› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Strata Committees › Committees and professionals (Victoria) › Victoria – OC dispute about committee formation › Current Page
I feel this is only “complicated” by the refusal of certain parties to accept what is clear-cut in the legislation. The assertion that there was “no change” flies in the face of Section 103 (5) of the Owners Corporation Act which says this:
(5) Subject to this Act and the regulations, the members of the committee hold office from their
election until a new committee is elected
As an aside, subsection 4 says this:
A lot owner or a proxy for a lot owner may nominate for election as a member of the committee—
(a) in writing; or
(b) orally if the lot owner is present at the annual general meeting.
So R’s membership of the committee ended when the new committee was elected – that applies to all concerned – but they aren’t part of the new committee because, according to your notes, they neither nominated in writing nor were present to nominate themselves orally. If they had nominated in writing , there should be evidence of that
Now, there’s a chance that either J or the manager were acting as proxies for R but that would only be valid if there was an official proxy form stating that. Here’s another section of the Act you might want to address:
122 Duties of manager
(1) A manager—
(a) must act honestly and in good faith in the performance of the manager’s functions; and
(b) must exercise due care and diligence in the performance of the manager’s functions; and
(c) must not make improper use of the manager’s position to gain, directly or indirectly, an advantage personally or for any other person.
On the face of it, you could argue that the manager has fallen down on both (b) and (c).
If I were you, I would have quiet word with the manager and explain that it would be best for all concerned if they went quietly before their reputation is tarnished by action at CAV and VCAT not to mention a full and detailed report at the next AGM.
Speaking generally, for any OC committee to conduct a meeting, in which someone who was not a member of the committee was allowed to vote, would be illegal. For any strata manager to engineer this in order to protect their position, would be both immoral and illegal.
There may be aspects of Victoria strata law covering this of which I am not aware, but this looks like a snafu for which your manager is largely responsible and they should bear the consequences of that, whatever they may be.
Strata managers’ most fundamental role is to help committees and communities run smoothly. When they fail to address problems properly, according to the law, then they become part of the problem rather than the solution.