What is unanimous consent?

Unanimous consent means every single member has to agree before a decision can move forward, the highest bar a governing document can set. It’s typically reserved for changes to core documents like the CC&Rs, rather than the routine policy resolutions a board can adopt on its own throughout the year. The phrase covers more than one mechanism, though: unanimous board action, unanimous owner approval of a CC&R amendment, and written consent in lieu of a meeting are three different tools, each with its own rules about who signs, how it gets recorded, and when it’s even available, and treating them as interchangeable is a mistake just because all three demand full agreement.

Why does unanimous consent matter?

Confusing a resolution, which the board can pass without polling every resident, with a decision that requires unanimous consent is an easy way to end up with something invalid the moment it’s challenged. Knowing which bar applies to which decision is part of the basic risk-management work a board should already be doing before it acts.

When You’ll Run Into This

This becomes relevant the moment a decision is significant enough, or sensitive enough, that the governing documents require full agreement rather than a simple majority. Our guide on organizing your board’s resolutions covers how different decisions require different levels of agreement.