Turnover triggers

Turnover is a race between triggers, not a calendar date

Every state that regulates declarant control builds the same pattern: a percentage of units or parcels conveyed to buyers, an outer time limit that fires regardless of how sales are going, and a set of involuntary events that can end control early. Whichever of these happens first is the one that counts. The specific percentages, time limits, and involuntary triggers are set by your state's condominium or common interest community act, and they differ from state to state. Find your state's version of this statute before you rely on any number.

Florida shows how differently two trigger lists can read

Even within one state, a condominium and a homeowner association can use different formulas. Florida condominium owners gain majority board control at the earliest of several triggers, including three years after 50 percent of units are conveyed, or three months after 90 percent are conveyed, whichever comes first, along with bankruptcy, an unresolved receivership, and a few other conditions. Florida's homeowner association statute runs on a different schedule entirely.

"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

This particular set of percentages and timelines is Florida's. Your state may use different numbers, different time windows, or different trigger events altogether. Pull your own state's statute and your declaration's turnover section rather than assuming Florida's list applies to you.

A minority seat can arrive years before majority control

Turnover is not all-or-nothing. In Florida, condominium owners are entitled to elect at least one third of the board once they own 15 percent or more of the units, well before they reach majority control. Florida's homeowner association rule grants owners at least one board seat once half the parcels in the community have been conveyed. Whether your state grants an early minority seat, and at what threshold, depends on your own state's statute. Check for this before assuming the board stays entirely developer-controlled until majority turnover.

Control can end even without a percentage or time trigger

Bankruptcy, foreclosure, a tax sale, or an unresolved receivership can end a declarant's control before any sales threshold or time limit is reached. Under the model law used as a basis for many states' statutes, losing the declarant's interest this way ends the special declarant rights, unless the judgment or sale document itself hands those rights to a successor. Separately, a declarant that sells its remaining development rights to a new developer is not automatically released from obligations that arose before the sale. The exact list of involuntary triggers, and how a transfer of declarant rights must be recorded, is set by your state's statute.