- This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 months, 1 week ago by .
-
Topic
-
At the beginning of February 2026, the owners at our strata scheme were made aware by our new strata manager that the minutes of a general meeting (GM), held in December 2026, had still not been finalised by the parties in attendance.
At that meeting, there was no secretary in attendance to take notes and neither did the Chairperson, who was an owner not a strata manager. Some owners who attended have forwarded their notes to the new strata manager.
In fact, the minutes still have not been resolved in favour, although they have been placed an upcoming general meeting for approval, 46 working days after the original GM.
Is this meeting valid or not? If not, what sections of the Strata Scheme Management Act has it breached?
-
Replies
-
“the minutes still have not been resolved in favour”
What exactly do you mean by that? That a draft has not been approved by the committee? Only a general meeting can approve, amend or reject the minutes of a previous general meeting.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
Perhaps the simplest thing would be to review all the decisions supposedly made at the prvious AGM and ask owners to vote on them again – that way what was actually said and done at the meeting is irrelevant. And this time record the meeting – or maybe just the chair’s declarations of votes – and run it through a transcription service like Otter to get an instant and accurate transcript.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.
The purpose of the minutes is to record the decisions taken at the general meeting, for each agenda item. If there are doubts about what happened, then the motion to confirm the minutes put to the next meeting can resolve any issues. The easiest approach is to look at the previous Agenda and mark which were approved, or not (if a motion does not receive sufficient votes (ie 51% for a normal resolution) then it fails. If the members who attended can’t recall the outcome, that mark consider those items as being deferred or voted down. Add any items that should be resolved to the following meeting’s agenda, with the explanatory note, that this item was brought forward from the previous meeting.
A general meeting is “valid” if there is a quorum present, and it begins and ends. If all the agenda item decisions are unknown, then consider the decision for each one as being deferred, and take this up at the next meeting.
Note that the minutes are in essence a list of the answers to the agenda items – basically “yes” “no” or “deferred”. The minutes should not record discussions, comments, questions etc – just the decisions taken. And later meetings can revisit those decisions and change them or reassert them.
A general meeting is “valid” if there is a quorum present, and it begins and ends. If all the agenda item decisions are unknown, then consider the decision for each one as being deferred, and take this up at the next meeting.
If the numbers aren’t there at the start of a meeting to achieve a quorum, the chair just has to wait half an hour then declare it quorate.
If you want to be alerted when anyone replies to your posts or responds to this topic, please register and login, then you will be able to subscribe to the topic. The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers. NB: Longer threads may spill over to additional pages - look for the numbers on the bottom right, under the last post.