Who casts the HOA vote when a home has two owners or belongs to an LLC or trust?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised November 9, 2026

Who can sign an HOA ballot for co-owners, an LLC, a trust or an estate, what proof to ask for, and how boards in TX, FL and CO handle conflicting ballots.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

Votes usually belong to the lot, not to each name on the deed. A home with three owners normally gets the same vote as a home with one, though your declaration or bylaws set the actual number. The signer has to be a record owner or someone with authority to act for one: a co-owner, an LLC's manager, a trustee, a personal representative, an attorney-in-fact or a proxy holder. A tenant or a rental manager has no vote without a proxy. State law answers only part of this. Colorado and California have default rules for co-owners. The Texas and Florida statutes mostly leave the question to your documents, which may be silent too. So settle the rule before ballots go out and apply it to every lot the same way. Rules vary by state and by governing documents, and this guide is education, not legal advice. Call the association's attorney before rejecting ballots that could change a result.

What the law says about co-owners

Colorado. C.R.S. 38-33.3-310(1)(a) lets a lone co-owner at a meeting cast all the unit's votes. If more than one attends, the votes follow a majority in interest of the owners unless the declaration says otherwise. One owner voting counts as majority agreement unless another owner promptly protests to the person presiding. Under 310(2)(b), a co-owner can also vote or protest through a proxy. Section 38-33.3-117(1.5)(j) applies these subsections to communities created before July 1, 1992. Texas. Property Code 209.002(6) defines an owner as the record title holder, including a personal representative. Section 209.0059(a) voids any document provision that would disqualify an owner from voting in a board election or on owner rights. Neither chapter 209 nor chapter 22 of the Business Organizations Code says which co-owner casts the vote. Section 22.160(a) gives each member one vote unless the certificate or bylaws change it. If one person mails a ballot and the other votes at the meeting, 209.00592(b)(2) makes the in-person vote control. Florida. Chapter 720 and section 617.0721 have no tiebreak for co-owners, but one sentence catches couples. Where documents allow secret ballots from absent members in director elections, 720.306(8)(b) disqualifies the ballots for a lot if more than one is submitted. Two spouses who each mail one can lose the lot's vote. California. Corporations Code 7612 covers nonprofit mutual benefit corporations. If one co-owner votes, that binds all of them. If more than one votes, the majority of those voting binds all, unless the secretary has written notice of a different arrangement.

Who signs for each kind of owner

Ask for proof only where the name on the ballot doesn't match the deed. - Two or more people on the deed. Accept any one of them unless your documents require all signatures. - LLC or corporation. Look up the entity on the secretary of state's site, then accept its manager or an officer. In a member-managed LLC, each member is generally an agent. In a manager-managed LLC, a member alone is not (Fla. Stat. 605.04074, C.R.S. 7-80-405; in Texas, see Bus. Orgs. Code 101.254). Those sections cover company business generally, so get a one-line signed authorization when the title looks odd. - Trust. The trustee signs, not the beneficiary who lives there. Tex. Prop. Code 114.086, Fla. Stat. 736.1017 and C.R.S. 15-5-1013 let a trustee give a short certification of trust instead of the trust itself. It names the trustee and says whether co-trustees must act together, and someone who relies on it without knowing it's wrong is protected. - Estate. Ask for the court's letters. A surviving co-owner on a survivorship deed signs like any other owner. - Attorney-in-fact. Ask for a copy of the power of attorney. Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code 22.160(b) and Fla. Stat. 617.0721(3) let an attorney-in-fact sign a proxy for a member. - Rental manager or tenant. Proxy only, and check whether your documents limit who can hold one. - Couple in a divorce. Both stay on the roster until a new deed records. If a decree says it changes title, ask the attorney. In a Colorado nonprofit association, C.R.S. 7-127-204(2) lets the board accept in good faith a signature that appears to be an entity's officer or agent, or one cotenant acting for all. It can ask for evidence from a fiduciary or attorney-in-fact.

