#13562
Jimmy-T
Keymaster

    The Act isn't silent on speaking rights, as it turns out. 

    14   Owners’ attendance at executive committee meetings

    An owner or, where that person is a corporation, any company nominee of the corporation is entitled to attend a meeting of the executive committee but may not address the meeting unless authorised by resolution of the executive committee.

    That means owners can attend Executive Committee meetings and they can speak but only if the Executive Committee votes in favour of that.

    It seems bizarre that the proxy wasn't allowed to speak because they were a proxy and the owner wasn't allowed to speak becasue they'd brought a proxy – the chairman can't have it both ways.

    But the chairman shouldn't be making these ad hoc rulings.  The Act quite clearly says this is a decision for the EC to make as a whole.

    The chair has to be allowed to exercise some degree of control over proceedings but denying owners or their proxies the chance to speak could (and probably should) lead to them being removed from the chairmanship (by the Executive committee ) or the EC completely (by a vote at a general meeting).

    The CTTT is unlikely to rule on meeting procedure unless there is some serious issue that isn't being addressed, to the detriment of the strata plan, because the chairman has a vested interest in it not being discussed.

    But short of that, there are plenty of democratic mechanisms for dealing with strata bullies, as a recent Flat Chat column explained.

    The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.