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Can you please clarify this issue.
Absent Owners nominated themselves to be on the Strata Committee which was accepted at the AGM via their written request to the Secretary. (Pre-Meeting Voting Form completed).
The Strata Committee Meeting was held directly after the AGM…these two absentee Strata Committee Members via written request nominated another strata committee member (who was present at the meeting) in one of the office bearers position.
Majority of SC members were ok with this procedure…except for one owner.
Is this correct?
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Looks like this is OK, according to Section 11 of the strata regulations (below) except that subsection 4 may apply – that the chair or secretary should have included the prior nominations in the notice of the meeting. If they did, that’s fine; even if they didn’t … I don’t think it’s grounds for a new election.
11 NOMINATIONS FOR OFFICERS OF STRATA COMMITTEE
(1) The written notice of the first meeting of a strata committee after the appointment of the committee is to include a call for nominations for chairperson, secretary and treasurer of the committee.
(2) Any person who is a member of the strata committee may nominate another member for election as any or all of chairperson, secretary or treasurer of the committee.
(3) The nomination is to be made by written notice given to the person convening the meeting that states the name of:
(a) the person nominated, and
(b) the person making the nomination and that the person nominated consents to the nomination.
(4) The person convening the meeting must include any prior nominations in the notice of the meeting at which the election is to take place. Notice of any subsequent nomination is to be given by the convenor at the meeting.
(5) A nomination may be made at any time before the election is held and may be made at the meeting.
(6) If a ballot for the election of a person as chairperson, secretary or treasurer of the committee is required, the election is to be conducted by a show of hands of persons at the meeting.
(7) Subclause (6) is subject to a resolution referred to in clause 14 (1) (a).
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I’m not a lawyer but it would appear from Subsection 6 that it would have to be votes of those present at the meeting in person or by virtue of a telephone or internet connection.
The only variation on this that I can think is if the absent owners had nominated others to be their representatives on the committee but that would have to be voted on and accepted by the committee before their votes were counted so, on the face of it, unless one of the absent members was on the other end of the phone, the nominations don’t count as a vote.
You might need a professional’s advice on this but I would think, on the face of it, that the votes were invalid and are certainly worth challenging (bearing in mind that the committee majority would only need to line up their absentee votes to re-elect the wrongly elected members).
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