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We have a few different votes coming up. Firstly there’s all the standard AGM stuff. A few weeks later we’ll have an electronic meeting to vote on renovations (mix of major and minor) in a lot. Then there will be a vote to do some construction on common property accompanied by a vote on a special levy, again via an electronic meeting.
Is there an idiot’s guide anywhere to which of these are counted as one-vote-per-lot and which are based on unit entitlements? We are a block of six apartments with varied entitlements. Currently all six lots are represented on the Committee but after the AGM (which comes ahead of the other votes) only four will be on the Committee.
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Here’s your idiot’s guide (written by a bona fide idiot).
Most votes at a general meeting are by a show of hands unless someone at the meeting demands a poll vote which means the vote must be conducted according to Unit Entitlements (UEs).
All special resolutions must be conducted by poll votes (UEs).
Committee elections are to be conducted by owners writing the names of their preferred candidates on an otherwise blank piece of paper. The default is one vote per lot but any owner entitled to vote can call for the election to be by a poll vote.
All committee votes are by a show of hands – UEs, proxies and the number of votes by which the member was elected are irrelevant.
In the case you mention, minor renovations can be decided by a show of hands, but major renovations requiring common property by-laws must be by a poll vote. Sustainability or accessibility by-laws require a special resolution by poll vote but they only need a 50+ percent majority, not the 75 precent normally required for special resolutions.
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I have one more question. What happens if one or more eligible lot owners doesn’t vote in a poll vote?
The majorities for ordinary and special resolutions are calculated on the basis of the number of votes cast. Section 14 of Schedule 1 of the SSMA says this: “A motion put to a meeting, or an election of officers of the owners corporation or members of the strata committee, is to be decided according to a majority in number of the votes cast for and against the motion…”
Apart from anything else, this clarifies the value (or lack thereof) of abstentions which are not counted as part of the overall vote. That might sound obvious but we have encountered situations where the losers in a vote wanted the abstentions to be counted as “don’t know” votes, so as to raise the threshold of percentages.
However, in your situation, the non-votes may not effectively be “no” votes, if they would otherwise have supported the motion. Three votes out of four would get you over the line (depending on UEs) but it would take five out of six to get the same result.
And have a look to see if there is a sustainability or accessibility component in the proposals becasue they reduce the majority for the required special resolution to be over 50 per cent.
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If you’re trying to support one side or the other, note that a NO vote is worth three times a YES vote. So if your block has units of roughly equal entitlement and eight of them attend the meeting, just three NO votes will kill the motion.
Take to the meeting a smartphone or pad programmed to add up the votes by entitlement; there’s at least one website for that.
If you’re trying to support one side or the other, note that a NO vote is worth three times a YES vote.
And owners should be made aware of the “ratchet” effect of special resolutions. If a determined minority persuades enough owners to go along with a special resolution, maybe just to quell the noise, they will find that same minority able to block any reversal of the decision once the majority realise it was a bad move.
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