Homeowner Access to Membership Lists
QUESTION:
I asked our property manager if it was possible to get a copy of the absentee home owners and was told no. What does 55-510 “Access to association records”; C.9 "Individual unit owner or member files, other than those of the requesting lot owner, including any individual lot owner's or member's files kept by or on behalf of the association" mean, and am I able to get a copy of the absentee home owners to contact for quorum purposes?
ANSWER:
Section 55-510(B) of the VA Property Owners Association Act states that any owner can have access to the "membership list and addresses, which shall not be used for purposes of pecuniary gain or commercial solicitation." You have stated that your intended purpose is to get the names and addresses of absentee owners so that you can contact them in hopes of achieving a quorum of owners. If this is, in fact, your purpose, then you should be entitled to this information. However, if the Association or its property manager has sufficient evidence indicating that you are obtaining this mailing list for business or commercial solicitation purposes, then they are within their rights to deny this information to you.