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Our Strata Cttee have developed a new set of draft by-laws based on the recent legislation. They plan to present the new draft by-laws for a vote at an EGM. The problem is that there have been significant changes to existing by-laws and instead of voting on individual changes we are expected to vote on the all of the by-laws in their entirety.
The most significant change is that our by-law banning pets has been changed to pets being allowed. This exisitng by-law was passed a couple of years ago after rigorous discussion and with the necessary 75% majority. It seems the cttee, some of whom who are pro pets (one of whom keeps a pet, in blatant disregard of the current by-laws) are trying to push through a number of changes by incorporating them in a larger document with a lack of appropriate transparency.
Is this allowable, can individual existing by laws be changed without a vote on that individual by-law?
Thanks
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It is possible that the committee are just making the by-law changes in one lump because this is how a strata manager is telling them to do it. Where I live, we changed our ‘rules’ (ACT-speak for ‘by-laws’) gradually. We amended some, we left some unchanged, we deleted some, we added some. We made these changes over several years giving owners time to consider them all. We also had rules we wanted to leave alone at each step because we did not want to have debate about them while trying to make unrelated changes. Registering incremental changes and insisting to our manager that this is how we wanted to do it was not straight-forward. Most, it seems, do just have a single resolution to rescind an old set and adopt a new set. The ‘new set’ can of course include some rules which were identical or similar in the old set. Certainly this is easier if there is little controversy about any of them. There is then one uncomplicated resolution to register the new set in place of the old set.
As for what you can have in your by-laws about keeping animals, I am not up to date on NSW. Perhaps your old by-law is redundant whether you like it or not due to being no longer consistent with the Act? In the ACT an old rule banning pets would be null and void and of no effect. Here the balance is that our Act says a unit owner must apply for permission to the owners corporation to keep an animal but permission must not be unreasonably refused. Perhaps your Act has a similar provision. If so, have no idea if old pet-banning rules were grandfathered.
Our new pet rule gives automatic permission for certain common pet choices subject to some reasonable conditions while setting out that unusual animal choices still need to be applied for and may or may not be approved by the committee. For extreme examples. If you want a goldfish in a bowl, permission is automatically granted by the adoption of the rule; if you want to keep an elephant, you must apply to the committee, which will exercise the function of the OC, and which will probably find reasonable grounds to refuse.
The simplest solution it to put a motion on the agenda – and do it right now – that proposes that each item in the new by-laws be discussed and voted on individually.
You could add in an explanatory note that while most issues will go through without debate, there is a small number of contentious issues about which there are strong feelings. Failure to discuss and vote on these individually could result in a successful challenge at NCAT over what amounts to a denial of vote. That would lead to the rejection of all the by-laws, resulting in the need for another EGM.
“All or nothing” is no way to revise the by-laws of a building.
But I repeat, send your motion in now with the request that it be attached to the agenda of the by-laws EGM. Motions must be included on the agenda for the next general meeting if they are submitted before the agenda is issued
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.
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