I think Jimmy T’s reply went to heart of the issue when he said “Every owner is a member of the OC whether they want to be or not. Also, they are responsible, without limitation, for decisions that are made by the OC, whether or not they participated in that decision. The dept of fair trading web site at https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/Tenants_and_home_owners/Strata_schemes/The_owners_corporation/Executive_committee_of_the_owners_corporation.html says under ‘Effect of decisions’ – “Any decision made by the executive committee is treated as a decision of the owners corporation …. No individual executive committee member can make a decision for the owners corporation. In the event of a dispute between the owners corporation and its executive committee, the decision of the owners corporation prevails.” The relevant provisions appears to be sections 16 to 21 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996.
I was under the mistaken understanding that it is the EC members and not the OC members who could be sued if maintenance was not carried out.
There is, in practice, always a debate about whether maintenance is essential and urgent. Some members saying it is and some saying it is not. As long as our EC can say if we get sued ALL Owners Corporation members get sued together I feel we are on much safer ground and non EC member of the OC will take issues more seriously.
While PeterC said “if you can’t form an EC” and Jimmy said “You can’t force people to join the EC” I still think having a bylaw (for a OC of less than 9) compelling all OC members to be EC members is an interesting concept and not prohibited by, or contrary to, any legislation. The advantage of having such a bylaw is that it avoids disputes, discussions and discretions re the composition and liabilities of EC members as opposed to OC members.