Notice of AGM – Amendment

The NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (Schedule 2) requires that the Agenda of General Meetings is provided to Owners a minimum 7 days before that Meeting is convened, and that’s primarily intended to ensure that everyone has adequate time to digest the content, to form their queries if any, and all so that they’re in a position to cast informed votes on all Motions.

In your case, there a few anomalies that will make it even more difficult for Owners to decipher the financial and other information that’s been provided as addenda to the original Agenda in advance of the Meeting, and that’s the important thing to take into account in deciding if everything is “OK”.

So if the most recent addendum to the Agenda was received by all Owners a minimum 7 days before the Meeting date and Owners can decipher everything or at least know what clarifications to seek on the day, then in my opinion that’s “OK”, and if otherwise, the Strata Manager should be if possible provided with a list of clarifications and be instructed to defer the Meeting to a date that at least complies with that prescribed 7 day window.

The plot thickens!

AGM’s need to be held within one month either side of the date that the Plan’s first ever such Meeting was held, so yours probably has some leeway in terms of its date.

Notwithstanding any delegations to your Strata Manager, it’s your Executive Committee Secretary who has the ultimate authority to convene General Meetings, so in the circumstances where there are numerous addenda and it’s likely that some Owners without email would not have received the most recent of those within the prescribed timeframe, it’s entirely appropriate for the Secretary to advise your Strata Manager that the AGM is postponed until such time as a consolidated and properly formed Agenda is available for re-issue.

I can’t help wondering how your new Strata Manager is so unaware of the requirements of Sch. 2 of the SCMA!

One of the main reasons for engaging the services of a Strata Manager (S/M) is so they’ll take care of the “financials”, and whilst it would be unusual in the extreme for that function not to be delegated to the S/M, perhaps check with them or take a look at the Agency Agreement that they hold with your Owners Corporation.

As for what to do, I guess it depends upon what’s wrong with the financial statements, where provided there’s no evidence of fraud and the closing balances are not too far away from what’s in the bank, perhaps “as good as they can get” is good enough provided the new S/M gets their head around things from now on and the Executive Committee keeps their collective fingers out of the detail!