Amendment to Bylaws

We recently held an election to vote 2 new board members onto the Board of our townhome association. Myself and one other home owner/resident was voted in by the residents.

The day of the election we received a copy an Amendment to Bylaws because the number of board members (3) did not conform with the number of board members set forth in the Declaration (5).

The Amendment was signed by the President of our Assocation, who is also the builder and all members on the board were originally appointed by him. (declarant).

We went forward with the election, however, at a recent 'owner's meeting" that we have on our own every month or so it was brought up if this was legal and if the Declarant can amend the bylaws without the knowledge of the owners??? can the Declarant change any bylaw he sees wants. At the time of this amendment all members of the board were related to the Declarant.

Any information you can give me on this is appreciated since I am new to all of this (as is my neighbor who is also on the Board) and we are in a learning phase....

thanks...

Even more importantly, many documents allow the declarant to change things as he feels is in the best interest of the community without input from the owners. Typically he must file the change and notify the owners. It would sound like he did both. But ultimately, the answer is: "Read your documents."

I agree. The Developer may have enough votes to approve or disapprove any action depending on their number of votes allocated via the Declaration. So the Developer may or may not have veto power at Association meetings; but so long as the Developer's cronies control the Board then the Developer has most of the power.

Maureen,

It's not unusual, but rather commonplace, for the members of the board to be relatives or employees of the declarant. That's why most bylaws state board members do not have to members of the assn. Your bylaws should answer your question about who has the authority to amend. In many instances the bylaws can be amended by the BOD w/o any vote of the members. It's not uncommon, that while the declarant is still in control there may not even be meetings of the board. The fact that 2 homeowners have just been elected to the board only means the declarant wants the appearance of some member input on the board. He still has the majority vote!

I would recommend you use this time to thoroughly read the bylaws and CCRs so you will know what your duties and responsibilites are as a board member and what rights the members have.

SusanW1 - Didn't you read the original post where it says they were elected by the owners???

Nuff said.

Can a Board have a Board meeting (quorum) and then have a vote to change a By Law or By-Laws with 2/3 of the homeowners voting that are present at the meeting??? Or does a By Law change have to be sent out to all the Home Owner's of the community for a vote. Also can Rules and Regulations be changed without a vote of the community and just changed by the Rules and Regulations committee and have it approved by the Board??? and then out to the community????

Robert,

The answer to these questions should be found in your gov. docs. The bylaw amendment procedure should be outlined in your bylaws and the procedure for enacting rules is most likely in your CCRs, but may also be in the bylaws.

Most bylaws that I'm aware of allow the board to amend without a vote of the members. However, if your specifically state a vote of the members is required, the vote should take place at a meeting of the members not at a board meeting. Or, a mail-in ballot might be used. However, in either case, the proposed amendment should be made available to all members and the members should be allowed to comment and suggest changes b/4 a vote is taken. In fact this may be a requirement even if the members are not required to vote.

Generally, a provision in the CCRs will give the board the authority to make rules although there may also be a clause in the bylaws. My assn docs have a clause in both the bylaws and the CCRs. In most instances the board has the authority to adopt new rules (which cannot conflict with any provision of the gov. docs) without input or a vote of the members. Some assn docs require the members to be advised of a proposed new rule with the opportunity to comment, whether or not a member vote is required.