HOA Voting Rules in Tennessee

No Tennessee statute authorizes electronic balloting for community associations by name, and nothing prohibits it. Two provisions come close for condominiums under the 2008 Act: TCA §66-27-408 expressly allows meeting notice to be sent electronically to an electronic address the owner designates, and TCA §66-27-409(c) allows attendance at a meeting in person, by telephone, or by any other means specified in the bylaws. For an association incorporated as a nonprofit, TCA §48-57-108 allows any action that could be taken at a members' meeting to be taken instead by delivering a ballot to every member entitled to vote. Your governing documents determine permissible voting methods.

The Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, Unit Owners' Association (TCA §§66-27-401 to 66-27-418) provides governance rules for CONDOMINIUM unit owners' associations — not planned communities — including a ten-to-sixty-day meeting notice (§66-27-408), a twenty percent default quorum (§66-27-409), and proxy rules (§66-27-410). The Act applies to condominiums created after its effective date and to older condominiums that elect in by amending and restating their master deed, bylaws, and plat (§66-27-202). Tennessee has no planned community act, so a homeowners association that is not a condominium runs on its declaration and bylaws plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act.

Low voter turnout is a common challenge in Tennessee's rapidly growing communities. vote.direct helps by providing convenient online voting from any device, automated email reminders, a flexible voting period, and real-time quorum tracking, all designed to maximize participation.

Quorum in Tennessee: For a condominium under the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, TCA §66-27-409 sets a real default: unless the bylaws provide otherwise, a quorum is present throughout any meeting of the association if persons entitled to cast twenty percent of the votes that may be cast for election of the board of directors are present in person or by proxy at the beginning of the meeting. A board quorum is fifty percent unless the bylaws specify a larger percentage. Attendance may be in person, by telephone, or by any other means specified in the bylaws, and attendance at an association meeting may also be by proxy. An HOA that is not a condominium falls back on its charter and bylaws and on TCA §48-57-203(a), which sets a ten percent default unless the charter or bylaws provide for a higher or lower quorum. If a vote falls short, most bylaws allow the meeting to be adjourned and reconvened, often at a reduced threshold on the second attempt. Check your declaration for the exact procedure, because the fallback rule is usually in your governing documents rather than in statute. Online voting is the most direct fix: members vote from a phone or laptop instead of attending in person, and Vote.Direct tracks quorum progress live and reminds the members who haven't voted yet.

For a condominium under the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, TCA §66-27-408 requires notice not less than ten nor more than sixty days in advance of any meeting, caused by the secretary or other officer specified in the bylaws to be hand-delivered, sent prepaid by United States mail, by facsimile, electronically, or by other means expressly authorized by the declaration, to the address of each unit or to any other physical or electronic address the unit owner designates. The notice must state the time, place, and method of attendance and the items on the agenda, including the general nature of any proposed amendment to the declaration or bylaws, any budget changes, and any proposal to remove a director or officer. All unit owners may waive notice in writing. An HOA that is not a condominium follows its charter and bylaws and TCA §48-57-105, under which notice is fair and reasonable if members are notified of the place, date, and time no fewer than ten days nor more than two months before the meeting date. Your governing documents can require more notice than the statutory floor, never less. Count the notice window backwards from your meeting date before you open voting, and keep a copy of the notice and its delivery date with the election record.

For a condominium under the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, TCA §66-27-410(b) lets the votes allocated to a unit be cast under a proxy duly executed by the unit owner. A proxy is void if it is not dated or purports to be revocable without notice, and an owner may revoke it only by actual notice of revocation to the person presiding over the meeting. The Condominium Act sets no duration of its own; it hands that to the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, and under TCA §48-57-205(c) an appointment of a proxy is valid for eleven months unless another period is expressly provided in the appointment form. Under §48-57-205(a) the charter or bylaws may prohibit or limit proxy voting altogether. No votes may be cast for a unit the association itself owns (§66-27-410(d)). Older condominiums under the Horizontal Property Act, and HOAs that are not condominiums, follow their governing documents plus the Nonprofit Corporation Act. Online voting is a cleaner alternative to a proxy: the owner casts their own ballot from any device instead of handing their vote to someone else. Proxies exist mainly to solve an attendance problem. When members can cast a verified ballot online during a multi-day voting window, most communities find proxy use drops sharply, along with the disputes about whether a given proxy was valid.

Tennessee statute doesn't address electronic voting either way, so authority comes from your governing documents rather than from Tennessee Horizontal Property Act (TCA §66-27-101 et seq.) — condominiums created before January 1, 2009. Start with your bylaws: if they don't restrict voting to "in person" or "written ballot" methods, you generally have room to adopt online voting by board resolution. If they do restrict it, you'll need a membership vote to amend them. A good amendment explicitly authorizes electronic voting, specifies security requirements, and preserves each member's right to opt out and receive a paper ballot. Have your association attorney draft the language.