Nominating for committee election while in dispute with OC

mark1980 wrote:

So I asked the strata manager to give me the reference to sections in the strata Act or Regulations. Here is his reply: “As stated, there Is case against the Owners Corporation and specifically the strata committee, there is a conflict of interest – this was agreed by all parties. Until the case is over, you can request a EGM and join the committee if voted in favour.” Currently there are only 2 members in the committee.

If there is a conflict of interest it cuts both ways.  It sounds like the strata manager is making it up as he goes. If you were illegally prevented from standing for election, than you can seek orders invalidating the election under Section 24 of the Act.

I am guessing the correct procedures for the election were probably not followed in any case.  For instance, after the nominations, did they first have a vote to decide on how many members there should be in the committee? Have a look at section 9 of the Regulations, to see if they complied.

If they decided on more than two, then the existing members can vote to co-opt you on  to the committee (to save having the whole election invalidated).

Also, if there are more than 100 lots in the building the committee must have at least three members.

mark1980 wrote:

I don’t remember they had such a vote.

To be fair, it’s not unusual in a small scheme for  the letter of the law not to be followed.  It’s often just a case of sayign”ok, who wants to be on the committee?”  The problem here is that they have denied you the right to nominate yourself and there is absolutely nothing that I can find in strata law that allowes them to do that.

I think a quick call to your strata manager offering him the option to fix the situation, otherwise you will immediately (and there is a time limit on these things) make an application to Fair Trading to have the whole election re-run art another general meeting and, by the way, he should wear any costs becasue it’s his error and no one else’s.

Also, as a genreal rule, make sure all the blame gets sheeted back to the strata manager for having advised the committee badly.  He is dispensible – but you have to live with your neighbours.

mark1980 wrote:

So what’s the time limit? The general meeting was 9am Friday 20//11 . Let’s say, they give me the right to nominate myself. What if the 2 members all veto … is it possible for them to keep me out of the committee?

The time limit on Section 25 (denied a vote) is 28 days. Section 24, (improperly conducted election) doesn’t have a time limit specified but I wouldn’t go beyond 28 days.

There are two options here.  The first, being co-opted on to the committee, would allow a “veto” since the existing committee member are the only ones who vote on your admission to the committee, after it has been elected at a General Meeting.

If you present this as a compromise, to avoid another NCAT confrontation which you will surely win, maybe they will see sense.

If they refuse, even after you explain why the strata manager is wrong, then you have to challenge the election at Fair Trading and NCATso that it has to be conducted again and then you can nominate.

Your problem then is to convince a majority of owners, not so much that you have been denied your legal rights, but that the strata scheme is facing unnecessary expenses because of poor decisions based on false premises.  You want to join the committee to put things on an even keel.

The issue with the entry gate motor is one example.  That could and should have been dealt with without anyone having to go to Fair Trading.  The highly dubious decision to deny you the right to stand for election has just compounded the problem where bad and legally questionable decisions pile on top of each other.

One argument might be that the owners corporation is being encouraged to avoid its responsibility to maintain and repair common property by a strata manager who cites aspects of strata law that don’t exist.

It’s a truism of strata that trying to avoid paying legitimate expenses for repairs always ends up costing more when you have to go through the hassles of an NCAT challenge and then have to do the repairs anyway.

The committee members are clearly getting dubious advice that they follow because they think it will save the scheme money.  You will need to convince the other owners that these are false economies and they could be doing better.

Yoiur next challenge will be to convince the strata manager to provide you with the email addresses of all the non-resident owners.  Give the SM’s previous actions, I’d bet they will cite privacy issues for not doing so.  This, again, would be pure BS.

Owners are entitled to see all records of the strata scheme and that includes email addresses where they have been provided.

Hi, So read about your issues, believe me I know how frustrated you must be. I was also unlawfully and incorrectly denied the right to self nominate for the Strata committee at the AGM, and again it was the Strata Manager who said I was not allowed to self nominate.  The only ‘punishment’ for the SM’s error this was an “education session” from Dept of Fair trading.

I also lived in a small block of only 6 units.  The outcome was long winded and led to the other two members of the committee – but mainly the secretary, disparaging me to the other owners, this meant that year after year it became impossible for me to get a spot on the committee, despite being the only resident occupier in the block.  Thank heavens proxy harvesting was banned so it is not as easy for one person to do this anymore.  I took my case to NCAT and the Adjudicator stated that I had been adversely affected by not being able to self nominate. Maybe you could cite this case in your dealings with the SM and the committee?

https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/nsw/NSWCATCD/2015/65.html?context=1;query=williamson;mask_path=au/cases/nsw/NSWCATCD

See Paragraphs 30 and 39