As a starting point, if you have enough support from the other lot owners that are not committee members, and are also concerned about the same issues that you are, you could take this opportunity to request an EGM be called.  As your fellow strata committee members are not financial they won’t be able to vote unless they pay up before the meeting.  Failing that you can wait and put your motions on the next AGM or you can apply for free Mediation at Fair Trading.

Beth99 – Dingo’s response is solid. It may catch out a few of the owners who are in arrears.

There are two ways to arrange for a general meeting:

• the secretary or strata committee may call one at any time, or
• if owners entitled to vote, who together hold at least a quarter of the total unit entitlements, ask for a meeting. They would need to give written notice to the Secretary asking for the meeting to be held. If the Secretary is away, the notice can be given to another strata committee member.

Here is a link to a legal opinion about voting and arrears:

https://www.lookupstrata.com.au/nsw-owner-unfinancial-levies/

I am a bit confused about what your concerns are.

Are you concerned about non-financial owners voting at general meetings? or

Are you concerned about non financial committee members voting at committee meetings? or

Are you concerned about the arrears collection process?

Is the secret ballot vote for committee members a secret ballot at a general meeting?

Is the secret ballot vote a vote for general positions (and specific positions are decided at the committee meeting immediately following the general meeting) or is the secret ballot vote for specific positions at the general meeting?

Can you provide an example of the Motion where a secret ballot was called for?

How many committee members are permitted at you scheme? If you missed out on a position do you think that you may have a better chance if the number of permitted positions was increased (bearing in mind that the maximum limit under the Act must not be exceeded.) NB: You are able to raise a Motion for resolution at a general meeting to increase the numbers of committee members if the maximum limit has not been reached.

What is the process at your scheme for issuing a Notice to Comply with a by-law? Is it by general meeting approval or has the authority been delegated to the strata committee, or has it been delegated to the strata Manager?  A notice must be issued before any further action can be taken to enforce the by-laws.

@Beth99 said:
As in nominated by one person and seconded by another who are not standing for the position ?  

There is no seconder required for a strata committee election.  All that’s required is that the person making the nomination is: 

a) not standing for election themselves
b) not nominating more than one person
c) ‘financial’ at the time of the meeting
d) if they nominated themselves, they are not co-owners of their unit

If any member of the committee fails on any of these, they should stand down immediately (although the committee can just reappoint them). At least their incompetence and lack of knowledge of basic strata law would be exposed.

I will look into the issue of secret ballots for strata committee office-bearer roles later.

Beth99 – I think that I am understanding your concerns a little better now.

Please correct me if I am wrong – You are on the committee as an ordinary member and you want to be an executive member. You did not receive enough votes from the other 5 committee members to achieve your goal of obtaining an executive position when the committee positions were voted on by email, therefore you are looking at the legality of the committee voting to see whether it was conducted properly. In doing so you have discovered some irregularities. 

Yes – it appears that your concerns are justified in at least two areas (1) voting by unfinancial member(s), and (2) voting on committee positions by email.

After you have read through the information below you will realise that it puts you in a conundrum. Do you bring all of these facts to the attention of the SM and the committee and have all office bearer positions invalidated which will allow the members who are unfinacial to become so, or do you bring only the first part of them (the ‘unfinancial part’) to the attention of the SM and the committee in the hope that you achieve an executive position by default?

Here are the facts:

A member of the strata committee is not entitled to vote at a strata committee meeting if they are an unfinancial owner of a lot in the strata scheme when the notice of meeting was given and the amounts owed by them were not paid before the meeting. (See para below regarding ‘notice’).

Therefore, if the secretary or any other executive position was unfinancial at the time the notice was given about the voting for committee positions, and they did not pay the arrears before the meeting, then their position would be invalid and it should be awarded to the person who received the next highest vote.

Each member of the strata committee, and every lot owner, must be given a notice of an intended strata committee meeting at least 3 days before the meeting is due to be held. 

Even more importantly, the election of office bearer positions are not permitted to be voted on by email. 

Here is an extract from the OFT site:

Voting by email, teleconference or other technologies 

A strata committee may pass a resolution to adopt any of the following means of voting by the committee:

• voting by teleconference, video-conferencing, email or other electronic means by a member while participating in a meeting from a remote location,  or
• voting by email or other technological means before the meeting at which the matter is to be determined by the committee. This can include accessing a voting website or even a Facebook page. This form of voting cannot be used for the election of officers of the strata committee.

If a tenant is subletting then they may be in breach of their rental conditions. Perhaps the real estate agent that is handling the property should be notified, and/or the owner of the Lot. They may not be aware that subletting is occurring.

Council may not have an input into overcrowding, as the SM has stated, but the new strata Act permits the OC to pass a by-law against overcrowding. Perhaps your scheme can adopt such a by-law at the next General Meeting.

Here is an extract from the OFT site regarding over crowding:

“Overcrowding can impact on the amenity of residents living in a strata scheme and pose significant health and safety risks. Common problems that arise can include noise problems, excessive water use, and insufficient parking in the complex. It can also place a strain on facilities and common property, and create fire hazards.

The reforms allow owners corporations to make a by-law limiting the number of people who can reside in a lot (but schemes must still allow no fewer than two adults per bedroom), so that strata schemes are able to better manage overcrowding.

Schemes wanting to impose such a limit will be able to introduce a by-law by passing a special resolution.

If any owner or tenant breaches the by-law after the notice has been issued, the owners corporation will be able to apply to the Tribunal, and impose penalties of up to $5,500 for the first offence and $11,000 for each and every subsequent offence detected within 12 months of the imposition of the earlier penalty. Larger families will not be discriminated against because the by-law will not apply to children and an overcrowding by-law cannot be inconsistent with the planning approval for the building.”

@JimmyT said:

@dingo said:
In reality the process for enforcing by-laws is not as simple as many people would like it to be – here is an example;

That may be true but the examples quoted are very specific and by no means usual or common.

JT, I quoted one very good example because I think that it is a good idea to inform the OP that starting an action at NCAT may be a costly, frustrating and time consuming process where there are no guarantees that you win not to mention that win or lose you have to face the people you are fighting on a daily basis when you walk out your door.

I have had a lot of trouble myself trying to get by-laws enforced against some occupiers who partied all night and day and drove us into the ground. Nobody could care less in that block.  After 2 years of arguments and threats with the EC I ended up selling the property so I’m unsure as to how uncommon or unusual this scenario actually is.      

Not everybody wishes to get involved to that extent. There is no malice intended in that.

@JimmyT said:

Nobody said anything about malice but people come to this website looking for information and, sometimes, encouragement.  Pointing out a worst-case scenario as if that’s what they can expect is misleading and unhelpful.

JT, my understanding is that Beth99 appears to be upset that the By-Laws in her block are being ignored , the SM is not doing anything to help, and by the tone of her post she feels let down by it and was asking what she could do. I have outlined that other people have had similar issues which may of some comfort to her, and provided some general options in my first reply to Beth99 which may achieve a good outcome, together with an opinion by others that NCAT may not be the best road for her situation becasue of the reasons stated in that example. I think its best to let Beth99 decide for herself which road she takes dont you think? BTW  If a road is prone to accidents then its probably best avoided.