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Topic
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NSW Strata question –
Strata Commitee is aware of the vote on a motion at our recent EGM meeting (29/5), but unwilling to advise the OC. My question is – How soon after a strata EGM should minutes be distributed to the OC? It is a fairly contentious issue and would be nice to know the outcome!
Thank you.
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Replies
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See new answer below.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
vote results have been provided to the Strata Committee, yet the owners are not able to see these results.
If the document exists then you can apply to your strata manager to go and see it. There’s a statutory fee of about $35 for doing so, so club together with other concerned owners to pay it.
This post has been edited in light of new information – see below.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Apologies for misinformation provided in an earlier post; the owners corp has two weeks in which to publish the minutes of a meeting (which should include the results of a vote).
Section 22 of Schedule 1 of the Strata Schemes Management Act sets out the time frame in which general meetings minutes must be published and votes must be declared.
If possible, the chair should declare the result at the meeting at which the vote has taken place.
Otherwise it would be included in the minutes of the meeting which must be published, one way or another, within 14 days of the meeting taking place.
That means in a scheme of fewer than 100 lots, every owner should be given a copy of the minutes. In a large scheme (>100 lots) they should be given to any owner on request.
The maximum fine for failure to do so is $1100.(1) Records to be kept
The owners corporation must keep full and accurate minutes of its meetings that include minutes of all motions passed at its meetings.
(2) Distribution of minutes and records of motions
Within 14 days after a meeting, the owners corporation must provide copies of the minutes of the meeting in the following manner—
(a) by giving each member of the strata committee a copy,
(b) 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 14 days.
Maximum penalty—5 penalty units.The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
If you allow a strata manager or strata committee to get away with late publishing of minutes, then they will make this their habit.
You must make clear to them that such behaviour is not acceptable.
Last year at a strata I am involved in, the strata manager took 40 days to publish minutes, that is 26 days AFTER the 14 days allowed for publishing. This was in addition to other infractions she committed.
I complained – via the website – to Fair Trading against the agent and FT spoke to him.
Very soon afterwards she quit as managing agent of the scheme.
Separately you could seek mediation with the owners’ corp on this matter.
These two separate complaints should make the agent and strata committee sit up and listen.
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