How to Amend Your Association Bylaws to Allow Pets

Bobby Albre, Rapallo North, West Palm Beach

 

There is not a specific procedure for any board of a Condominium Association to change or amend its bylaws. The Association’s board must rely on the process that is stated in the condominium documents that govern the community. Therefore it is important that the unit owners be acquainted with the condo documents before they go forward to attempt any change. Note: this is opposed to the regular House Rules & Regulations, which the Board of Directors has the power to change.

 

Ordinarily, the condo documents do explain the procedure to amend bylaws. For the following instructions, we will assume this is so.

 

First, find other people in the anti-pet community who already have a pet (that are hidden of course) or who feel that they would like to have a pet, or at least have a choice.  Create a committee of these dedicated owners who wish to make their home Pet Friendly.

 

The bylaws in the documents of any condo can only be changed by a vote of the membership at a special meeting called for that purpose or as a referendum at the annual meeting of the condo. There are only three ways that this can be done:

 

1) The president of the Board can call for a special meeting to vote on this subject.

 

2) A majority of the members of the Board can vote to allow this motion to go to a vote.

 

3) A majority of the membership can sign a petition to force the Board to allow the membership to vote. Obviously if there is an anti pet Board, then the pet committee has some work to do to bring this subject to a vote.

Draft a petition that demands a special meeting to vote on amending the no-pet bylaw. A percentage (that figure varies in different condos) of owners must sign the petition. If there is an attorney in the house, it would be advisable for them to assist with the wording.

The correct amount of signatures on the petition goes to the board president or the secretary if they can be trusted, or by certified mail.

We have found that bringing this up for discussion at a Board meeting is useless. An anti-pet person is not going to change their mind. It’s better for a one on one discussion.

For further information contact the Division of Land Sales, Condominiums and Mobile Homes in Tallahassee. Phone 850-488-1122 or 800-226-9101, or log on to

Florida Statutes (in general, including how to search statutes):

http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?Tab=statutes&submenu=-1&CFID=215423846&CFTOKEN=47787976

Florida Statutes on Condominiums:

http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0718/0718ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2010&Title=%2D%3E2010%2D%3EChapter%20718

(Additional sections of the statutes cover HOAs, co-ops and mobile home parks.)

"There are very few issues in a condo as emotional as threatening pet ownership. A fair, reasonable policy can be tailored to each association. We formed a Pet Committee which consists of ALL pet owners who police each other. After all, if there is a problem, it impacts all pet owners, not just the offender." - Patricia M. Pacitti, ARM, LCAM - Property Manager

NOTE - Citizens for Pets in Condos has additional resources to help:

Samples of reasonable pet rules - http://www.petsincondos.org/ReasonablePetGuidelines.html, sample Dog Owners Etiquette Policy

How to resolve pet nuisance issues - http://www.petsincondos.org/issues.htm, with links to http://www.petsincondos.org/OwnerResponsibilities.html and  http://www.petsincondos.org/WhatIsAPetCommittee.html.

Print a copy of our "Creating a Pets Accepted Community" handout (2-sided, 2 per page)