There’s a storm brewing at a multi-block community scheme where the committee is at odds with its secretary, the secretary sends a proxy to meetings and the strata manager seems a little too quick to wave the white flag.
The community management committee of a complex of four blocks has decided to replace their secretary who, it seems, doesn’t even turn up for meetings, preferring to send a proxy.
Bear in mind that community management laws are like strata management laws, only different.
So, this scheme presumably (the details are hazy) decided they would like a secretary who actually turned up to meetings. They placed a motion on the agenda of their next meeting – as they are entitled to do – to declare the secretary position vacant and elect a new one.
Just before the meeting, the proxy holder wrote to the strata manager and said that their block was holder of more than 33 percent of the unit entitlements of the whole complex.
Under Schedule 2, Section 3, (7.4) of the recently minted Community and Lands Management Act they were invoking their right to have a motion removed from the agenda.
NSW strata law and community title laws both say that if more than one-third of owners object to a motion on a committee agenda, it must be withdrawn.
When the strata manager asked to see the block’s strata committee minutes that passed the resolution giving them the authority to veto the motion, they were told told it was “private”.
Even so, the strata manager caved in and the motion was deleted. But should it have been?
As we ask on this week’s Flat Chat Wrap podcast, does being the representative of a strata block mean you speak for all the owners in it? You can delve into the whole saga HERE.
Elsewhere on the Forum
- Can the Body Corp charge a penalty fee for a missed fire inspection? That’s HERE.
- Progress on a seriously dysfunctional strata scheme as a new owner gets organised. That’s HERE.
- Secretary doesn’t even respond to emails. Can we demand that they do? That’s HERE.
- I’ve sold my car – how do I get permission to put a bike cage in my car space? That’s HERE.
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