HOA Voting Rules in Vermont

Yes. Under 27A V.S.A. §3-110(a), unless prohibited or limited by the declaration or bylaws, unit owners may vote at a meeting in person, by absentee ballot, or by proxy, and — when a vote is conducted without a meeting — by electronic or paper ballot under §3-110(d). For such a vote the association must notify unit owners that the vote will be taken by ballot, deliver a paper or electronic ballot to every unit owner entitled to vote, set out each proposed action with an opportunity to vote for or against it, and state the number of responses needed for quorum, the percentage needed to approve each matter other than the election of directors, a return deadline no fewer than three days after delivery, and how an owner may circulate information to all owners about the subject of the vote. Section 3-110 applies to pre-1999 communities as well, for events after December 31, 2011.

Under VCIOA, 27A V.S.A. §3-109(a), the default quorum is 20 percent of the votes in the association, counted from owners present in person or by proxy at the beginning of the meeting, from absentee ballots delivered to the secretary in time, or from any combination of the two — unless the BYLAWS provide otherwise. Section 3-109 does not reach communities created before January 1, 1999, which take their quorum from their own governing documents. Online voting through vote.direct can help achieve quorum by enabling participation from seasonal residents and out-of-state owners who cannot attend in person.

VCIOA provides comprehensive governance rules for all types of common interest communities in Vermont, including condominiums and planned communities. It establishes standards for meetings, voting, governance, financial management, and dispute resolution.

Quorum in Vermont: Under VCIOA, 27A V.S.A. §3-109(a), unless the BYLAWS provide otherwise a quorum is present throughout any meeting of the unit owners if persons entitled to cast 20 percent of the votes in the association are present in person or by proxy at the beginning of the meeting, have cast absentee ballots delivered to the secretary in a timely manner, or are present by any combination of the two. The executive board's own quorum is 50 percent unless the bylaws specify a larger number. Note that §3-109 is not among the sections VCIOA applies to common interest communities created before January 1, 1999, so an older Vermont community takes its quorum from its own declaration and bylaws. 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.

Under VCIOA, 27A V.S.A. §3-108(a)(3), an association must notify unit owners of the time, date, and place of each annual and special unit owners meeting not less than 10 days or more than 60 days before the meeting date, and the notice must state 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 an officer or member of the executive board. That minimum may be reduced or waived only for a meeting called to deal with an emergency. Notice may be given by any means described in §3-121: to any mailing or electronic mail address the unit owner designates, or otherwise by hand delivery, U.S. mail or a commercially reasonable delivery service to the unit's mailing address, by electronic means if the owner has given the association an electronic address, or by any other method reasonably calculated to provide notice. A good faith effort that fails does not invalidate action taken at or without the meeting. Section 3-108 also reaches communities created before January 1, 1999, for events after December 31, 2011 (§1-204(a)(2)). 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.

Under VCIOA, 27A V.S.A. §3-110(c), and except as the declaration or bylaws provide otherwise, votes allocated to a unit may be cast under a directed or undirected 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. Two limits are unusual and easy to miss: a proxy is valid only for the meeting at which it is cast and any recessed session of that meeting, and no person may cast undirected proxies representing more than fifteen percent of the votes in the association. Section 3-110 also applies to common interest communities created before January 1, 1999, for events occurring after December 31, 2011 (§1-204(a)(2)). Online voting is a cleaner alternative: the owner casts their own ballot from any device, with no proxy to date, deliver, or revoke. 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.