#27201
Sir Humphrey
Strataguru

    If this is meant to be binding on owners (IE as a bylaw or rule), then I would think it has to be a special resolution. It could be intended as a statement of what owners and residents ‘should’ do, in which case it might be regarded as an unenforceable ‘house rule’ and then an ordinary resolution would be OK.

    However, it might be inconsistent with some provisions of the Act. For example, where I am in the ACT, “The owners corporation may enter the unit without notice to the owner or occupier of the unit if the access is required in an emergency.” So, what is the resident to do if 1) there is water pouring out of a unit doing damage, and 2) nobody responds to knocking on the door and 3) the resident could quickly and easily tell a member of the committee, who could represent the owners corporation and enter the unit to investigate and prevent further damage. At the least, the motion should be less absolute and allow for emergency contact.

    However, all that aside, is this a sledge-hammer to crack a nut? Is the committee fed up with constant communication from a few owners that verges on harassment? I suggest that it would be far more reasonable for the committee to put a motion along the following lines:

    “That owners and residents are requested to avoid direct contact with committee members except in an emergency and to submit queries, suggestions and requests in writing through the managing agent and/or the secretary of the committee whose email and mail addresses will be publicised from time to time.”

    If someone says they just want to talk about some issue, that is fine (and is generally to be encouraged): The written request could be for a committee member to phone the person back or visit to talk about some specified topic. Providing the second avenue of communication still provides a filter, if that is what the committee wants, but gets around a slow managing agent. 

    The secretary could set up a non-personal email address for the purpose such as ‘SecretaryPoshNameFlats@gmail.com’ and management of that address could be passed on as secretaries change. 

    Why don’t the committee want to be contacted? Where I am, the new committee, after each AGM, distributes a contact sheet to each unit. It includes the managing agent’s details and the committee details. Most include their unit number, a phone number and email address. Only rarely has a committee member preferred to leave off one of those details. The same details are included on each newsletter which tend to be distributed every few months.  

    I do have some sympathy for committee members getting too much communication from a few owners but I have also seen the opposite problem. Another class of owner is too nice, doesn’t want to bother you, and will only tell you things when you happen to get chatting that it would have been good to have known about much earlier and could have been dealt with easily.