Stairway trick a low blow

Most of the questions to this column  arrive via the Forum, these days, or by email.  But occasionally I get approached at a party- a bit like a doctor being asked to look at someone’s nasty rash – although sometimes the question is a ripper.

This one concerns a member of an executive committee – let’s call him Joe – who happens to be in a wheelchair.

Joe and the chairman of the committee don’t get on, especially since Joe has managed to persuade fellow EC members to turn down various motions proposed by the chairman.

There was a particularly contentious meeting on the cards recently.  All the correct notices went out as usual, but with one difference: the venue was changed to the building’s penthouse flat which is only accessible by stairs from the uppermost lift lobby.

Joe arrived for the meeting to discover that no matter how much he banged on the door to the stairs or called out, no one came down help him up. Others on the committee said afterwards that they hadn’t heard him.

Needless to say, in Joe’s absence the chairman was able to get the numbers in favour of his motions.  Now Joe wants to know if he can challenge the result of the meeting because he was deliberately prevented from attending.

OK, it could be argued that Joe should have made sure he could be carried up the stairs. But, knowing he was in a wheelchair, the secretary should have held the meeting somewhere that had disabled access.

The Strata Act states quite clearly that if you have been prevented from voting at a general meeting and your vote would have made a difference to the result, then the resolution falls. But it doesn’t say anything about executive committee meetings.

Anyway, there’s a simpler way of dealing with this.  Joe only needs the support of two other EC members to call another meeting where he can try to get the decision rescinded.

And his neighbours should be asked at the next AGM if they really want a chairman who’d pull a cheap shot like that.