2015 New Hampshire Revised Statutes
Title XXXI - TRADE AND COMMERCE
Chapter 356-B - CONDOMINIUM ACT
Section 356-B:39 - Voting.

NH Rev Stat § 356-B:39 (2015) What's This?

    356-B:39 Voting. –
    I. The bylaws may allocate to each unit depicted on site plans and floor plans that comply with RSA 356-B:20, I and II, a number of votes in the unit owners' association proportionate to the undivided interest in the common areas appertaining to each such unit.
    II. Otherwise, the bylaws shall allocate to each such unit an equal number of votes in the unit owners' association, subject to the following exception: each convertible space so depicted shall be allocated a number of votes in the unit owners' association proportionate to the size of each such space, vis-a-vis the aggregate size of all units so depicted, while the remaining votes in the unit owners' association shall be allocated equally to the other units so depicted.
    III. Since a unit owner may be more than one person, if only one of such persons is present at a meeting of the unit owners' association, that person shall be entitled to cast the votes appertaining to that unit. But if more than one of such persons is present, the vote appertaining to that unit shall be cast only in accordance with their unanimous agreement unless the condominium instruments expressly provide otherwise, and such consent shall be conclusively presumed if any one of them purports to cast the votes appertaining to that unit without protest being made forthwith by any of the others to the person presiding over the meeting. Since a person need not be a natural person, the word "person'' shall be deemed for the purposes of this paragraph to include, without limitation, any natural person having authority to execute deeds on behalf of any person, excluding natural persons, which is, either alone or in conjunction with another person or persons, a unit owner.
    IV. (a) The votes appertaining to any unit may be cast pursuant to a proxy or proxies duly executed by or on behalf of the unit owner, or, in cases where the unit owner is more than one person, by or on behalf of all such persons. The proxy or proxies shall list the name of the person who is to vote. No such proxy shall be revocable except by actual notice to the person presiding over the meeting, by the unit owner or by any of such persons, that it be revoked. Any proxy shall be void if it is not dated or if it purports to be revocable without notice as aforesaid. The proxy of any person shall be void if not signed by a person having authority, at the time of the execution thereof, to execute deeds on behalf of that person. Any proxy shall terminate automatically upon the adjournment of the first meeting held on or after the date of that proxy. The board of directors of the unit owners' association shall devise procedures to assure that all proxies voted at any meeting are valid and were duly executed by association members having the right to vote. Those procedures shall include one of the following:
          (1) The board of directors shall deliver to the unit owners, together with their notice of meeting and agenda, proxy forms bearing a control number which the board of directors shall correlate to the list of all unit owners then entitled to vote. At the noticed meeting, the board of directors shall recover all proxies and compare them to the control list maintained for that purpose. Any proxies which are on a form other than that provided by the board of directors or which do not correlate with the control list maintained by the board of directors shall be disregarded for purposes of determining whether a quorum was present at the meeting and for purposes of casting any vote at that meeting; or
          (2) The board of directors shall recover at any duly noticed meeting all original proxies delivered to any person for purposes of voting at that meeting. The board of directors shall then independently confirm the validity of those proxies by selecting a random sample of not less than 10 percent of all original proxies returned to the board of directors at the meeting and confirm with the granting owners in writing that the proxy was voluntarily given and duly signed.
       (b) The board of directors shall retain all proxies delivered to the board of directors and all independent written confirmation of any such proxies for inspection by the unit owners for a period of not less than 3 years from the date of the subject owners' association meeting.
    V. If 50 percent or more of the votes in the unit owners' association appertain to 25 percent or less of the units, then in any case where a majority vote is required by the condominium instruments or by this chapter, the requirement for such a majority shall be deemed to include, in addition to the specified majority of the votes, assent by the unit owners of a like majority of the units.
    VI. Anything in this section to the contrary notwithstanding, no votes in the unit owners' association shall be deemed to appertain to any condominium unit during such time as the unit owner thereof is the unit owners' association.

Source. 1977, 468:1. 1993, 186:2, eff. June 9, 1993.


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