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My husband turned up to our stratas AGM last week to be told he was unfinancial and unable to vote. When I checked the next day, I was told that as our last payment was a few weeks late we had an interest charge of $5.00 outstanding that was not due for payment until the next quarter.
Was this correct? Should I have phoned and checked out account balance prior to the AGM and settled our account? As far as I can tell, this amount was outstanding but not in arrears and should not have affected my financial status and voting rights.
Thanks
rebeccaando
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Just as a rule of thumb, if you owe money from the previous quarter, regardless of how little, then you are 'unfinancial'. The Government really needs to look at this anomaly as even people who are trying very hard to stay financial are being caught out by the quirks of accounting. By the way, your strata manager would have been wrong to allow the vote if you were, indeed, unfinancial by the smallest amount.
This is what the Act says:
… an owner of a lot … may not vote at the meeting on a motion (other than a motion requiring a unanimous resolution) unless payment has been made before the meeting of all contributions levied on the owner, and any other amounts recoverable from the owner, in relation to the lot that are owing at the date of the notice.
It would not be beyond the realms of common sense to impose a threshold of, say $50, on the amount owing. But until common sense becomes part of the strata landscape, it pays everyone to make sure they are fully financial well before an AGM.
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I know that at our meetings the managing agent routinely announces at the start if any units are unfinancial but turns a blind eye to trivial amounts, say $20 down to a few cents. Sensible really.