Owner election of the first board

Two elections, not one

Turnover to owners happens in stages, not one leap. Long before owners hold a majority of board seats, most states give them a minority seat once ownership passes a set threshold. The developer, also called the declarant, keeps the rest of the board until a later trigger fires.

In Florida condominiums, once owners other than the developer hold at least 15 percent of the units, they are entitled to elect at least one third of the board. Florida homeowner associations use a different marker: owners get at least one seat once 50 percent of the parcels in all phases have been conveyed to them. The threshold and the fraction of seats it unlocks are set by each state's own statute. Check your state's equivalent section before assuming Florida's numbers apply where you sit.

What starts the clock for majority control

Majority control follows the same pattern: several possible triggers, whichever arrives first. In a Florida condominium, owners other than the developer take majority control at the earliest of three years after half the units have sold, three months after 90 percent have sold, the units being complete with none still offered for sale, the developer's bankruptcy, or an unresolved receivership. Florida's homeowner associations use their own list, built around 90 percent of parcels conveyed rather than a fixed multi year deadline.

"members other than the developer are entitled to elect at least a majority of the members of the board of directors."

Source: Florida Statutes, section 720.307, The Florida Senate

Other states set different percentages, different deadlines, and different trigger events entirely. Find your own state's condominium or common interest community act and read the section on transfer or turnover of association control before you plan around a specific date. For the full list of what can start the clock, see Turnover triggers.

When control ends early

The clock does not always run to its scheduled end. If the developer loses its interest in the community to foreclosure, a tax sale, a judicial sale, a bankruptcy sale, or receivership, its special declarant rights, the bundle of privileges that let it hold board seats during the control period, end with that loss. Owner control can begin sooner than the percentage or time trigger would otherwise allow. Whether this happens automatically or requires a court filing or receiver's action depends on your state's statute.

A board that assumes an insolvent or absent developer still controls the board should check whether one of these involuntary triggers has already fired, rather than waiting for a percentage that may never be reached. See Declarant-appointed boards for what those directors owe the association in the meantime.