The owner’s meeting

The special owners meeting is a lot like an AGM except that there is only two items of business, the vote on the removal of the directors and, if the requisition is successful, the election of replacement directors.



Quorum
A quorum of 25% of all owners eligible to vote must be present, in person or by proxy, for the meeting to come to order. If quorum is not met, then the requisition has failed.

Order
A wise chair will inform the meeting that no yelling, swearing or language that will incite other owners will be tolerated. Usually security officers or paid-duty police officers are hired to insure that the meeting remains orderly.

Voting for removal
The requistionists require 50% plus one of all owners to vote to remove the directors. This includes the absentee owners and, if applicable, the owners of the commercial units.

Owner-Occupied Position
A director elected to the owner-occupied position on the board may be removed by a vote of the owners of more than 50% of all of the owner-occupied residential units.

The proxies are usually used as voting instruments and only owners who attend the meeting in person will receive ballots.

Ballot
A simple ballot will suffice.
Ballot For the Removal of Directors of YCC # 999

I hereby vote in the election for the removal of directors from the Board of Directors of York Condominium Corporation # 999

Name of Director
 In Favour of Removal
 Against Removal
 Ann Cables

 Bill Brown

 Mary Chan

 Carl Edwards

 Ralph Steamer


30 June 2013

Vote for replacements
In accordance with the by-laws dealing with the election of directors, the owners may elect replacements for the removed members of the board. They will serve for the remainder of the term of a director who was removed.

This insures that the board will retain a quorum and that the owners have the opportunity to elect the replacement directors.

Nominations
The nomination process is identical to that used at an Annual General Meeting with both proxies and ballots used as voting instruments.

Can a director who was just removed stand to be re-elected? Why not? I seen it done. In that case, the candidate was not re-elected to the board.

Little tricks
At the start of the meeting, with the chair's cooperation, the directors and their supporters may withhold their proxies to see if the requisitionists have achieved the required quorum of 25% of all the owners. If they have, the board will submit their proxies. If not, they can say that the meeting cannot be held because quorum has not been met.

I was at one requisition meeting where there were 299 residential units and two superintendent units that were owned by the corporation.

The lawyer that was hired to chair the meeting said that the votes for the two superintendent suites would support the director that the owners were trying to remove. I replied that I would challenge that and that the superintendent suite could not vote if there was an election to replace the director. I won that challenge.

I would watch for this for all meetings where a vote of the owners is required such as loan bylaws, bylaw changes and elections for the board of directors.

Then, the lawyer said that for the requisition to succeed it needed 151 votes, that is 50% plus one of the 301 units, not 150 votes which is 50% plus one of the 299 residential units. I replied that that ruling may be challenged in the courts if the vote became that close.


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