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  • #8727
    Mailbox
    Flatchatter

      hello all, our racist, abusive, bullying EC charmer has stacked the EC at an emergency meeting with his proxies. the owners do not live on site and in some cases never have. However they now effectively give him casting vote in EC matters. two questions for you forum experts
      1) is this legal
      2) what are our options now?
      A number of owners have tried to curtail his behavior by joining the EC, only to be pushed out by his aggressive behavior. We have emails which prove this. However, we now realize the only way to move forward is to team up as a united front.
      NB this time, as last year, he was nominated by the strata manager
      Your thoughts much appreciated. please understand this issue is causing people real anxiety and distress, dividing our lovely community.
      Frown

    Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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    • #17998
      Whale
      Flatchatter

        Bev29 – Just to clarify, by the term “emergency meeting” I assume that you mean a General Meeting of the Owners Corporation, and that by “stacked the EC” you mean that the Member you’re referring to used the proxies of other Proprietors given in his favour to vote certain friends of his onto the Executive Committee (E/C) after they nominated for the positions made vacant by the Meeting, and which were voted upon and fiilled in accordance with an Item on the Meeting Agenda.

        If all that’s correct then it’s legal, and otherwise it is not.

        On the assumption that it is correct, then the best option for you and like-minded Proprietors would be to gather as much support as possible to requisition the Secretary of the E/C to convene a General Meeting of the Owners Corporation, to place your Motion on the Agenda, and for those like-minded Proprietors to both attend the Meeting personally and entice as many others as possible to also attend, or to at least obtain the proxies of others of a like-mind who cannot attend.    

        You will have to get the numbers, which in the first instance in order to successfully requisition the Secretary is a minimum 25% of the Proprietors in your Plan by unit entitlement; in other words if the total unit entitlement (the aggregate) of all Lots in your Plan is 100, then you need like-minded Proprietors whose Lots together total a minimum 25 units of entitlement.

        In the second instance, you’ll need the attendance either personally or by proxy of sufficient like-minded Proprietors to nominate for membership of the E/C (max 9), and to comprise a majority of those in attendance (again including the Member and his proxies) when the vote for E/C Membership is taken.

        Lastly and with regard to the vote, if you and your like-minded “team” aren’t confident of success by a simple majority vote, then you can request a poll vote where the Lot units of entitlement of those in attendance is used to decide the outcome (in this hypothetical example, 51).

        #18039
        Mailbox
        Flatchatter
        Chat-starter

          hello whale thanks for the reply. Yes, an emergency general meeting was held because three EC members quit due to the abusive behavior of one of the members. that left just two EC members. So a new committee was elected, which included the abusive member, and two of his cronies who are absent landlords plus two normal people. Former members were going to retake their positions but the abuse they got at the meeting proved too much of a deterrent.
          Question: at EC meetings, can the absent members give their crony their proxies for votes? or do they have to be there to vote in person? Thanks.

          #18040
          Jimmy-T
          Keymaster

            They can give their proxies but only after a quorum has been established and the EC members actually present have then agreed to accept proxies.

            For instance Chairman turns up with two proxy votes in pocket. Two non-cronies also turn up. Meeting is quorate. Chair then asks members present to accept proxies.

            They don’t have to and since there is a clear intent to fill EC positions with “phantom” members to give the Chair all the power to do as he or she pleases, they really shouldn’t. It’s not illegal – just highly immoral and the majority of owners actually at the meeting shouldn’t go along with it.

            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.
            #18041
            Mailbox
            Flatchatter
            Chat-starter

              Thanks Jimmy, very helpful

              #18044
              Millie
              Flatchatter

                Not quite sure if I understand…  

                At our AGM – 166 Lots – there were 17 attendees, Chairman/Strata Manager had a further 30 proxies = 46.  

                Chairman and his crew got 41 of the 47 votes so they have full control of the EC.  

                No mention of who held what proxies prior to the vote for EC Members and no one asked to accept proxies.  

                Is this kosher?

                #18048
                scotlandx
                Strataguru

                  It’s a bit hard to tell without more detail, there are several elements to electing the EC:

                  1. determining the number of members of the EC (no more than 9), which is for the owners to decide at the AGM.

                  2. nominations for membership of the EC.  A nomination is not the same as a proxy.  You cannot use a proxy to nominate a person (or yourself) for the EC, it is a separate thing, so you need a document saying I nominate X to be a member of the EC.  You can only be nominated by an owner (you can nominate yourself).

                  3. If there are more nominations than there are positions on the EC, then the owners vote on who they want. 

                  4. Determining who will be the office bearers.

                   

                  What isn’t clear from what you said is how people were nominated to the EC.  They might have been properly nominated, but it could be worth checking.

                  As a matter of good governance, proxies should be disclosed.  The minutes have to detail who held what proxy anyway, and if they don’t you should be asking why.  Also if a person puts in a proxy it would be difficult for them to direct the proxy re any election of EC members, so it would have to be an undirected proxy.

                  I was interested by what Bev29 said about the EC charmer being nominated by the strata manager.  Unless the strata manager is an owner, that is not possible, so again it could be worthwhile checking and seeing if the nomination was invalid, in which case you could get the charmer off.

                  #18065

                  Hi All,

                  I dont really understand Bev29s post. I thought there were no proxies at EC Meetings? Only at General meetings?

                  If I might also add that Bevs use of strong words and name calling could be considered offensive to some? Who is to say who is right or wrong? Lets play nice ok? Kiss

                  Big Cheers

                  #18068
                  Jimmy-T
                  Keymaster

                    There are no proxies at EC meetings for non-EC members – i.e. an EC member can’t say they got X number of proxies at the general meeting so they have a bigger vote on the EC.
                    However, absent EC members can ask an attending EC member to act as their proxy. Or they can nominate another person to attend on their behalf, with full voting rights.
                    In both cases, the proxies must be approved by the EC members in attendance and they can’t be counted towards the 50 percent attendance required to create a quorum.

                    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.
                    #18604
                    Millie
                    Flatchatter

                      Question:  

                      Is it simply a matter of Executive Committee Members having to disclose their commercial links with the ‘original owner’ of the property before standng for election to the Executive Committee?

                      Or,

                      If a Building Manager/Caretaker recruits owners who lease their apartments through him to get the numbers to form a new Executive Committee, and he then writes to all his owners – say 25% of the total – within the Strata and successfully gets them to vote in his Executive Committee, with no disclosure of the commercial links between them, is this permissable?

                      If the Building Manager’s/EC Members’ actions aren’t OK, what action can one take?

                      Thanks

                       

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