OFT advice

I thought it might be useful to share a recent experience I had with OFT when I sought advice about what subjects of motions fit into the different categories of motions defined under the Act (general, special unanimous) for general meetings.

I contacted OFT to see if there was a list of subjects which fitted into the different categories, and where they were listed in the Act or Regs.  Well, the response more or less implied I was trying to steal the crown jewels, and that I or the OC should reasonably expect to pay good money for expensive legal advice to obtain this information.

When I pointed out that, since the Act defined these categories, it was reasonable to expect that the Act or Regs would also define which subjects fitted into which categories. I was given the short brushoff that this was not the function of the OFT. Not being satisfied with this, I then went on to point out the legal nonsense of having terms defined in the Act,  without giving a list of subjects to which these definitions applied. Result – brushoff 2, seek legal advice

Not believing my ears, and still not satisfied with this answer, I wrote to the Minister for FT to seek further clarification, also pointing out the contradiction, and the fact that this system seemed like a racket designed to put more money in the pockets of indigent strata lawyers. This curly one obviously caused some consternation in the department, since they were responsible for providing the minister's office with an answer. I did not recieve an answer to my query for more than 6 weeks, and when it did arrive, the answer was a 'yes but … no but…' reply worthy of 'Yes Minister'. I could have sworn that those responsible for the reply had carefully checked every episode of 'Yes Minister' for just the right response. On the one hand, neither the department nor the Act had any appropriate definitions of subjects which fitted into the 3 categories and it was my responsibility to obtain legal advice for the same. However, the department must have been embarassed by the anomaly of this advice and situation, as it then went on to throw in a handful of subjects which fitted into the three categories. All in all, an unsatisfactory answer as far as I was concerned.

Still not satisfied, I then sought help from Strata Community Australia, where I discovered definitions for 44 different ordinary resolutions, 9 special resolutions and 7 unanimous resolutions. My question remains, why are these definitions not contianed in the Act or Regs?