Pack your bags and get out!

Millie – in NSW, Owners are permitted to attend Executive Committee Meetings (ECM), with the emphasis on the words underlined.

So my understanding has always been that under those provisions, shown at Sch 3 Cl 14 of the Strata Schemes Act, a person holding an Owner’s proxy to participate in General Meetings could not attend ECMs, that only Owners could attend, and further that Owners in attendance can’t actively participate in discussions there unless permitted to do so by the Chair.

So that’s the official line, but personally I don’t much care who attends our E/C Meetings so long as they behave themselves, and quite frankly I’ve been known to permit participation by long-term tenants where they’ve been able to add-value to a discussion.

This is what the Act says.

14   Owners’ attendance at executive committee meetings

An owner or, where that person is a corporation, any company nominee of the corporation is entitled to attend a meeting of the executive committee but may not address the meeting unless authorised by resolution of the executive committee.

On the question of whether or not you are allowed to speak, any owner or representative at an executive committee meeting can “address the meeting” with the permission of the EC.  How do you get permission?  

You stand up and say “Point of order: May I speak on this matter …” They then should take a vote and undoubtedly refuse to let you speak, at which point you ask for it to be minuted that your request was refused.

However, I would argue that they can’t make a blanket, pre-emptive ruling that you or anyone else may not speak as that countermands the provisions of the Act which allows you to “address” the meeting under specific circumstances.

Speaking at the meeting is different from addressing it. If someone was telling lies about me in a meeting, they’d have to carry me from the room to stop me putting them right with a couple of choice phrases.

There’s nothing I know of that says non-owners can’t attend meetings … the clause I cited above merely says that all owners can attend but can’t address the meeting unless they are given permission by the EC.

It’s really up to the committee to decide their own paramaters and individuals to challenge them if they feel so aggrieved.

If the unit is owned by a company (as many are and your former secretary’s were) they can send a company nominee.