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Reading the new provisions (2015 Act) Proxies given to a Lot Owner is restricted; Relevant section as follows:
“Division 2 – Appointment of proxies
26 Appointment of proxies
(7) Limit on number of proxies that may be held. The total number of proxies that may be held by a person (other than proxies held by the person as the co-owner of a lot) voting on a resolution are as follows:
(a) if the strata scheme has 20 lots or less, one,
(b) if the strata scheme has more than 20 lots, a number that is equal to not more than 5% of the total number of lots.”
No where can I find that there is anything to say that where a Lot Owner is the presiding as Chairperson (vs the Strata Manager) that he / she is Not subject to that restriction.
As many Lot owners default to nominating the “Chairperson” as their proxy (with / without specific instructions on Motions), is the Chairperson caught under these provisions as an unintended consequence under the legislation?
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@Winston said:
As many Lot owners default to nominating the “Chairperson” as their proxy (with / without specific instructions on Motions), is the Chairperson caught under these provisions as an unintended consequence under the legislation?
I think that is rather the point. Living in a block of more than 100 units where the chairman routinely runs a scare campaign about the terrors of the meeting being non-quorate (never happened, never will), characterises any attempt to gather opposition votes as proxy farming and then turns up at the meeting with more than 50 percent of the votes (rendering the meeing pointless), I can’t wait for the “blind proxies” to be eliminated.
Having said that, as it stands, the chairpersons and their loyal committee members who fear informed voting will be organising proxy parties where they ask for blank forms and just fill in their names until their quotas are used up.
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.
Yes we are already seeing this happening in our scheme. Our EC is made up of a group of people with high unit entitlements so they can swing any and all votes their way/the way of their personal agenda. By way of their tactics they prevent anyone getting on to the EC.
In addition to setting up the EC so that the unit entitlement is high, they then proxy farm and pass the proxies around so that they scatter them amongst several members. I have no doubt this will continue. This, in addition to holding the proxies for the original developer, also with high unit entitlements, essentially means that there is no point in even attending any meetings anymore as they have the majority vote before the meeting even commences (they do everything on poll voting now). May I also add they don’t even send out the minutes until two weeks after the meeting (breaching legislation) so nobody even knows the results until weeks later!
In the last AGM they managed to swing the vote to remove any restriction on spending, so they can spend anything they want on anything! Last year they were over budget and on top of that had huge accruals for the year. Sadly this is what happens when you live with a bunch of complacent people.
Proxy votes should be banned altogether – you should only be able to vote if you go to the AGM and listen to other owners raising the real issues and make a proper informed vote. But then again you also need to have an AGM where the EC generally allows owners to speak.
what do remote owners do? They only know the SM. Can they submit their vote without attending? How many can the SM hold?
You can now vote electronically, by phone or by mail. Ask your secretary or strata manager what arrangements have been made.
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.
Thanks to all contributors, but it seems to be the basic question remains unanswered, how many proxy votes can the strata manager hold/ apply at a meeting?
steven strata – Proxy details can be found in SSMA 2015 Schedule 1 Part 4 Sections 25 and 26 https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ssma2015242/sch1.html
The number of proxy votes held by the strata manager depends upon the total number of Lots in the scheme.
A proxy cannot be used by a building manager to obtain a financial or material benefit for the proxy holder.
An extract from the strataman site on this issue:
‘Limit on number of proxies held by one person
The total number of proxies that may be held by a person (other than proxies held by the person as the co-owner of a lot) voting on a resolution are as follows:
- ONE proxy if a strata scheme has 20 lots or less
- if the strata scheme has MORE THAN 20 lots, a number equal to NOT MORE THAN 5% of the total number of lots
(IMPORTANT – Any fractions are IGNORED when calculating the 5% – so 2.5 becomes 2 for a 50 lot scheme).
This is the bottom-line: (as per the legislation calculations)
- 2 to 39 lots – 1 proxy (remember to ignore any fractions)
- 40 to 59 lots – 2 proxies
- 60 to 79 lots – 3 proxies
- 80 to 99 lots – 4 proxies
- 100 to 119 lots – 5 proxies
- 120 to 139 lots – 6 proxies
- 140 to 159 lots – 7 proxies’ etc
The new proxy form – which must be used for appointing proxies – offers an alternative nomination should your first choice’s allocation be exhausted.
Also, it’s worth noting that the co-owner of a unit who is not the person named first on the strata roll needs the permission of the other owner to act as the proxy for the joint ownership. By my reading (and I may be wrong) that would use up one of their permitted allocations of proxy votes.
It’s going to be interesting in some AGMs as some people who thought they had a stack proxies turn out to have at least one fewer.
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.
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