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Who gets to vote, and howLesson 6 of 25

Academy/Membership & Annual Meetings

Owner voting rights

One vote per lot, but who actually casts it depends on how that lot is owned.

A lot or unit generally gets one vote, held by its owner, not by whoever lives there. Co-owners must agree by majority in interest before their shared vote can be cast, unless the declaration says otherwise. An association can never vote a unit it owns itself. Trust, LLC, and delinquent-owner rules vary by state and by your documents.

01

Whose name is on the vote

Your governing documents allocate a set number of votes, usually one, to each lot or unit, not to each person who lives there. The owner holds that vote, whether or not they occupy the property themselves. If your lot has a single owner, this is simple: that person's name is the one that counts, whether they're speaking at the meeting or marking a ballot. It gets more complicated the moment a lot has more than one name on the deed, or no human name on the deed at all.

02

When ownership isn't one person

When two or more people co-own a lot, the default under one widely adopted model act is that the shared vote can only be cast if a majority in interest of the owners agree.

"the votes allocated to that unit may be cast only in accordance with the agreement of a majority in interest of the owners, unless the declaration expressly provides otherwise."

Source: Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, Voting, Proxies, West Virginia Legislature

Two co-owners who can't agree simply don't get a vote that meeting. See Joint owners for how that plays out.

Ownership by a trust or a business entity works differently again. In at least one state's practice, the trustee, not the trust itself, is treated as the actual owner who must vote, while a corporation or LLC can send its own designated representative instead. Confirm how your state and your governing documents handle trust or entity ownership before assuming either pattern applies to you. See Trust-owned properties and LLC/company-owned properties.

03

What the association can never do, and what's still unsettled

An association can never cast the vote attached to a unit it owns itself, for example a unit it took back through foreclosure.

"No votes allocated to a unit owned by the association may be cast."

Source: Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, Voting, Proxies, West Virginia Legislature

Whether a delinquent owner can be denied a ballot for falling behind on assessments is genuinely unsettled here, it depends entirely on your state statute and your own governing documents. Check your state statute and governing documents, and raise it with your board's counsel before withholding a ballot or assuming one can't be withheld.

Check yourself

Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.

A lot is jointly owned by two siblings who can't agree how to vote it. Under a common model act default, what happens to that lot's one vote?

Your association forecloses on a delinquent owner and now holds title to that unit. Can the association cast that unit's vote at the annual meeting?

A member who signed a proxy shows up at the meeting and wants to vote in person instead. What must happen for that proxy to be revoked, under a common model act default?

Sources

Membership & Annual Meetings

Not sure whose name actually holds the vote for your lot? Start with Eligible voters.

Whether a lot gets one vote or more, how a jointly owned or entity-owned lot casts its vote, and whether a delinquent owner can be denied a ballot all vary by state statute and by your own governing documents.