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Ruffs – From my understanding of your issue there has been an initial unauthorised meeting with a solicitor where a plan of action was mapped out for some sort of development. The plan of action, the schedule of ongoing costs, and the initial meeting cost were approved in a single Motion at your scheme’s last General Meeting.
Any owner within a scheme (including a Committee member) may obtain their own quotes at their own cost and submit their own Motions to the OC to be voted on at a General Meeting.
It is important to note that the owner was not authorised by the OC to initially meet with the Solicitor and has therefore acted independently of the OC.
In my opinion the correct procedure would have been for the independent Committee member to have submitted 3 separate Motions for OC approval.
One Motion should have sought OC approval for reimbursement for his own costs for the initial unauthorised meeting with the solicitor (i.e. $1500.00).
The other two Motions should have sought separate approvals for (1) the authorisation of the proposed plan, and (2) the proposed schedule of legal costs that occurred after the initial independent action.
In my opinion the 3 Motions should not have been combined together. The reason being that an owner, should they wish to do so, is not being provided the opportunity to vote differently on each of the 3 elements.
The outcome may end up being the same as the majority of owners may have approved all 3 Motions but at least transparency and separation would have been achieved.