Owners with several lots, or a suspended lot

An investor with 12 lots usually holds 12 votes, because declarations allocate votes by lot. Check yours, especially for a developer class of membership. Give each lot its own line on the tally sheet, for the vote and for quorum, so one signature doesn't turn into one vote by accident. Suspensions need the same care. Fla. Stat. 720.305(4) allows suspending voting rights over money more than 90 days delinquent, and suspended interests come out of the total used for quorum and approval. Under 720.305(6), a suspension applies to the member even if the debt arose on only some of the member's parcels. Texas goes the other way, with narrow exceptions: 209.0059 voids a document provision that would disqualify an owner from voting.

Set the rule before ballots go out

A sample timeline for a vote on day 60, to adjust for your notice rules: - Day 1. Compare the roster to county deed records. Flag every lot held by an entity, a trust, an estate or more than one person. - Day 7. The board adopts a written ballot rule at an open meeting. - Day 14. Mail the optional signer form to flagged lots. - Day 30. Mail the meeting notice and ballots with the co-owner warning below. - Day 50. Call entity and trust owners who haven't answered. - Day 60. Tabulators check signers against the marked roster before they open ballots. Sample motion: "For the vote on [date], and subject to the governing documents, the association will accept one ballot per lot, signed by any record owner, an officer or manager of an owner entity, a trustee, a personal representative, an attorney-in-fact or a proxy holder. Proof of authority is required only when the signer's name differs from the deed. The tabulators will apply this rule to every lot and log each rejected ballot by lot number and reason." Keep the form optional unless your documents require it. An owner who skips it can still vote.

Wording you can copy

For the notice: "Each lot has [one] vote, however many owners it has. If your home has more than one owner, please agree on your choice and return one ballot. Returning two ballots for one lot may cause the lot's vote to be thrown out." For the signer form: "Lot [number]. Owner name exactly as shown on the deed: [name]. For the vote on [date], the person signing for this lot is [name], who signs as (circle one) co-owner, LLC manager or member, corporate officer, trustee, personal representative, attorney-in-fact. Attached, if the signer's name is not on the deed: letters, certification of trust, power of attorney or authorization. Signature, date." This form identifies who is signing. It doesn't appoint anyone else to vote. Someone outside that list needs a proxy, and our guide on how to write an HOA proxy form covers the fields and return rules.

When ballots conflict or a signature looks wrong

Work through these in order on count day. - Check your documents. A specific rule there usually controls unless a statute overrides it. - Apply any state rule above: the Colorado protest, the Florida disqualification or the Texas in-person rule. - If both are silent and two ballots for a lot match, count the lot once. If they conflict, treat the lot as not voting on that item. That's a practical default, not a statute, so have the attorney approve it in advance. - If time remains before balloting closes, tell the owner and accept a corrected ballot. Offer this to every lot or to none. C.R.S. 38-33.3-310(2)(c) lets the secretary or authorized tabulator reject a ballot on a good-faith, reasonable doubt about a signature or authority, and 310(2)(d) shields a good-faith decision from damages. Fla. Stat. 617.0721 has similar rejection language for nonprofit corporations. Texas chapters 22 and 209 have no matching sentence, so a Texas board should lean harder on its own rule and its attorney. Keep candidates out of these calls. Tex. Prop. Code 209.00594(a) bars candidates and their close relatives from tabulating or seeing ballots. For secret ballots, C.R.S. 38-33.3-310(1)(b)(I)(C) requires a neutral third party or owner volunteers who aren't board members or candidates. In Florida, check eligibility from the outer envelope before removing the unmarked inner one. Log the lot and reason, never how a person voted.

Mistakes that start election fights

- Using the mailing roster as proof of ownership. It may show a former spouse, a dead parent or a manager. Our guide on keeping the owner roster current when homes sell covers the update routine. - Demanding a whole trust or an LLC operating agreement. A certification or a short authorization answers the question, and owners have good reasons to keep the rest private. - Requiring both spouses to sign when nothing in the documents says so. That throws out valid ballots. - Letting a rental manager vote because "they always have." Get a proxy or leave the vote uncast. - Counting co-owners who signed a petition or ballot as two lots. Count by lot unless your documents say otherwise. - Checking authority only on ballots from people who oppose the board. Run the same check on every flagged lot before anyone opens a ballot.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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