@Whale said:
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A standard limitation is that except with the prior approval of Owners at a General Meeting, no payment may be made against any item that would bring the YTD spend for that item (e.g. grounds maintenance) to an amount that would exceed its approved annual budget allocation, plus 10%. Further limitations, or a decision to have none at all, must be resolved one way or the other by Owners at each Annual General Meeting (AGM). You would need to check the Minutes of your Plan’s last AGM to ascertain which if any restrictions on spending apply.…………
Just so Phlebe knows, the 10% limitation is for large strata plans and can be found in Section 80A of the Strata Act.
How strict is the restriction on spending?
We had an owner do a CTTT matter that included the well documented (EC minutes specifying cheque numbers and amounts) spending of ~25k when there was only a 16k budget. That is spending the budget plus another 50+%. The matter got no comment from the “highly trained professional” at CTTT who handled the matter. The application was for a s162 order and involved numerous other issues but none of it mattered; case dismissed.
That the over spending got no mention in the adjudicators reasons makes me wonder how serious the limitation is because 50% overspending did not bother that particular Senior CTTT member.
More relevant to where this topic is currently at;
Your Chairperson.
Find someone on the EC who will take on the Chair role. It can be you if you want.
You could put a motion on the EC meeting agenda that says;
“Mr. Bad Chair” will vacate the Chair and “Mr. or Mrs Good Chair” will assume the Chair. (one motion)
Alternatively a simple motion; That “insert name” is made Chair of the Executive Committee” will do but it is nicer to have the Chair emptied and then filled again rather than just pulling “a Julia Gillard” and knifing the person who is in the way.
Insert real names in the motion where appropriate.
If you want to be more stealth about the matter you can introduce the motion at the EC meeting because it is a “procedural motion” and not a substantive motion which would require owners being given proper notice.
As soon as the meeting opens raise the motion and say goodbye to your bad Chair – if all goes well. The “Bad Chair” does not even need be there.
You can be open about it or use a little cloak and dagger, you can empty and fill the chair or you can just knife them in the back – either way you get the bad Chair out of the Chair.
My recommendation would be to use the empty the Chair, fill the Chair motion as soon as the meeting opens.