“HOA Board Meeting Attendance and Timing Requirements” – News-Press
Q: Is a homeowners’ association required to accommodate the schedules of its owners when deciding to hold board meetings? In our community many of the owners work, however, the board holds its meetings during business hours, which prevents most owners from attending. Shouldn’t the board be required to hold its meetings when most owners can attend? (P.M., via e-mail)
A: Unless the governing documents for your homeowners’ association specify the time when board meetings must be held, the board of directors have discretion on determining the time and location of the board meeting.
Chapter 720 the Florida Homeowners’ Association Act does not specify any requirement concerning the time or day of the week for when board meetings are to be held. Section 720.303(2)(a) of the Florida Homeowners’ Association Act discusses board meetings and does provide that a meeting of the board must be held at a location that is accessible to a physically disabled person if requested by a person who has a right to attend the meeting. However, the statute does not otherwise address a requirement to hold the meeting at any specific time or weekday in order to facilitate owner attendance.
The governing documents for the association, often the bylaws, may contain restrictions on when and where board meetings must be held. As such, you would need to review the governing documents to confirm whether such a provision exists. In the absence of any documentary requirement, the board would have discretion on when to hold its meetings.
Q: My homeowners’ association documents state that they have a thirty-year term and that at the end of the thirty-year term they renew for successive ten-year terms and require a 90% vote of the owners to terminate. Therefore, we understood that our documents were essentially “evergreen” and would continue unless some action was taken to terminate the documents. However, we are now being told that the documents did expire due to the statute after thirty years. Does this statute override our documents? (G.C., via e-mail)
A: Possibly, yes. It appears you are referring to Chapter 712 of Florida Statutes, which is the Marketable Record Title Act often referred to as “MRTA.” Pursuant to the statute, certain restrictions on real property expire after thirty (30) years from “the root of title” unless actions are taken to preserve the documents. While the analysis under the Marketable Record Title Act can be somewhat complicated, for homeowners’ associations it is generally understood that the declaration of covenants will be subject to extinguishment under the Marketable Record Title Act after thirty years unless steps are taken to preserve the documents.
A homeowners’ association can preserve its governing documents by recording a notice of preservation in the public records of the county where the community is located. Additionally, the Marketable Record Title Act also allows a homeowners’ association to preserve its documents when an amendment is recorded, if the certificate of amendment contains language that it is intended to preserve the documents. However, if the governing documents were not properly preserved, they can be extinguished even if they have not expired by their own terms. Documents that have been extinguished by the statute can be revitalized by the approval of a majority of affected owners.
Any association that has questions regarding the effect of the Marketable Record Title Act on their documents should consult with its legal services provider.
Joe Adams is an attorney with Becker & Poliakoff, P.A., Fort Myers. Send questions to Joe Adams by e-mail to jadams@beckerlawyers.com. Past editions may be viewed at floridacondohoalawblog.com.
