[basjan27]

Hi scotlandx, thanks. That’s what we thought.  And yes, someone is being a pain in the neck! 

The documents are all related to research for possible litigation, and I agree that our position should be that any documents obtained by an EC member (or even an Owner) and provided to our solicitor for that purpose, are the property of the OC.  Copies are fine, but we shouldn’t allow anything to be removed from the file. 

Thanks 

[basjan27]

Hi.. this is a great thread.  We have an owner, recently replaced on the EC, who claims that the new EC is not permitted to contact her by mail directly for “privacy” reasons, and is demanding that official notices must be sent to the Strata Manager, who will then forward them on to her. Oh, and we’ll also be required to add an additional four days to the notice period to account for the mail being forwarded.. and pay for the additional time and postage required by the SM!   

A tangential question on privacy: Former EC member claiming right to take documents from a legal file recently returned by the OC’s solicitor.  Says the documents are privileged, since they were originally obtained by the EC member and provided to the solicitor for their research.  

Any ideas how to navigate this one?

 

Thanks much 

[basjan27]

Thanks to you both for the quick replies.  Long story, about how the strata got where it is, as most of these things seem to be. Overbearing EC member brow beating the OC into submission on a costly, poorly managed campaign to take neighbours, former EC members, former Strata Managers, etc., to court over a boundary wall.  

Five years, $100k later… invoice coming to the surface for $15k consultant fee that there is no record of being discussed or voted on by the OC or EC.  

The EC and current SM have interpreted Cl 34g very broadly to mean they could take whatever action, at whatever cost, without consultation.  

Recent AGM has voted in fully new EC, and we’re trying to sort out what happened. 

[basjan27]

Thanks for the reply. 

[basjan27]

Thanks Paddy 37… appreciate that.  Our strata is 35 years old… and record keeping is poor.  It’s gonna be hard to determine when the first agm was held. 

[basjan27]

Hi all… a requisition for egm was submitted, and we have finally received notice of an egm from the secretary. 

However, the secretary has amended one of the motions in the requisition to include a motion directly opposite to the original motion! 

Can that be legal?

[basjan27]

Hi all,  well, a majority of owners requisitioned an EGM more than 6 weeks ago, and there has been no response from the SM or the EC.  What can we do?

[basjan27]

Hi everyone, thanks much for all that info, very helpful.

Another follow up question:  The Act states that “If a member of the EC other than the secretary receives a requisition to convene an extraordinary general meeting of the owners corporation in accordance with this Schedule, the member may serve the notice on behalf of the execuive committee.”

It also states that “The secretary of an executive commitee or, in the secretary’s absence, any member of the ec must convene and extraordinary general meeting….”

Our situation as describec below is that the current secretary will certainly delay any EGM until the next AGM in October, and the SM is hopelessly inept.

We have the required 25% to requisition the meeting, and a clear majority of owners committeed to voting in favour of a number of resolutions to be included in the requisition and the EGM agenda, and a sympathetic member of the EC who is in agreement to call the EGM and support the motions.

• So, can we, under the first clause quoted above, go directly to the sympathetic EC member, “a member of the EC other than the secretary”, and can he “serve the notice on behalf olf the EC” without deferring to the secretary?
• What is meant by “serve notice”? Is it to give notice of a general meeting as described in Sched 2 (ie., prepare and distribute the notice under cl 32 and 35 of Sched 2)
• What if anything, is the role of the SM in this instance? Is the SM, in effect, the “secretary” to whom the requisition is meant to issued in the first instance?  Can the “member of the EC other than the secretary” practically serve the notice of EGM without the participation of the SM?
• Would the SM be required, once receiving the requisition, be required to prepare the financial reports as for any GM?
• Can the owners corporation meet on its own without the SM present (I am assuming so, since he works for us.)

Much appreciation for some additional clarification on the above.

[basjan27]

A follow-up question:

Once the requisition agenda has been sent to the Sectrerary can the motions included in the requsition be changed, or new ones added, by a member of the OC or by the EC?

Can the EC, having received the requisition, then decide to add motions of its own for consideration at the EGM.

Or, must the agenda be presented as is at the EGM?

 

Thanks

[basjan27]

Hi StrataGuru, and thanks for that post. Our situation is quite different, and I’m sure you would have kept your OC informed of your plans and the potential costs.  That’s not the case with us.

We want to call an EGM as quickly as possible, and are pretty certain that the secretary of the EC will attempt to delay it as long as possible (our EC do not favour consultative governnance). 

Our Admin fund is deep in arrears.. we want to stop the bleeding.

[basjan27]

Thanks again Jimmy. 

The act also says  that if the secretary is not available, the another member of the EC can notice a requisitioned EGM.  We have a sympathetic EC member (one of three), and we’re worried the majority on the EC will delay a requisitioned EGM until after they sign off very expensive piece of work, which the majority of OC want to stop. 

Can we interpret “not available”  in such a way that our EC colleague can notice the meeting in a timely way?

[basjan27]

Thanks Jimmy, so if the strata has never adopted any proceedural rules, it’s every man for himself?

On a similar theme:  our Chariman routinely delegates the role of Chairman at GMs and ECs to the strata manager.  The Act seems to say that this is not permitted for a GM, but then in other places it says that the EC can delegate prety much anything to SM’s.

Do you know which applies?

Thanks

[basjan27]

Hi Jimmy, that’s brilliant. 

A follow-up: You say “at your EGM, propose that all seats be declared vacant.” Can this be made a simple motion from the floor, or would it need to be an agenda item placed on the requsition for an EGM?

The element of surprise could be very helpful!

[Author]

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