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In NSW, it’s 7 days notice required for an AGM. It’s 14 days for the first AGM. There is more information here
=> https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/strata-and-community-living/strata-schemes/meetings-of-the-owners-corporation
(You can download the page as a pdf)Basically, “The Secretary must give each person on the strata roll at least 7 days’ advance notice of a meeting, in writing. The notice can be by post, email or fax. If the notice is sent by post, the Secretary must allow an additional 4 working days for postage.”
In my building, the Strata Manager emails the meeting notice out – but owners without email get it by post, and I believe the Manager posts those 4 days earlier than when the email goes out. We only get the bare 7 days, unless one of the snail mail owners talks to the majority who have email.
Not to disagree with Jimmy T, but I think you may be taking the wrong approach with this matter. It is the Strata Committee that is (I assume) in the wrong here, rather than the Strata Manager. It is the Committee you need to take action against, not the Manager.
Legally the Strata Manager is the Agent of the Committee, or in other words, the Committee’s employee, and the Manager is normally delegated some of the Committee’s function, under the contract the Manager and Committee have signed. The Manager has the responsibility to (a) act on behalf of the Committee and (b) act in accordance with the law. However, as Jimmy T has also pointed out, the Dept of Fair Trading does not, as far as I am aware, discipline or remove Strata Managers for failing with respect to responsibility (b), so consequently Managers are primarily concerned with responsibility (a). Although, good Managers will resign or refuse to carry out delegated tasks if they contravene the law.
But some Strata Committees only use the Strata manager for only some tasks, like collecting strata fees, and manage other tasks on their own. The legal position is that a Committee will instruct and control the Manager, and Managers cannot overrule the Committee. You also need to read the contract the Manager has with your Committee, so see what tasks have been delegated to the Manager. It is possible that calling Committee meetings and make the minutes are not the Managers responsibility. Even if those tasks are delegated, the Committee does not have to use the Manager to do them, they can in theory hold a Committee meeting on their own and minute it themselves. The Manager has no legal right to interfere if that should occur.
It would be interesting to know what the Dept of Fair Trading would do, if they had evidence of a Strata Committee instructing a Strata Manager to take actions that are not in accordance with Strata laws… I fear, that there are no clear provisions about this in the law. The Strata Manager may be in the clear. Or at least, I suspect that Fair Trading would be struggling to find a means to discipline the Manager, legally. (And we know from experience that the Tribunal sees that following the law and legal precedent is not essential to their role – but that is another issue entirely.)
So I’d suggest you that you redirect your ire from the Manager to the Committee. But it may be useful to have a quiet word with the Manager to ask his opinion about the actions the Committee has taken. Be polite and conciliatory, you may learn some useful things.
S. 181 permits the Owners Corporation to access the records. So this can be authorised by the Secretary, or else as a member of the Strata Committee you could make an agenda item for the next SC meeting, along the lines of authorising members of the SC to inspect the records under S.181, and making sure this is minuted. Check the minutes of that meeting, since the Agent prepares the minutes, and may ‘accidentally miss’ including this item in the minutes!
Or else, as a Lot owner you can inspect under S.182, and pay the fee of $31. Officially, there is a form to fill in too, and the need to organise a time, which you may need to do if you Strata Agent is a stickler for the rules. But normally if you pop into the Agent’s premises, and hand over $31, they will normally give you access straight away. You need to copy the records, so either take a pen and paper, or else use your mobile phone to photograph the email addresses you are interested in.
It seems like this is an issue of the strategy to use, rather than the law. Yes, at a subsequent General Meeting, the owners can overturn or alter a previous resolutions. It is the Strata Committee that puts the motion into effect, but until they act, then the building can change its mind.
But you need to decide what outcome you want, and rally the other owners to agree with that; or at least sufficient of them, to attend a General Meeting – or provide a proxy – and vote in favour of your solution.
Put together a proposal, which will give you the desired result, and discuss it with all the other owners who will help you – email them, or phone them, if you don’t know them. Work out new motions, and then ask the Secretary to call a General Meeting, for the proposed motions. If the Secretary refuses, then a quarter of the owners can bring it on, instead.
Get the numbers on your side, and you will get the result you’d prefer. But, you normally will need to organise before the meeting, the chances of swaying votes at the meeting usually are slim – people will have made their minds up already, and the Strata Committee will be committed to a course of action, and they will attend the meeting, and their numbers, if no-one else comes who is motivated to alter the situation, will be determining. Remember that you, or the Committee, can obtain proxies from people not willing to attend in person.
I’d like to correct the comment by Winston, about the Fire Safety Inspection only applying to buildings older that around 1988. It is correct that strata buildings more recent that 1988 must all provide a Fire Safety Statement to the local council and the Fire brigade. But older buildings may also be required to provide this. The local council can issue an Order for this requirement to apply to older buildings. If this happens, then the same provisions apply to older as to the newer buildings. The section of the law that governs this is when the council serves the owners with an “Order No. 6 pursuant to the table in Section 121B of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979”. This is settled law, and you would be wasting your money trying to overturn this provision. – Sorry Winston, you are in the wrong about this.
Unofficially, (according to our building’s fire consultant), because of the recent deaths of some people from fires in high rise strata apartment blocks, the government is pressuring councils to bring all apartment buildings up to scratch with their fire safety.
Our building, built in the early 1970’s, was notified similarly in 2014. So far, we have had the fire safety audit done, and the Order is due to be made final soon (early 2017), so the council is being reasonable in negotiating the terms of the order. Our building also had a major fire in one unit, in 2013, so we suspect that is also a factor.