Proxy Votes

Could anyone in the know advise me please regarding proxy voting?

My question is: if you have say three proxy votes plus your own vote, do you have to vote in the same way for all of them. If I voted for Joe Bloggs, then would all four votes be for Joe Bloggs? 

What if the people you had proxy votes for wanted to vote in a different way to you on some of the proposals or candidates for election at the Annual General Meeting?  Would this be possible (ie two votes for a proposal, two votes against).

Our community is quite new and still finding out about these things.  If someone could point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Thank you.

Hi Spanish Girl and welcome to the forum

As the holder of Proxy votes you can vote however you decide as the person you are standing proxy for has given you their vote in their abscence.  This used to cause a lot of problems on our Urbanisation as the President had maybe 32 and another owner had maybe 29 so it was just a case of one against the other which became really bad for the Urbanisation.

We changed this three years ago to include a tick box for those who could not attend the A.G.M. so that they could let the person standing proxy in their absence know exactly how they wanted to vote for each item.  As I say you can vote for what you like but if you know the preference of the owner then vote say 3-1 in favour or what they say they want.

You may need to speak with the President or Administrator before the meeting as they may just give you a card with 4 on it and expect that all four votes will be the same.  We have just had our 5th A.G.M.  and this system worked very well.

I think that the person who holds a proxy vote has a moral ( but not legal ) requirement to vote exactly how the giver of the proxy vote has indicated.

Before our 1st AGM I phoned everyone who sent me their proxy to see how they wanted me to vote on what. This took a great deal of time and cost quite a bit as they were all in England.

The proxy system is open to all kinds of abuse and your administrator should NOT expect you to vote the same way with each proxy vote you hold. It can, however become quite complex when you are holding proxies and it can be difficult for each vote to be recorded.

Because of all this and to make sure each owner has the opportunity to have their say, we have used a voting form for the past 2 years and this works well for us and all owners who have used this system are pleased with the results and the fact that they can have their say.

Another question regarding Proxy voters.

If there is a Proxy vote holder at the AGM but they are not owners do they have any right to join in the general discussion?

Thanks for any replies.

If someone is standing Proxy for an owner then they are there to represent that person, so yes they can speak at the meeting or bring up a point for discussion in the any other business/question part on the agenda.

Hi,

I hope you can help, we have our mini-agm's in the next couple of weeks, can you tell me if it is true that if we hand over our proxy vote to someone, they can't vote on the following:-  as this is what we have been told

1. The election of the administrator and secretary

2. Approval of our mini-community budget

We have been told that proxy votes can not be used to vote on the issues above, they can only be voted on by those in attendance on the day?

Any help would be great

thanks

The term "proxy" by its definition means someone to stand in someone’s absence.   Therefore, a person standing proxy has all the powers that the property owner would have if she/he were standing themselves.  The Horizontal Land Law states this and makes no allowances for what someone standing proxy can or cannot vote on.  If it on the agenda then the person standing proxy can vote on any and all items listed,  and also take place in discussions and any other questions.  I cannot imagine an Administrator would tell any owner otherwise or conduct a meeting where this mandate exists. 

When you say mini A.G.M. do you mean E.G.M. as there can only be one A.G.M. per year (unless of course the date has been brought forward and two happen to be in the same year).  The question raised of course is, why would anyone want to prevent an owner voting on the election of an Administrator or on the budget?   If an owner cannot attend a meeting and many cannot then why should their vote not count?

cbpc44.

They can if you know of candidates for secretary and administrator in advance together with proposed budget. Or if you leave the election to the proxy´s criterion. Out of genaral rules of the mandate institution of the Civil Code. There is no limits for the content of the mandate in the provisions which regulates attendance to Community of Owner´s General Meetings in the Horizontal Property Act.

Hope this helps.

Maria