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[SusanQ]

I held an EGM last night to pass a special by law to remove the kitchen walls in my flat. Only three people turned up and no proxies were received from the other owners. Unfortunately, one person said no.

I am in a building of 8 apartments. My strata manager explained that we need 25% for Quorum and 25% of the attending to pass it. Is this correct?

I have seen here on Flat Chat that you need 6 of the 8 owners to agree to pass the by-law. Does that mean if not everyone turns up to the meeting (in person/via proxy) that the vote can not occur?

Am I able to re-introduce the special by-law at our AGM in October?

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[Jimmy-T]

To pass a by-law you need 25 percent of owners, in person or by proxy, for the quorum and no more than 25 percent of those voting to vote against the by-law for it to pass.

One vote out of four is not a fail unless that person calls for a poll vote and they have higher unit entitlements (the basis on which your levies are calculated) than the others.

The six out of eight would only apply if all eight owners voted either in person or by proxy.  The vote is based on those voting, not the number of owners in the scheme.

If you were not one of the three who turned up – i.e. it was one vote against versus three votes for – the vote would be carried.

Yes, you can raise the issue again at the AGM and this time you should male sure you have the numbers.

The first thing to do is have a chat with the ‘no’ voter and ask them why they rejected the motion.  If it’s questions about noise and dirt etc, offer any concessions you possibly can – llimit times of noisy work, guarantee clean-ups etc – to minimise the disruption for them.

If they are just playing dog in a manger, get in touch with some of the other people who didn’t attend and ask them to give you (or the Strata Manager) the proxy for the next meeting. This may be a good idea anyway.

Send a simple and polite letter explaining that everyone has to go through this kind of thing sooner or later and it would help with the general smooth running of the scheme if they could participate in the next vote.

Try your hardest not to make this personal or political and, whatever you do, keep the strata manager on-side.

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[SusanQ]

Thank you for your response. So the vote was two for and one against. Three votes in total.

I will need to canvas the other owners in time for the AGM in August. I will try again with the ‘no’ vote person. Unfortunately, the more I explained and assured her that I would make good any problems and that the by-law was to protect her the more she backed away from agreeing to it. She is an elderly single pensioner. So naturally has fears about cost to her. She is also deeply sceptical of professionals and the law.

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