SP36965 addressed this issue.
It transferred $8309 from its sinking fund, as it was then, to its admin fund which had a deficit of over $8k. The OC did not meet the requirement to call a general meeting to recoup the amount. Instead, many months later, an owner put a motion on the agenda of the AGM to address the recouping.
The OC agreed to recoup the money but to do so at a rate of $800 per year until it was recouped. Recoup the amount at a rate of $7 per year, per lot, in a SP with 115 lots; what a joke. It was capital works money they were recouping. Hard to execute a 10 year plan while waiting for the money to come back.
The Tribunal said
“In order to meet the applicant’s point, motion 84 was put up in the 2012 Annual General Meeting and amended so that the respondent would comply with Section 71 of the Act. However, motion 84 was amended so that the amount of $8,309 would be recouped by a total levy on all lot owners in the sum of $800.00 per annum until the amount was recouped in full.
The applicant does not accept this way of proceeding and has taken the view that the proper course is for there to be an Extraordinary General Meeting in order to impose a special levy for the payment of $72.25 per unit entitlement in order to fund an immediate payment of the $8,309.00, or periodic payments for a period not exceeding one year to the same effect.”
The Member then went on to claim to have no jurisdiction to order a general meeting to make the OC recoup the money (in a sensible time frame). Case dismissed. SCS 12/40868 (unreported)
Another atrocious decision. The matter of the poor decision was taken up with Macquarie St given what was occurring was making a mockery of the Act.
If, as Mr Bannerman forecasts, there is going to be change to make recouping in a realistic time frame law then bravo to Macquarie St for their quick action – full sarcasms intended.