HOA and condo meetings, quorum, and recall votes in Oregon

Oregon requires every association to hold at least one meeting of owners each calendar year (§ 94.650(1) / § 100.407(1)). Owners can also force a special meeting: the bylaws can set the percentage of owners needed to request one, but that percentage can't be set above 50 percent or below 10 percent, and if the bylaws are silent, 30 percent of owners can force a meeting just by asking in writing. If the board doesn't send notice within 30 days of that written request, an owner who signed it can set the date, time, and place and send the notice personally — a real check on a board that just ignores the request. Notice for any meeting under these sections must go out not less than 10 nor more than 50 days beforehand, and must state the date, time, place, and agenda, including anything as consequential as a proposed bylaw amendment, a budget change, or removing a director.

Quorum defaults to the number of owners entitled to cast 20 percent of the votes, unless the bylaws set something higher (§ 94.655 / § 100.408). If a meeting can't get a quorum, owners present may adjourn and try again; the quorum for that follow-up meeting can be reduced, but only if the adjournment was to a date at least 48 hours out, or the original meeting notice specifically disclosed both that the quorum could be reduced and what the reduced number would be. A board can't spring a surprise low-turnout quorum on you after the fact.

Board meetings are open — and can't be replaced by 'chance' get-togethers

Board meetings are generally open to owner attendance under § 94.644 (HOA) and § 100.420 (condo), though owners don't have a right to participate unless the governing documents or the board allow it. The board can close a meeting and go into executive session, but only for a short list of reasons — consulting with legal counsel, personnel matters, negotiating third-party contracts, or collecting unpaid assessments — and, except in an emergency, only after an open vote where the presiding officer states the general nature of what's being discussed, with that vote recorded in the minutes. Any contract or action actually considered in executive session isn't effective until the board reconvenes in open session and votes to approve it, with that vote reflected in the minutes too. And both statutes contain a rare, plainly worded anti-evasion clause: 'the meeting and notice requirements ... may not be circumvented by chance or social meetings or by any other means.' A board that makes real decisions over texts, hallway conversations, or an unminuted coffee isn't following the statute just because it later holds a rubber-stamp open meeting.

Owners also get a real recall tool. Under § 94.640(6) (HOA) and § 100.417(9) (condo), owners can remove a director at a quorum meeting, with or without cause, by majority vote — but the statute overrides contrary bylaw language on three points: the director being removed must get a chance to be heard at the meeting first, each director's removal has to be voted on as its own separate question, and the removal only counts if it was actually on the agenda stated in the meeting notice. A vacancy created that way then gets filled by the owners at a meeting, not by board appointment, unless the declaration or bylaws set a different procedure.