P.Z. from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
At a HOA Annual Meeting, does the ownership vote on motions OR the Board? We just had our HOA Annual Meeting, and the Board voted to approve the 2021 Budget. We did not receive notice of the Budget being presented as per CCRs. At a previous HOA Board I was on, the Ownership voted on ALL motions present at the Annual meeting only, and not regular Board meetings. The hired management company made no comments of whether the Annual Meeting held a quorum, so, I thought maybe the law in North Carolina is different on this matter.
Mister Condo replies:
P.Z., it is unusual for the association to not have a vote to ratify or deny the Annual Budget. However, certain rules and requirements were put in place to accommodate safety protocols during the pandemic. I am not an expert on HOA law in North Carolina but I am not aware of any provision exempting the Annual Budget ratification but without knowing all of the circumstances, I would say that unless there is something radically changed from last year to this year, it might make sense to let sleeping dogs lie. Quorums are another matter entirely. The new management company may or may not be tasked with running meetings and/or advising the Board on how to run their meetings. The ultimate responsibility lies with the Board. The Board needs to know the State Laws as well as their own governing documents when it comes proper noticing of meetings, quorums, budge ratifications and so on. There are plenty of resources to help. A great place to start would be the local CAI chapter website at https://www.cai-nc.org. All the best!