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Hi All,
We have just had our AGM for August 26 pulled by our Strata Manager because she did not add two motions sent in by an owner to her Aug 11. At first she told the owner he was too late to put a motion to the owners and that the paperwork had gone out, then she changed her mind. This is the ruling she is citing. Is this correct?
“It is 7 days, with approx. 3 days for mail = 11. So despite what the lecturer told us at the cpd point meeting (to allow 14 days), which is what I based this on, I need to change the meeting date and add the motions below from (owner).
(1) Notice of a general meeting of an owners corporation must, at least 7 days before the meeting, be served on each owner.
(2) Notice of a general meeting of an owners corporation must also be served, within that 7-day period, on each first mortgagee and covenant chargee shown on the strata roll if an item on the agenda for the meeting requires a special or unanimous resolution of the owners corporation or relates to insurance, budgeting or the fixing of a levy that will require expenditure above the prescribed amount referred to in the definition of
“priority vote” in clause 7 (1).Is this correct? Newlsie
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newlsie – it’s too late now, but if the information that your Strata Manager provided about the timeframe within which she mailed or otherwise distributed the Agenda is accurate, then not only was there no requirement to “pull” the AGM, she should have discussed that with your Executive Committee Secretary before doing so.
Obviously the two clauses cited by your Strata Manager are correct as they’re from Schedule 2 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996), but again, if the Agenda was distributed as she advised then the requirements of that Act were complied with.
Strata Managers too often forget that they’re service providers to their Owners Corporation (O/C), and despite any delegations granted to them in their Agency Agreement with the O/C as their Client, they must not act unilaterally.
I can’t help wondering about the nature of the late Motions, but in any event the issue could be in future avoided by the SM issuing a Preliminary Notice of Meeting, where the date and venue of the AGM is given and Motions called for, with a firm close-off date for responses in time for the Agenda to be finalised and distributed in compliance with the Act.
General Meetings in NSW require 7 full days notice (not including the day of the meeting) plus 4 working days for postage (Interpretations Act 1987) if notices are required to be posted out.
Thanks Stevecro, it’s interesting that an Act is needed in order to interpret other Acts, but it’s the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act that’s primarily applicable here, and as it sates that General Meeting agendas must be served on Owners et al “at least 7 days” before the Meeting, and as the interpretation of that is distribution at least 11 days before the Meeting to allow for snail-mail (should any Owner/s use that), then the Strata Manager was entirely compliant by distributing the papers on or around 7/8, and therefore necessarily prior to 11/8 when the additional Motions were received.
The Meeting should not have been “pulled”, and again, call me a conspiracist but I can’t help wondering what made those late Motions so important (or not).
@Stevecro said:
General Meetings in NSW require 7 full days notice (not including the day of the meeting) plus 4 working days for postage (Interpretations Act 1987) if notices are required to be posted out.NSW: Does anyone know if there is a new postage notice period that reflects Australia Post’s revised service levels? I presume 4 days is still the standard for what is now called Priority mail. What about Standard mail (2-6 day delivery)? NSW Interpretation Act 1987 s76(1)(b) only mentions 4 working days.
The short answer is no. It is incumbent on the sender to allow enough time and post accordingly.
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