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Sherlock – I’ve had a couple of attempts to respond to your post today, but in addition to being side-tracked, I really can’t think of any innovative approach that you and like-minded owners could take to resolve the matter, other than to make sure that you all attend the extraordinary general meeting (EGM); ideally in person but at least by proxy to somebody who is attending with instructions about how you want your vote/s to be cast.
There’s no doubt that your executive committee (E/C) is in breach of the owner’s corporation’s (O/C) resolution regarding the limitation on spending for the matter now in question, that where a decision of an E/C is in conflict with one resolved by an O/C that the decision of the latter takes precedence [Ref:NSW Strata Schemes Management Act Sect 21(4)];, and that your strata manager should have known better than raise a work order for the repair works even if they were instructed to do so by the E/C.
It sounds to me like your E/C Chairman is one of those individuals who considers that he has an unalienable right to do as he chooses, so the best approach in my opinion would be to play the procedural card.
By that I mean to make it clear that the E/C should have met to make the decision about breaching the O/C’s resolution and that you’d like to see the minutes of that meeting that under the provisions of the Strata Schemes Management Act (SSMA) must be provided to all owners within 7 days of its conclusion.
Is there an agenda for the EGM, has it been distributed to every owner at least 7 days prior to the meeting, and is there a motion there setting out what is to be resolved (that I assume will be to retrospectively vary the O/C’s limitation on spending)?
Did the strata manager receive formal instructions to raise the work order, and if so from who?
A non compliance with any of the above would provide grounds to adjourn the EGM, but the best rationale would be on the basis that any motion to override a resolution of the O/C would, if carried, conflict with the SSMA and would be therefore unenforceable and may be ruled out-of-order.