@Faraway girl said:
We can’t get our by laws adopted because the 9 owners of this 14 lot apartment building only hold 61% of the lot entitlements. We all live here and want these by laws adopted. The developer can’t sell his own apartment or the other apartments he still owns and these give him a 39% lot entitlement. In order to change common property ( we want to alter the ornamental pool area) or adopt or change by laws you are not able to have more than 25% of lot entitlements voting against it. So guess what? The developer does not live here, he visits occasionally, but he has told people that all the owners here are “scum” and he makes life difficult by voting against every special resolution just because he has some unsold apartments and his own holiday apartment.
If all but one owner are unanimously in favour of various motions but lack the necessary entitlements for a special resolution, then I think you have a good chance if you seek an order from the Tribunal to give effect to the failed motions. In the ACT strata legislation the Tribunal can give an order giving effect to a failed motion on the grounds that opposition to the motion was unreasonable. I expect other jurisdictions have similar provisions. You would need to provide the minutes of the meetings where the motions failed, the voting numbers (and/or have all 9 owners as parties to the application to the Tribunal), any background on the motion that was presented to the meeting or a new statement about why the proposals are such reasonable proposals. If you are lucky, the developer won’t even bother to show up to defend his position and you could get what you want easily.