Strata chairs and secretaries can get very sneaky when it comes to manipulating votes. One FlatChatter discovered this when he proposed some expenditure on physical security for an Extraordinary General Meeting in his apartment block.
The secretary, who didn’t want to spend the money, held the meeting but the agenda didn’t have the motions our Flatchatter had proposed.
Instead, they had all been form positives to negatives and counter motions had been included. So, instead of a motion such as (I’m guessing, here) “let’s spend $500 on motion activated security lights” the motion appeared as something like “we resolve not to waste strata funds on unnecessary lighting.”
As I said, I made those examples up, that that was the general gist. Unsurprisingly, the biased “spend nothing” motions prevailed and the security measures were defeated.
Now, does this mean the whole EGM was invalid, our reader asks. And if so, what can he do? You can read about it HERE.
Elsewhere in the Forum
The legal bills are mounting up for a relatively minor defects claim. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper just to fix it ourselves. That’s HERE.
What exactly do the Capital Works fund and Admin fund pay for? That’s HERE.
I didn’t present the motions for a meeting until after the agenda was issued. Was the chair right to rule them out of order? That’s HERE.
The by-laws say permission for pets must be in writing but a verbal approval has been given – and the dogs may have been switched! That’s HERE.
How to ask and answer questions
Anyone can read our posts any time but you have to be registered to ask or answer questions.
However, there are several easy ways you can search, access, ask questions and reply to others’ queries once you have registered.
The best way these days may be to click on “Forum: Your Qs & A’s” on the top menu bar on a computer screen or on the drop-down menu (three lines) on the right of the screen on phones and tablets, under the Strata Choice ad.
Then click on the topic title that interests you, and off you go.
Alternatively, you can look at the list of “Your latest questions and answers” under the ads on the right of the page on a computer screen. Or at the bottom, after the ads and stories, on a tablet or phone.
Or you can go “old school” and go to the Forum Home Page and work your way through the topics there.
Whichever route you take to get there, the best way to keep up to speed with what’s happening is to register (if you haven’t already done so), then login and subscribe for free to the topics that interest you most.
That way you’ll get an alert whenever the discussion moves forward, and you can also chip in with your own comments and questions. Have a look HERE at our instant guide to getting online.
If you enjoyed reading this post or found it helpful, please share it with interested friends using our social media buttons. Thanks.
