Condo Board Member Passes Away; No Agreement on Replacement

N.T. from Florida writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

We have a 5 member board and one has died; we cannot agree on a replacement. It is a 2 to 2 vote. Our election is not for 5 months, what do we need to do?

Mister Condo replies:

N.T., I am sorry that you have lost a Board member. I am sure that the death of a neighbor and volunteer has upset many in your community and I offer my condolences to your community and the family of the Board member who has passed.

As for the governance of your community association, your by-laws spell out how to handle the loss of a Board member. The fact that the Board has not agreed on a suitable candidate is unfortunate but it really doesn’t need to change anything. Generally speaking, the remaining Board members can appoint an interim Board member but if the Board doesn’t have a majority of members agreeing on the candidate, I would simply not try to select a replacement. The Board can continue to function as a 4 person Board until the election in 5 months. That may lead to some other split votes where action cannot be taken until the 5^th Board member is elected but it is unlikely that the 4 person Board would disagree on everything that comes up for a vote between now and then. After the 5^th Board member is elected, it is back to business as usual. All the best!