The solicitor can attend and speak as a proxy for an owner – and should have a written authorisation to do so.
Presumably they will be fully briefed on why they are there and will have their own strategies for dealing with your developer.
But you have to be absolutely clear on what you want to achieve and you have to have all your numbers locked in to make sure you can achieve what you want with the minimum of fuss.
You have the potential to:
1. Elect a committee that doesn’t include the developer (which I would say was a given). You would do this by first setting the number of committee members at a level that only includes those who are on your team – or at least don’t include the owner – and are prepared to serve, then electing only them.
2. Rescind or reject any contracts that are presented that seem suspicious or inflated in any way.
3. Set the budget at a reasonable level and reject any payments that favour the developer.
4. Adopt only the Schedule 2 by-laws as contained in the Strata Scheme Regulations.
I can’t over-stress how critical this is for you and your neighbours. You need a united front and, I hate to say it, but while your heart would want you to be at a funeral, you will be living every day with the consequences if you don’t turn up at your AGM and your plan falls apart.
Get your neighbours informed and activated. Decide on a strategy and follow it through. The lawyer should only be there for if and when chummy starts breaking the rules, to tell him the grounds on which his decisions will be challenged – at his expense – at NCAT.
The answer to question 5 is to hire a solicitor who is prepared to take the fight to the developer, there and then, and explain the facts of life to him in a way that he can’t fail to understand.