› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Strata Committees › Dealing With a Bully in a Sydney strata. › Current Page
I agree with most of what Peter says above but I would take a slightly different tack.
As I explain in this roundup, comments made to assist the running of an EC have qualified privilege when it comes to defamation. As long as the comments are made in good faith and without malice, you are pretty much covered.
Now, I would only contemplate this if you were 100 percent certain that this person was the culprit, but you can take the fight to them.
Tthis person may think they have put themselves in an untouchable position by getting on to the strata committee, but they’ve also made themselves vulnerable.
It requires a special resolution at a general meeting to remove a member of the committee, but suppose you go to an EC meeting and present a motion that the EC calls an EGM for the sole purpose of asking the owners to remove this person from the committee.
You explain that at the meeting, you will state your case – you plan to accuse this person, in front of other owners, of all these terrible things and he or she will get the chance to defend themselves.
Now, at this point, chummy is either going to resign, promise that they’ll behave in future, or say “bring it on” and threaten to sue.
If the committee declines to follow through, you can force their hand by getting 25 percent of owners to agree to an EGM, something else you state at the committee meeting.
OK, let’s stop there – you have already achieved a lot. You don’t actually have to go through with this. You have exposed the bully and it may even be on the record in the minutes.
Bullies prosper when only their victims know who they are, just as evil prospers when good men and women do nothing.
My guess would be that the risk of exposure would put this person in their place. If not, you still have the opportunity to have them voted off the committee mid-term or at the next AGM.
Bullies will hide behind threats of defamation, that’s for sure. But if you can tell them that there is no defamation in EC or owners corp discussions (almost true), that may put their gas on a peep.