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Is a paper EGM legal? Votes by proxie without any physical attendance.
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I think there has to be a time and place, at least in ACT legislation and probably elsewhere. It might be in middle of a weekday at the managing agent’s office and only have room for a few people but at least the chair and a couple of EC members should attend, in my view. I would only consider a paper meeting to formally tick off some matter about which there was no expectation of any dissent.
in the case of meetings of the owners corporation, technically there has to be a “meeting”. That is – you send a notice out saying that a general meeting of the owners corporation will be held at X time on Y date at Z venue.
However, in some cases the resolution will be approved by the owners submitting their proxy and not attending. I have seen “meetings” where forms have been sent out appointing the strata manager as proxy and providing for a vote either way on the resolution – in effect the meeting has been “held” on paper. In those instances the owners are told not to attend, but of course they can if they want to.
(they did that once in our scheme, and we upset the manager by turning up)
With the strata law changes I am not sure this will be possible. Maybe Whale or Jimmy can enlighten us further.
They are documents belonging to the Owners Corp and there is no secret ballot (yet) so, yes, you can pay your $30 and trot down to the strata manager’s office for a sticky beak.
@Whoopi said:
The EC have called two EGMs on the one day half an hour part. One for our lot and one for another lot . Why did they not include both motions in one EGM is this a grab for money ?.Never attribute malice to something that can just as easily be explained by stupidity. Apart from that, unless there are significant differences between the lots or the proposed work, you shouldn’t need two by-laws.
Do we have to pay costs as we did not cause the EGM or ask for the EGM. Our by law was defeated because they made a massive error in our by law. They are trying to enforce a bylaw on is for work done over twenty years ago. They also want to pass all,costs on to us.
This is very confusing. If you want advice, you need to tell us clearly what the situation is. What is the by-law about? When was the poorly written by-law proposed and defeated. Who wrote it?
The Owners Corp can’t pass a by-law retrospectively. But they can reinstate common property if it’snot covered by an appropriate by-law
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
@JimmyT said:
…The Owners Corp can’t pass a by-law retrospectively…Perhaps the OC is trying to now do something correctly that was not done correctly 20 years ago? We had a situation that was a bit like that. Areas of common property allocated for the use of the owners of particular units but the process used over past decades was found to have been incorrect. Our lawyer advised that the remedy was to give everyone what they thought they had on essentially the same terms but to do it correctly this time.
Hi everyone, there’s a bit of confusion here.
I know the EC can have a “paper” Executive committee meeting, and in my experience the loophole in the act which enables EC’s to hold paper meetings for particularly controversial issues is abused. However, I didn’t think a “paper” EGM (extraordinary general meeting) was allowed?
Pamster – Scotty already answered your question; see below (ref: post 4 of this thread).scotlandx said…
In the case of meetings of the owners corporation, technically there has to be a “meeting”. That is – you send a notice out saying that a general meeting of the owners corporation will be held at X time on Y date at Z venue.
However, in some cases the resolution will be approved by the owners submitting their proxy and not attending. I have seen “meetings” where forms have been sent out appointing the strata manager as proxy and providing for a vote either way on the resolution – in effect the meeting has been “held” on paper. In those instances the owners are told not to attend, but of course they can if they want to.
(they did that once in our scheme, and we upset the manager by turning up)
With the strata law changes I am not sure this will be possible. Maybe Whale or Jimmy can enlighten us further.
… and to clarify, an E.G.M. is a “Meeting of the Owners Corporation”, and under the current N.S.W. Legislation there must, as Scotty stated, be a physical Meeting at a Venue advised to all Owners a minimum 14 days in advance together with the Agenda, whereafter the normal requirements for determining a quorum apply (i.e. including proxies).
The proposed N.S.W. Legislation that’s forecast to apply from September 2016 specifically allows for so-called paper meetings, where the Regulation that will then apply states the following; which may be interesting if the current definition of a “matter” applies, whereby each Motion on an Agenda would require a prior-determination by the O/C on the permitted “other” means of voting for each:
14. Other means of voting—owners corporation and strata committee
(1) An owners corporation or strata committee may, by resolution, adopt any of the following means of voting on a matter to be determined by the corporation or committee:(a) voting by means of telephone, video-conferencing, email or other electronic means while participating in a meeting from a remote location,(b) voting by means of email or other electronic means before the meeting at which the matter (not being an election) is to be determined by the corporation or committee (pre-meeting electronic voting).(2) Without limiting subclause (1) (b), the other electronic means of voting may include requiring voters to access a voting website and to vote in accordance with directions contained on that website.(3) An owners corporation may, by resolution, adopt postal voting as a means of voting on matters (other than elections) to be determined by the corporation.
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