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Of the top of my head, any resolution to adopt or amend or rescind an Owners Corporation rule requires a special resolution. Deciding to have more than seven members of the Executive Committee requires a special resolution.
I think deciding to dissolve the entire OC might be an unopposed resolution but that has not really come up as an issue where I am.
Download the latest version of the Unit Titles (Management) Act and do a text search for ‘special’, ‘unanimous’ and ‘unopposed’ and you could quickly compile your own list.
As a general rule (everywhere, I think, certainly in the ACT), a utility ‘conduit’ that services only one unit is the responsibility of that unit for repair and maintenance, even where it is located on common property.
Where I am, a much larger class B strata in Canberra, we also just present the higher level summary of income and expenditure totals against the budget. As treasurer, I write some commentary about the sorts of things covered in categories that might be less obvious and explanations for things that are substantially over or under compared with previous years or expectation. Through the year, I keep track of the individual items ledger because it is not uncommon for our managing agent to put an expense against the wrong budget line.
At the very least, your executive committee should have access to the detail and should demand it of the managing agent. A function of the treasurer includes keeping track of this stuff and a function of the EC is to supervise the treasurer. The EC cannot perform its function without this information from the managing agent. The EC should politely but firmly remind the managing agent that it works for the Owners Corporation, whose functions are exercised by the EC. The managing agent is not the boss.
Since your general meeting has directed your EC to provide that detail. If the managing agent obfuscates then the next step might be for the EC to engage an auditor to check the accounts and get that detail out of the managing agent.
Sounds like she may be stalling for some undisclosed reason. Perhaps she is not sure she understands what you asking of her and does not want to say yes or no. I suggest you ask for contact details for the daughter so that you can explain to her in writing. She might see that as a circuit breaker for whatever is causing her to be stuck, unable to agree or disagree.
… The owners who are concerned about due process will put a motion that the levy notice is redrafted and sent AFTER the OC approves the budget at the AGM on Dec 19…
I would make it an amendment of the budget motion with dates put in for when levy payments are due. A usual form of a budget motion would include something along the lines of:
That the Owners Corporation, by ORDINARY RESOLUTION, adopts the proposed budget (excl GST) for the year to [date], comprising expenditure of $X from the General Fund and, $Y from the Sinking Fund; with levies (incl. GST) of $A for the General Fund and $B for the Sinking Fund, to be contributed in accordance with unit entitlements, in four equal instalments due on [date], [date], [date], and [date].I would make the first of those dates at least 28 days after the date of the AGM because the budget resolution cannot be acted on earlier if there is a reduced quorum (fewer than 50% of the units taking part in the meeting in person or by proxy.Is this the fourth quarterly levy payment as approved at the previous AGM? If so, then you would have had almost a year of notice.
If this is for a first levy payment for the coming year’s budget due on the 20th that it is assumed will be approved at the AGM on the 19th, then it could be 1) presumptuous to assume the budget will be approved without amendment and 2) unwise if there is any risk of a reduced quorum at the AGM. If the meeting has a reduced quorum, then the decisions of that meeting do not take effect until 28 days have elapsed after the meeting. The earliest due date I would have for the first levy payment of a new budget would be a full month after the AGM date, and even that is really a bit too soon.
For a start, write to the committee and manager and express your concerns much as you did above. If they don’t know that anyone objects, it is unlikely they will do anything.
I am not in NSW and not a lawyer but it would seem on the face of it that you have answered your own question. If the Act says a building manager cannot be a committee member and if the general meeting appointed this person to be a building manager and then conducted an election for committee members, then it would seem to me that this person was not eligible to be elected as a committee member so their election was invalid.
I think the EC could be advised that the person can continue to be building manager but cannot continue to be a committee member. The committee will need to appoint another one of its members to be treasurer.
… My read of the legislation / regulation is that unless this is a restricted breed (which it is not), we cannot use the dog’s breed as grounds for refusing permission … They have amassed pile of press articles and data about the breed’s danger…
If a refusal were to become a Tribunal matter, you might be better off with someone who can be called as an expert witness. My experience from a few Tribunal matters was that well reasoned argument by intelligent adults presented with evidence from credible sources was not weighted as highly as sworn testimony from a witness with relevant expert credentials. I suspect that this is a general bias of the court system. It is as if relying on expert witnesses is a favoured cognitive short cut.
So, if you have a vet, puppy trainer or some other sort of dog expert advise you that your situation is not suitable for that particular dog, this might stand up better than any amount of reasonable ‘doing one’s own research’.
I’d say the functions of those offices fall to the whole committee to be responsible to see that they are carried out.
A few years ago (and in the ACT, not NSW) when our OC was reviewing its rules on animals, there had been several Tribunal decisions that made it clear that you could not discriminate on breed or size. Some big dogs are well suited to apartments and some small dogs are not. Some individuals of any particular breed are aggressive and some are not – it depends more on training and temperament that can vary independently of breed.
Could you agree at the next meeting to have the minutes simply say: ‘The committee also discussed flooring. No decisions were made.’?
Where I am, we circulate the minutes to the committee members by email so they can agree or propose edits. Once agreed, they are distributed to owners. At the next meeting, we record that the ‘minutes of the meeting of (date) were accepted out of session and circulated to owners’.
It’s old fashioned but a printed ‘newsletter’ in each letterbox tends to get read.
Does not seem unreasonable to me.