Ask the expert

When can owners speak at association meetings?

Q: During association meetings, our president doesn’t want us to speak anytime during any matter regardless, but only at the end of the session when anything to say is irrelevant because they already voted, and each answer is evasive or offsubject. When can a homeowner speak during association board meetings? — Tyron

A: I get this question a lot, and while the rules seem relatively simple, it can become a bit confusing in practice.

The short answer is that all owners are entitled to speak about all items that are on the agenda or opened for discussion.

Be aware that you have a right to talk about items on the agenda, but not to spontaneously add new things to it. While the rules governing homeowner associations and condos are a bit different, they are similar enough to discuss together.

Your association is allowed to make reasonable rules governing participation but must let all members speak at least three minutes on each agenda item.

The rules can regulate things such as asking that hands be raised to be recognized to speak, in order to keep meetings orderly.

Also, not every board meeting is open to members. Meetings to discuss litigation with the association’s attorney or that deal with employee issues are examples of closed meetings. All open meetings can be recorded by unit owners, as long as doing so is not unduly distracting.

You should look to your community documents to see which specific guidelines you need to follow.

As mentioned above, all of the rules must be reasonable. In your case, making owners wait to address agenda items until after voting is over is neither reasonable nor within the law, since it seems to defeat the very purpose of the rules.

Gary Singer