Required Notice for Meetings
QUESTION: I live in a condo association where the Board regularly has meetings, but does not regularly give notice of those meetings to any of the unit owners. On the occasions when they do give owners notice of the meetings, they do not always give the owners a copy of the agenda or subject matter of the meetings. What is the Board required to do with regard to giving prior notice and circulating copies of the agenda to unit owners?
RESPONSE: This issue is covered by Section 55-79.75 of the Virginia Condo Act. First, it is important to distinguish between unit owner meetings (which generally occur only once per year), and board/director meetings (which may occur regularly throughout the year).
Subsection (A) of the aforementioned Code section states that all owners must receive prior written notice (via regular mail or hand delivery) of all unit owner meetings. That notice must state the date, time, and place of the meeting, and must also state the "purposes of such meeting," which essentially means that the unit owners must either receive a formal agenda, or at least be given some indication of what will be discussed, decided, or voted upon at the unit owner meeting.
Subsection (B) of the aforementioned Code section applies to meetings of the executive organ (Board of Directors). These requirements are slightly different than the requirements for owner meetings. For Board meetings, the Board must publish notice of the time, date and place of the upcoming meeting in a place "where it is reasonably calculated to be available to a majority of the unit owners." This does not specifically require that written notice be mailed to the owners, nor does it require that owners be provided with an advanced copy of the meeting agenda.
Subsection (B), in its discussion of Board meetings, later states that an owner can make a written request to the Association that he/she be provided written notice of all upcoming Board meetings, and the Board must honor that request. The unit owner making that request must submit it in writing at least once per year to the Association.
Further, the information that is being provided to the Board members in preparation of their Board meeting (commonly referred to as a "Board packet") must be "made available for inspection" to the unit owners "at the same time such documents are furnished to the members of the executive organ." This does not mean that each unit owner is entitled to have an agenda or board packet mailed to him prior to each board meeting, but instead only requires that the Association manager (or whoever handles these affairs) make the board packet available for inspection at the same time the Directors receive this information prior to the meeting. Please note, however, that any documents in the Board packet relating to matters that the Board can discuss confidentially in 'executive session' may be lawfully excluded from the packet available for inspection by all unit owners.
Thus, in summary, the Board is obligated to send prior written notice and agendas to all owners in advance of any unit owner meeting. For Board meetings, the Board is only obligated to make a reasonable good-faith effort to publish notice of the meeting to all unit owners (which may be mailing out notice to everyone, putting notices on a bulletin board or in the elevators, posting on the Association website, etc.), unless a unit owner sends the Board a written request, at least once per year, asking for written notice of all upcoming meetings. The Board is not, however, obligated to mail out copies of an agenda prior to its Board meetings, but must honor the request of any unit owner wanting to inspect the board packet prior to the upcoming board meeting.