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Hi,
I am an owner in two separate Strata’s. The current EC’s of both are not to my knowledge holding formal EC meetings, (one for some years and the other since the change of EC Members at the last AGM) to decide on matters affecting the Strata, but just contacting the Strata Manager and ask him/her to action matters discussed informally.
Examples include matters related to recommendations arising subsequent to the Annual Fire Inspection report, parking & noise issues on the property (By-Law violations), getting quotes for Repairs & Maintenance.
I raise this as I have delved into the 2015 SSM Act, and assess that, as an example unless the EC passes at a properly arranged EC meeting a motion to write to a Tenant / Lot owner about a By-Law violation infringement, any letter prepared and sent to the Tenant / Lot owner can be ignored, and later if the matter needs to go to the tribunal, the process may need to start afresh. (See below)
Division 4 – Enforcement of by-laws
146 Notice by owners corporation to owner or occupier
(1) An owners corporation for a strata scheme may give a notice, in a form approved by the Secretary, to the owner or occupier of a lot in the scheme requiring the owner or occupier to comply with a specified by-law if the owners corporation is satisfied that the owner or occupier has contravened that by-law.
(2) The notice must contain a copy of the specified by-law.
(3) A notice must not be given unless a resolution approving the issue of the notice, or the issue of notices for the type of contravention concerned, has first been passed by the owners corporation at a general meeting or by the strata committee of the owners corporation.
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply to the giving of a notice by a strata managing agent if that function has been delegated to the strata managing agent in accordance with this Act.
In addition, I note that starting from 30 November 2016 (New Act), that the EC meetings must now be sent to all lot owners, within 7 days of a formal EC meeting, being concluded. (See below) I intend to seek a copy of the “minutes” of “an EC meeting” for one O/Corp, as the AGM minutes referred to an “EC meeting” that I understand was “informally held” (thus no minutes), which involved a matter of a maintenance expense to the Strata in the value of about $70,000 for balcony repairs, and was included under General Matters, where a “Special Levy” was identified as likely to be needed.
My concern here is that the current Secretary of this particular O/Corp has previously expressed the desire to upgrade the balconies to improve the Lots value, however such decisions can only be made by the Owners Corp at a General Meeting by passing a Special Resolution (75%to agree). I will be seeking a copy of the scope of the quotation given, as I understand one newly appointed EC member like myself is doubtful that all balconies are actually in need of repair and the amount stated appears excessive.
While formal meetings appear not to be held, but decisions made, the acceptance of this practice makes a mockery of proper transparent management of the Owners Corporation.
I also note that the new (2015) Act requires advice to be given to the EC Members, and still a notice to Lot owners (at lease on the notice board). (See below).
** I will be seeking to having a resolution passed at the next AGM to mandate an E-Mail notice to all Lot owners who wish to receive advice about future EC meetings and their agenda’s.
Can anyone suggest a good approach to have these matter resolved, as in one Strata in particular, it is a significant issue.
Thanks in advance:
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Replies
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A pragmatic and sufficiently formal middle ground is for an EC to make some easy decisions promptly by email if there is agreement among the EC members then later have a formal meeting with minutes that record any such decisions made ‘out of session’. That lets some simple matters be decided quickly but gets those decisions properly onto the formal record.
Winston, your quote from the Act contains the answer to your question – the need to have by-law breaches dealt with by the committee is negated if they have delegated powers to the strata manager.
(3) A notice must not be given unless a resolution approving the issue of the notice … has first been passed by the owners corporation at a general meeting or by the strata committee of the owners corporation.
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply to the giving of a notice by a strata managing agent if that function has been delegated to the strata managing agent in accordance with this Act.
Sir Humphrey is right, many strata committees leave the day-to-day decision-making to their strata manager. They should not, however, be making decisions that should only be made at a general meeting.
If you have a beef with this, ask to see where it was agreed that the strata manager should have delegated powers.
On the other hand, an informal meeting is not a meeting – it is a chat. But that chat could result in action that only requires the agreement of the strata manager so there is nothing terribly sinister about that. If you want proper SC meetings to discuss issues then there are mechanisms for calling them.
I have to say that if you approach this by citing flawed quasi-legal arguments (which you have not interpreted correctly yourself) expect to be shot down in flames and all your valid complaints dismissed as the rants of a ‘bush lawyer’.
And just a word on housekeeping on this forum – a headline for a topic should be a short, succinct summary of the topic. Yours, before I edited it, was a long sentence from which even I struggled to deduce a clear meaning.
I also think that may be indicative of a potential flaw in your approach to your committees. Establish what it it is that you want them to do in simple terms that they can understand.
A torrent of words and selective (and possibly incorrect) interpretations of the Act will just give them too many opportunities to pick holes in your argument and dismiss your point of view, regardless of whether or not it is valid..
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