Overturning a levy

The easiest way to overturn a levy is to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) which you can call by getting the signatures of 25 percent of owners, then get a simple majority of those at the meeting to vote to rescind the decision.

If you took this to NCAT you would either have to prove deceptive practices or that the majority of owners, properly informed, would have rejected it.

The easiest way to do that is to call the meeting and attach explanatory material to the agenda as well as lobbying owners in person or by mail.  As an owner you are entitled to see the strata roll and copy the addresses of non-resident owners.

If that isn’t workable, I doubt if NCAT would step in, in any case, unless there was clear evidence of fraudulent behaviour.

@Felix said:
Our Strata of 32 units is in a similar situation as to that of Bonnie L.

The EC wanted to contact the Owners but the Managing Agent said he couldn’t provide the Owners contact details due to privacy laws.

My understanding is that the e-mail addresses can be provided if these e-mail addresses appear  on the strata roll.  Is this correct?

In your reply to Bonnie L you state that as an Owner she is entitled to see the strata roll and copy the addresses of non-resident owners.

This sounds a bit strange that the Managing Agent can’t provide the contact details yet any Owner can inspect the strata roll and copy addresses.

They can then contact Owners and pass on contact details to other Owners.

Can you please clarify this?  

Managing agents often say that but the OC owns the list and the EC exercises the functions of the OC, so you can look at the list. However, in practice, our EC avoids having the argument because we just prepare whatever material we want to have distributed and direct the managing agent to distribute it. 

There is a risk that an EC member, ex-EC member or just any owner might use the list to create a nuisance or infringe privacy. So, we can understand the managing agent’s reluctance to hand it over willy-nilly. 

Still, if anyone really does want it, they can get it, as you say. We choose not to ask an EC. I can imagine circumstances when perhaps we might change our minds because we want to send something confidentially to owners without informing the managing agent , perhaps if we were thinking of changing agents, but even then we could probably be open about it. 

@JimmyT said:
…our EC – normally dominated by a person who proxy farms on an agri-business scale – has emailed out a newsletter asking owners to give their proxies to EC members, due to the change in the law.

When I said they should also allow other owners to put their names forward … the snotty response I got was that the email distribution service was not to be used by ordinary owners “due to reasons of privacy”.

What’s that saying about “absolute power”? …

This is why our EC has not asked for the unit roll. The present EC might be trusted to not abuse it, but what about our successors or perhaps even one or two inside the tent now? For reasonable communications to owners we have been able to do that through the managing agent so there has been no practical problem from not having the list.