the BOD has done and we are trapped to say ok