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Three other long time owners here (20 yrs) and myself, all of whom have previously served on the Strata Committee at one time or another-paid our dues-are fed up. The Strata Committee does next-to-nothing and the Strata Manager with all possible powers delegated to them is just as bad. Things have gone down hill.
Phone calls and emails are not returned. There are many issues needing attention, some of them urgent. We can’t get the committee to engage with us, they refer us to the strata manager who says he can’t do anything without committees direction. Get the picture?
We’re 42 units on the Sydney Lower North Shore. The next AGM is 8 months away but we are ready to try and take control and get stuff done. Form an alt-committee or something. What do you reckon we should do? Start a web site with a to-do list and timetable?
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Costa – Does your SC hold SC meetings? If so, when is the next SC meeting?
You could try a couple of different tactics:
1. Write a letter to the Committee outlining your concerns. Your letter should be tabled in the Correspondence section of the next SC Meeting, and should be discussed by the Committee.
2. To confirm that your Correspondence has been discussed why don’t you and the other concerned owners attend the next SC meeting? Perhaps you can back up your concerns by asking to speak about them at the meeting, if you are permitted to speak.
From Schedule 2:
13 NON-MEMBER OWNER MAY ATTEND
An owner or, if the owner of a lot is a corporation, any company nominee of that corporation is entitled to attend a meeting but is not entitled to address the meeting unless authorised to do so by resolution of the strata committee.
Can you raise a Motion at the next General Meeting that states “that Committee Meetings of the Owners Corporation are to be held 4 times a year, and are to be held in a manner that allows owners to attend in person as per SSMA 2015 Schedule 2 Clause 13, and that proper Notices and Agendas and Minutes must be provided to all Owners in Compliance with Schedule 2”? Your Explanatory Material might add that Owners are currently being denied their rights to attend a Committee meeting due to the Meetings being held by email. The Committee must act as directed by the OC, unless the OC directive is a breach of the Act.
Has a resolution been passed at a Committee meeting that enables Committee members to vote by email as per Clause 10(1)?
If there is work to be done at your scheme that your current Committee are not properly attending to then perhaps you and the other concerned owners in your scheme can proactively arrange quotes and propose Motions for inclusion at the next General Meeting. See Schedule 1 Clause 4. This will then bypass the Committee, who it appears may be dragging their heels.
Once you have your Motions submitted then a General Meeting can be held at any time if a qualified request has been provided i.e. a request made by one quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements. This could be as few as 11 owners from your total of 44 owners, depending on your unit entitlement aggregate total. You appear to already have 4 of the 11 owners required.
Perhaps you should contact the other owners via their address for service on the Strata Roll and seek support for the holding of an additional General Meeting that is sooner then the AGM, which, as you stated, is 8 months away.
STRATA SCHEMES MANAGEMENT ACT 2015 – SECT 19
Other general meetings
19 OTHER GENERAL MEETINGS
(1) The secretary or a strata committee of an owners corporation may convene a general meeting (that is not an annual general meeting) of the owners corporation at any time.
(2) The secretary of the owners corporation, or another officer if the secretary is absent, must convene a general meeting (that is not an annual general meeting) of the owners corporation as soon as practicable, and not later than 14 days after, receiving a qualified request.
(3) A meeting may be convened on a qualified request even if the first annual general meeting has not been held.
(4) A request is a
“qualified request” for the purposes of this section if it is made by one or more owners of a lot or lots in the strata scheme having a total unit entitlement of at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements.Hi Costa
Re the email (electronic) voting, there are a couple of references in both the Act and the Regulations, which on the face of your posting, may not have been correctly followed.
Clause 10 of Schedule 2 of the Act allows electronic voting, but only after a suitable resolution has been passed. If so passed, it must be minuted in a “full and accurate” minute as per Clause 17 of Schedule 2 of the Act.
Within the Regulations, Part 2, Clause 14 details the process for ‘Other means of voting’. Within this clause, sub-clauses 3 & 4 detail how the notice of meeting (agenda) must contain statements re possible modification of a resolution. Often see in our strata resolutions of SC are modified or qualified after discussion.
Further reading of Clause 17 of Schedule 2 of the Act shows that not only
- MUST cause to be kept a record of its decisions
- MUST give each owner (you at 42 units are a small scheme) a copy of the minutes within 7 days of a meeting of a Strata Committee OR the passing of a resolution by the Strata Committee.
If this is not happening, I believe Section 238 of the Act can be used to have all the committee removed as they are failing to exercise ‘due care and diligence’.
Hope this helps.
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