Proxy voting at the AGM or EGM

If there is not a majority of the owners (representing a majority of the assessment quota) present at the first call, a meeting can proceed at the second call, which is normally half an hour later (the minimum required) regardless of how many owners are present. So a meeting at the second call would be perfectly valid even if only one owner turned up, but I'm pretty sure you'll find that the meeting must be held at a location deemed to be accessible to ALL owners - and since the Horizontal Law considers the property in question to be the default address for any notifications, I would assume it would also consider an appropriate venue to be one within a reasonable distance of the property. Interesting point though, because I can't find anything actually in the Horizontal Law that covers this.

Hi everyone.

This is of particular interest to our community because, as the Secretary, I am being asked to provide clear guidance as to what constitutes "Legal" voting procedure and what does not.

There are two aspects to the present discussion in our community; the first concerning community decisions.

Many members who are not resident and unable to attend have asked for us to issue a voting form, based upon the appropriate agenda items which they can then complete and return to the meeting in their absence to indicate their individual vote.  (Effectively, a postal vote)

Our Administrator has stated that:

The spanish law don't alow the  postal vote.

If  one owner wants to vote against or favour  one item from the agenda must send a representant to the meeting  or send  a proxi to an  attendant with same opinions than him  . 

The only exception are for votations  where the  item needs unanimous voting for  been aproved, in that case, non attendants nor represented have a month from the minutes notification for vote against ( only against) and avoid the agreement.

This suggests that what the members would like to have is not legal and only a general proxy voting authority, placed with (and consequently, in the control of) an attendee can be counted.

One compromise solution may be that the proxy receives specific (written?) instructions from the absentee on how to vote on their behalf on specific matters.

The second aspect concerns the voting for officers of the committee. 

Is it permissable for an absentee to specify their choice of candidate for, say, President and that, should their choice not be successful, that candidate should then receive their vote for another office, say, Vice-President?

These being points of law, can I ask Maria;  are you able to give a clear answer for me, one way or another, that I can take back to our members and administrator, please, as to which of these (if any) constitutes correct voting procedure within the law?

Many thanks
Steve

I find this all very interesting and would really appreciate some help in our particular case.

We recently gave notice to our maintenance contractor who has run 2 phases on the community, he is an owner on one phase and is also the maintenance contractor and President of that phase, we have found in recent years that no maintenance has been done despite an enormous budget, our 2 phases are linked as we pay 2/3rds of all water and electricity costs of both phases.

It is becominga a nightmare, as he is now rounding up some owners on our phase to call and EGM to give him his job back. These are owners that rarely come down to Spain but rent out their properties and ofcourse he does private work for them. He usually holds their proxies, so if an EGM is called and those owners 10% of the community ,do not attend and he holds their proxies, and this is the man we have given notice to, and we are discussing the why's and wherefore's of the notice (and there are many) he won't care, he is going to use his proxies for his own end.

Is there anything we can do? any help will be really appreciated. All we are trying to do is cut costs and get value for money for our community.

Have been reading about proxy votes with interest however having read the Horizontal Act (maybe am missing it) can someone please advise if a President who is calling an EGM can hold proxy's?

Why not? The absent owner can give his/her proxy to whoever they want.

It most important to ensure you have a copy of the by-laws of your Residents' Association.  These are not unlike the Articles of Association of a company and contain all  information as regards voting, procedures in general, conduct of meetings and so forth. All property owners on a development are entitled to have a copy of these (Estatutos de la Comunidad).

Patricia

 Under the Horizontal Property Laws you need 25% of owners or coefficients to call for an EGM to replace a President for example, does anyone know if this is 25% of ALL owners OR those that have paid their fees.

Also, how difficult is it to change the statutes to ensure a community is run by a committee rather than one person as President.

Thanks for any help

 My community did it with 25% of all owners. Obviously when it comes to voting, only those who are debt free can vote.

The duties and responsibilities of the president are laid down in the HPA.

It is down to the President to decide to be a dictator or otherwise.

Changing statutes need 100% agreement and there is allways one!!

dennismundy is correct......................any owner can sign the petition calling for an EGM............but only those paid up to the date of the meeting can vote.

 Thanks to you both, getting 25% in a sizeable community is going to be tough, as we have to rely only on owners known to us, perhaps best bet is to threaten President with an EGM for vote of no confidence if he does not step down. However dictators do not like stepping down, do they?.

 The HPA does allow owners to request that items be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Perhaps suitable contentious items could make life difficult  - vote of no confidence - requests for information about why certain actions were carried out etc.

Where does your administrator stand in all this?

 Frankly dennis I think the administrator sits neatly on the fence , not wishing to upset anyone or risk collecting her fees, from whoever is in power.

She has advised that legally the constitution giving the President absolute power cannot be changed to handing power to a committee without 100% agreement which is never likely.

It does surprise me though that debtors, who cannot vote or have a say in elections are taken into account when requiring 25% of owners or coefficients. How can debtors be allowed to either call for an EGM or not as the case may be? Surely they are effectively non owners. 

25% of fully paid up owners would be a lot easier to acheive in asking for an EGM.

We can always use it as the ultimate threat and ask for his resignation first, but unlikely, knowing dictators

 I agree that debtors are treated with more sympathy than they deserve.

The only thing that they are stopped from doing is voting!

They can use the pools etc that the rest of us have subsidised by paying our dues on time.

You might not like it but it is the Law here.....................a debtor can sign petitions, use ALL community facilities, rent out the house/apartment.....................with absolutely NO RESTRICTION except he/her cannot vote.

Very annoying, in fact absolutely mind blowing, but very true.

"....they are effectively non owners."

We've got a few like that who DO pay their fees! To me, those that do NOTHING to help run their community are almost as bad. But to be fair, I'm talking about a very small community where we can ill-afford to get outside help in for every little thing. In a big community, I confess I'd be just as apathetic as the next guy.

 Thanks guys, yes I was aware debtors could not be prevented from using facilities etc. and yes we have a large community with an authoritarian President, but there are at least a small number of residents and owners who DO care about the community and are prepared to work at it but in effect currently have no power or say in what is done.

We need approx 70 owners to even call an EGM so may have to await next years AGM.

Do I take it we can propose a change in the constitution to be run by committee rather than President if we get unanimous vote but those not expressing an opinion are taken as being in favour?

I think if anyone does not vote, they have so many days after the Minutes are sent to object ( through the Court ) and then it is taken that owners are in agreement with decisions made.

I don't think you will ever get unaniminity and unaninimity does not necessarlly mean just that.......................it may mean unaniminity from those at or represented at the meeting. As debtors cannot vote how can you achieve unaniminity???

Sorry I am late but want to answer the first post about secret votes.

SECRET VOTES ARE AGAINST SPANISH LAW!

HPA says that

 "the resolutions adopted, with indication, where relevant for the validity of the resolution, of the names
of unit owners who voted in favour and against, as well as the assessment quotas corresponding to
each unit owner".

(HPA18.2.f)