HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 2, 2026
Published: Fri, 01/02/26
Updated: Tue, 01/06/26
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 2, 2026
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In this week's tip, we help out an HOAleader.com reader who's troubled by their manager's action of collecting proxies and how those proxy votes might be cast.
Our reader asks: “We're a Minnesota HOA in our third year. Our board elections are next week, and I'm running for an open seat. Our property management company has sent two emails to homeowners ‘strongly encouraging' homeowners to send their proxies to the property manager to ensure a quorum. Of the 67 homes, last year 45 were represented at the annual meeting, so a 10 percent quorum of 67 isn't much of a concern this year.
Here's the text of what the property manager sent today: ‘This is a reminder that the 2025 Annual Meeting is quickly approaching on 11/5/2025 at 6:30 PM. If you are unable to attend, please fill out the attached proxy to info@ncmgi.com (please include proxy in the subject line) or by one of the other options listed at the bottom of the proxy. If you have already returned your proxy, thank you for participating in your annual meeting! We strongly urge homeowners to send in their proxy, as this helps the association meet the required quorum.'
Candidates aren't announced until homeowners arrive at the annual meeting. Therefore, when a homeowner submits a proxy, there isn't a way for them to know who's running. Our governing documents are silent on how proxies are handled.
Last year, our president controlled all such submitted proxies. Our three board members are all friends, and I'm not a part of the in-group. Pretty sure the proxy votes will all be given to the board member who's currently running for re-election. Any thoughts on whether and how to address this? I figure that the president's friends will be on the board until they no longer want to run regardless of who runs against them.”
To start out with, one of our Minnesota experts says it's not unusual to not yet have a slate of candidates a week before the election.
“It's certainly possible you could not know who candidates are,” says Phaedra J. Howard, CCAL, department chair for community association law at Hellmuth & Johnson PLLC in Edina, Minn. “I have a situation right now, and I wondered if the person asking the question was with that HOA. But I can tell it's not.
“In my situation, a problem homeowner is complaining and sending other owners notes to not submit their proxies until the board tells owners who the candidates are,” she explains. “But they were a week before the meeting and election, and nobody had submitted candidacy forms. With this owner, I'm essentially thinking, I don't know what to tell you. We told you we'd tell you who the candidates were when we know. But we don't know yet.'
“The president is up for election, and she's not sure she's going to run,” says Howard. “She says she probably will, but she hasn't decided. And if the HOA allows nominations from the floor, I can't tell you who's going to take advantage of that.”
It's often a document-specific question whether there can be nominations from the floor. “It's not prohibited by California statute,” says Jasmine F. Hale, CCAL, a principal at Berding & Weil based in Walnut Creek, Calif., who advises condos and HOAs throughout California. “It would have to be expressly allowed in the documents for a person to be able to do a nomination from the floor.”
When it comes to the manager seeking proxies, that doesn't raise eyebrows among our experts. Read our new article, https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5229.cfm, to find out why—and to hear why our experts say this reader might want to begin collecting proxies, too.
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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