In order to make any important decision necessary for an apartment building, a vote of the owners is required. This process can be performed in several forms, each of which has its own characteristics and purpose. Often there is no opportunity for all co-owners to attend the next meeting, so you have to resort to the correspondence form. Owners of apartments in a building should know how absentee ballots are held by homeowners, what ballots are used, and how the minutes are drawn up correctly and votes are counted.
The concept of absentee voting
For any multi-unit building, the supreme governing body is the meeting of owners. It is on it that significant decisions are made regarding maintaining the object in optimal condition.
At such meetings, apartment owners try to improve living conditions, as well as optimize management. The procedure on the basis of which the voting is held is determined in the charter of the HOA or the Criminal Code. For a decision to be legitimate, a certain quorum is required. For this, it is necessary that at least 50% of the residents of the house take part in the procedure.
If at the meeting issues related to financial and economic activities are resolved, for example, a loan or a major overhaul is required, then an important feature is the presence of at least 60% of apartment owners.
Residents are notified of the meeting using a special subpoena. Pre-determined form of voting. If it is not possible to collect the required number of co-owners, then you have to resort to absentee voting. The procedure assumes that citizens do not get together in any room, so they receive ballots, which are then filled out at home. Only after they are collected and counted is a decision made.
Features of the correspondence form
The HOA chairman must know how absentee ballots are held by homeowners and what conditions must be met for this. The features of this process include the following:
- It is carried out only on the condition that it is not possible in any way to organize an in-person meeting;
- the procedure is carried out in several stages, since preparation is initially carried out, after which all tenants are notified of the planned vote, and only then the direct procedure for filling out the questionnaire is performed;
- after summing up, the minutes of the meeting are formed competently;
- all citizens involved in this process should be notified of the results;
- The main stages are carried out by the chairman of the council of the house, and he can also use the help of the employees of the Criminal Code responsible for this structure.
Residents can involve employees of the Criminal Code in the procedure. They are the ones who prepare the absentee ballots for homeowners, and also explain to the residents how the process is carried out. The management company can independently develop the form and content of the questionnaire.
What issues are being addressed?
When choosing the absentee voting form of homeowners, you can solve many important issues. For example:
- it is decided when and with what means the current or major repairs of the multi-apartment building will be carried out;
- defines the rules and nuances of landscaping located next to the house;
- a decision is made regarding the possibility of renting premises belonging to the house;
- assessed the need to increase tariffs for overhaul;
- the chairman or secretary of the HOA is appointed.
If you understand how absentee voting is conducted by homeowners, you can legally and promptly resolve many important issues that concern each apartment owner in such a building. The above list of questions is approximate, therefore it is allowed to make decisions regarding other important points.
Tenant Notification Rules
All owners of apartments in the building must be notified in advance of the procedure. For this, written notifications are sent to them. They are compiled by people from home management who decide whether to conduct a survey.
The initiators send notifications to all residents of the house, for which they can personally visit apartments or leave documents in mailboxes. Documentation is submitted 10 days prior to direct collection. There is no approved form for such notifications, but they must certainly contain the following information:
- information about the persons who are the direct initiators of the survey;
- form of the process;
- date when the procedure will be carried out;
- the time by which all residents are required to return the completed ballots;
- the place where the votes of the owners of the apartments will be collected is indicated;
- the agenda of the meeting, and after the transfer of notifications it will be impossible to change this agenda;
- method and time of acquaintance with the information related to the issues discussed.
It is allowed to send notification data altogether to apartment owners by mail. For this, registered letters with delivery confirmation are used. If the documentation is handed over to all residents, it is important to carry out this process under a signature.
How is eligibility determined?
In order to make decisions made after the vote authoritative, some conditions must be taken into account. These include:
- all owners of apartments located in an apartment building must be notified in advance of the procedure;
- the votes of all tenants are not required, but a quorum is required, therefore, at least 50% of the opponents must minimum vote;
- if any financial issues are resolved, then you will have to collect votes from 60% of apartment owners.
If it is not possible to reach a quorum, then you will have to vote again.
Process requirements
For voting to be legal, the following requirements are taken into account:
- optimal content bulletins are used;
- optimal quorum is achieved;
- apartment owners are notified in a timely manner of voting;
- important issues are being addressed;
- competently recorded results;
- all residents are notified of the decision.
Only under such conditions will optimal results be obtained that cannot be challenged.
How are absentee ballots held by homeowners?
The procedure is considered quite simple, but in order for all decisions made to be legal, it is necessary to take into account the correct sequence of actions. Therefore, the following steps are implemented:
- determines the reasons why it is impossible to hold a general meeting for the implementation of open voting;
- a notice is drawn up, in which information about the agenda is entered, and data on all the initiators of this vote is included;
- within the specified time period, such a notification must be received by each homeowner in the house;
- at a predetermined period, all apartment owners receive pre-prepared ballots;
- they answer the questions raised in the form of a vote, for which they can choose the following options - for, against, abstain;
- filled in forms specified in the notification method are transmitted to the initiators of the vote;
- votes are counted, after which a protocol is drawn up;
- Based on the results, a decision is made.
When compiling a notice, any suitable form may be used. Absentee voting by homeowners should be held at the time indicated in this document.
Bulletin Rules
Voters can create their own ballots. They include information about exactly what issues need to be solved by the owners of apartments in the house. It is advisable to study the samples of absentee ballots by homeowners in order to have an idea of how this documentation looks.
To make it easy to make a decision, all questions are written accurately and clearly. The document proposes three possible answers, which allows you to check the opposite answer. A sample of absentee ballots by homeowners differs only in name. An example of this document can be studied below.
Nuances of counting votes
After the voting, the initiative group counts the votes. For this, the answers to all questions available in the bulletins are taken into account. Only on the basis of the information available in these documents, the results of the absentee voting of homeowners are determined. A sample newsletter can be studied above.
Only those documents that were submitted by the apartment owners on time are used. The number of votes is determined based on the area of the apartment in the house. It is allowed that the ballot is filled out by a representative who has a notarized power of attorney.
Only those votes are counted in which one answer is selected from three options. If people violate the requirements for filling out a document, then their votes are not counted.
How are the results drawn up?
As soon as the counting of votes is made, a protocol by absentee ballot is drawn up by the chairman of the HOA. When filling out the following rules:
- the number of all apartment owners in an apartment building;
- how correctly the forms were filled out by citizens;
- whether a quorum has been reached;
- whether the voting was conducted correctly, since if serious errors are identified, the results are easily recognized as invalid.
All correctly executed decisions are certainly recorded in the protocol. Additionally, it includes the following information:
- Title of the document;
- date of voting;
- bulletin gathering place;
- information about the initiators of the process;
- the number of owners of apartments voted;
- information about the chairman and secretary of the meeting;
- issues that were considered in the voting process;
- indicates whether the desired quorum has been reached;
- direct voting results are given;
- at the end the signature is made by the chairman and secretary.
The original of this document should be kept by the chairman, and copies should be sent within 5 days to the Criminal Code, Homeowners Association and Housing cooperative. A sample absentee voting protocol can be found below.
Conclusion
If it is not possible to hold a general meeting, an absentee ballot shall be held. It involves the transfer in different ways to residents of the building of special voting ballots. In a timely manner, these forms must be transmitted to proactive individuals.
Based on the results obtained, a voting protocol is formed, with which you can find out what decisions were made by the residents of the building.