Legal News You Can Use: 2025 - 2026 Community Association Legislative Update

NEW STATUTORY AMENDMENTS

— continued from page 5 Unit Owner Meetings

▪ Note – Previous law only required the meeting to be held within 45 miles of the condominium property. » Associations may no longer satisfy the notice posting requirement for unit owner meetings by broadcasting the notice on a closed-circuit cable television system. ▪ Note – While previous law permitted this practice, it was rarely used, so the practical impact of this change is expected to be minimal for most associations. » Similar to the concerns noted in the section titled “Board Meetings,” these new requirements and burdens could discourage associations from holding unit owner meetings by video conference, potentially undermining the apparent legislative purpose of facilitating video conferences in the first place (i.e., promoting transparency and accessibility for the unit owners). ■ ballot state the name of the association and/or the date, time, and place of the meeting for which it is given? Does the submission of an e-mail ballot count towards quorum? What is meant by the new statutory language that the disclaimer must be written “in a font size larger than any other font size used in the e-mail from the association to the unit owner.” These and other uncertainties will likely require clarification through future legislative action or judicial interpretation. Whether or not an association has implemented a traditional electronic voting system may now have a significant impact on how meetings must be noticed and the kind of voting methods that must be accepted. Additionally, as noted in the section titled “Unit Owner Meetings,” a new statutory provision permits unit owners to vote electronically when a unit owner meeting is conducted by video conference. As discussed in that section, that new provision could potentially conflict with the broader electronic voting statutes addressed above or lead to interpretive issues. ■

— continued from previous page Electronic Voting conference, it must be recorded, and the recording must be maintained as an official record of the association. » If a unit owner meeting is held to consider a proposed annual budget, and if such meeting is conducted by video conference, then a sound transmitting device must be used so that the conversation of members attending remotely may be heard by the board or committee members attending in person, as well as by any unit owners present at the meeting. ▪ Note – Interestingly, this enhanced requirement appears to apply exclusively to budget meetings and does not appear to extend to other types of unit owner meetings. » A unit owner meeting must be held at the location provided in the association’s bylaws or, if the bylaws are silent as to the location, within 15 miles of the condominium property or within the same county as the condominium property. if a board member, an officer, a licensed manager, or an agent of the association provides a sworn affidavit attesting to such review. The foregoing procedures represent a significant change to the statutory framework governing how associations conduct voting. They also raise several unresolved questions. For example, can unit owners electronically transmit ballots (i.e., submit an “e-mail ballot”) even if the association has implemented a traditional electronic voting system? Does this alternative e-mail ballot option only apply to elections, or is it available for all types of unit owner votes? Can a unit owner submit an e-mail ballot from any e-mail address (and if so, how can the association verify that the e-mail ballot was transmitted by an authorized individual?)? Can an association require a unit owner to separately confirm that they submitted an e-mail ballot to help prevent potential fraud? Is an association required to prepare and provide the e-mail ballot form to be used by unit owners? Must the e-mail

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