HOA Members’ Right to Petition for “Special” Membership Meetings

Homeowners who are concerned about issues within their common interest development frequently feel helpless because their efforts to address their concerns are not being responded to by the association’s property manager and/or the board of directors. An important and often overlooked way addressing member concerns that involve issues that relate to all of the homeowners is through a “special” meeting of the association members. Such meetings are provided for in state statutes and the governing documents of a homeowners association (generally the bylaws).

The process of members calling for a special membership meeting begins with the submittal of a petition signed by a specified number of association members to the board of directors. The required number of members that must sign the petition for a special membership meeting is set forth in state statutes and cannot be changed or eliminated by contrary provisions in an association’s bylaws. For example, in California, Corporations Code § 7510(e) provides that special meetings of the members can be called by 5% or more of the members. Thus, in an association that has 50 members, a petition signed by only 3 members is sufficient to call a special meeting of the members. The only restriction besides having the requisite number of members signing the petition is that the meeting is being called for a lawful purpose.