Virtual board and annual meetings have become commonplace in the post-pandemic world. But, what happens when a homeowner doesn’t want virtual meetings and demands that the association hold in-person board or annual meetings?
Homeowners may prefer in-person meetings for several reasons, including limited technology or simply missing in-person interaction.
However, most boards agree that there are many benefits to virtual meetings. Some benefits include: the association does not have to expend funds to rent a room for the meeting or pay for travel time for vendors such as an attorney to attend the meeting; a virtual meeting allows those that are away from home to participate; virtual meetings are generally shorter and more efficient than in-person meetings; and virtual meetings tend to be less contentious than in-person meetings. Further, virtual meetings can be recorded and the recording distributed to the membership or placed in a secure location on the HOA or condo’s website to provide any owner who wants to see the meeting after the fact the opportunity to view the meeting.
In our experience, most of our clients are conducting the majority of their board and annual meetings virtually post-pandemic. However, boards should decide for their community whether in-person board meetings, virtual board meetings, or a hybrid of these two options works best for their communities.
Arizona law doesn’t clearly state that board meetings and annual meetings must be in-person. However, Arizona law states that a board meeting must occur in Arizona. (A.R.S. §§ 33-1804(B) and 33-1248(B)). If an association finds itself in a situation where a homeowner is demanding in-person board meetings, to fully comply with the law, the Board could allow the owner to go to the management company (in Arizona) to join the Zoom meeting in person with the manager or go to a location on the Association’s property (in Arizona) to Zoom into the board meeting.
Please contact Beth Mulcahy, Esq. at info@mulcahylawfirm.com for any questions on this topic.
