HOA glossaryMeetings & voting

What is a quorum?

The minimum participation required for a meeting to conduct business validly, set by the bylaws and sometimes by statute.

There are two distinct quorums and confusing them causes real damage. A board quorum is the number of directors needed for the board to act. A membership quorum is the proportion of owners needed for a members' meeting to transact business, and it is usually much harder to reach.

Business conducted without a quorum is voidable. Elections held, budgets ratified and amendments approved at an inquorate meeting are all open to challenge by any owner who was not there.

Whether proxies, absentee ballots or electronic participation count toward quorum depends on the documents and the state act. Assuming they do without checking is a frequent and consequential error.

Why it matters to a board

Confirm and record quorum at the start of every meeting, in the minutes. It is one line that answers a whole category of later challenge.

Where the answer lives

Your recorded declaration and bylaws first, then the act that governs associations in your state. Whichever is stricter is the one that binds you.

Related terms

Annual meetingThe yearly meeting of the membership, where directors are elected and the association reports to its owners.ProxyA written authorisation allowing another person to attend and vote on an owner's behalf at a members' meeting.BylawsThe association's internal operating manual — how directors are elected, how meetings are called and run, and what the officers may do.MinutesThe official record of what a meeting decided — the association's institutional memory and its primary evidence.Board of directorsThe elected body that governs the association, holding all authority the governing documents grant to it and no more.AmendmentA formal change to a governing document, adopted at the threshold that document requires and, for covenants, recorded to take effect.
General information, not legal advice. This entry explains what the term means, not what your association must do about it. Any notice period, cure window, fine cap, vote threshold or deadline comes from your recorded declaration and your state's act — those differ in all fifty states and are amended every session. Updated August 2026. Confirm the current requirements with an attorney licensed in your state before acting.
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