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Our condo's original offering plan (written decades ago), including by-laws, specified a certain number of board officers which was an even number. In practice, however, over the last several years, there have only been a small, odd number of board members who have been elected and served. A long-term owner told me that someone, several years back, decided to merge 2 of the roles mentioned in the by-laws into one--but that change is not reflected in any addendum or revision to the offering plan. My question: Wouldn't we formally need to change the by-laws in order for this practice to be kosher? I do know we'd have to pay attorney fees, but wouldn't this fairly slight change be less expensive than others? Thanks for any intel.
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I lived in a co-op , not a condo. Any desired change to the existing by laws required that an amendment to the by laws be put to a vote of the shareholders, and it needed approval by 2/3 of the shareholders in order to pass.
You'd need to check your by laws to see the procedures and percentages required to amend the by laws. I'm sure that these procedures will probably be stated quite clearly in your by laws.
In our co-op, if that didn't happen, then the original by laws remained the law of the co-op.
If your condo was our co-op, then that merging of the 2 roles without a by law amendment would be illegal and invalid. So you definitely need to contact an attorney to find a course of action.
Trust me, if any of the people who illegally changed the by laws are still on the board, they will scream bloody murder at your proposed actions. But, stick to your guns. They will scream because they KNOW that they violated the by laws - and any challenge by you and/or other condo owners will be upheld in court.
Good luck and keep us posted.
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