Distributing Minutes of SC Meeting – Who’s Responsible?

NSW.

A Strata committee meeting (SCM) was held in early June this year.

The strata manager (SM) never provided the lot owners with the minutes of the meeting, (nor the notice of the meeting I will add.)

The committee and strata manager were emailed asking for a copy of the minutes but both were unresponsive.

16 June I made a formal complaint against the SM with NSW fair trading and provided them the details and quoted the relevant section of the Act relating to the distribution of minutes.

Schedule 2, Part 3, Section 17 (screenshot attached).

(3) Distribution of minutes› and records of motions Within 7 days after a meting of a strata committee or the passing of a resolution by he strata committee, the strata committee must provide copies or the minutes of the meeting or of
the resolution in the following manner-
(a) by giving each member of the strata committee a copy.
(D) by giving each owner a copy, if the strata scheme is not a large strata scheme.
(c) by giving an owner a copy, if the strata scheme is a large strata scheme and the owner requests a copy within the period of 7 days

Fair Trading today provided me with a letter stating the result of their “investigation”.

The said that they were “unable to identify a potential breach of the legislation we
administer.”

And that the SM stated that “the strata committee are responsible for the distribution of the committee meeting agenda notices and meeting minutes, AND The strata managing agent is only responsible for the preparation and
distribution of the first strata committee meeting held after each annual general meeting as agreed service under the strata management agency agreement.”

It is not explicit in the management agreement that this is the case. (I Can provide excerpts of the agreement)

The SM has previously only last year provided lot owners with the minutes of a SCM that was not the “first strata committee meeting held after each annual general meeting”

I feel that the SM is “throwing the SC under the bus” here, and that the SM purposefully did not provide the minutes to lots owners for various reasons.

My questions:

Who’s responsibility is it to provide lot owners with the minutes of a SC Meeting? (I know that ultimately it is the OC responsibly, but surely the SM has some responsibility here?)
What recourse can be had here? We still to this day have not been provided with the minutes of a SCM held in June this year.

Thanks Flachatters!