AGM Apathy and Strata Committee

When a few of our owners were being so unpleasant to EC members that there was a risk that nobody would want stand to be elected to our executive committee, I asked our managing agent what would happen. She said that in the absence of an elected EC, the entire OC becomes the EC. She said she would continue to manage the property and that every time she needed a decision from the EC on some matter, she would be obliged to call a general meeting to make the decision. She would charge a fee for each of these extra meetings. She predicted that owners would soon get sick of that and some would put their hands up to be elected to a committee.

@Papou said:
I have a couple of vexed questions I can’t find the answer to in the forums:

Sorry, I missed these questions the first time around

(1) What happens if only one of the lot owners turn up to an AGM?

You wait 30 minutes and then declare those present as a quorum.

What if none show up? Does this allow the current strata manager to take over the Owners Corporation?

Until such times as the owners get themselves together and hold an election, yes. Once there is a committee, they can decide what the Strata Manager does and doesn’t do.

(2) If only one lot owner is interested in being on the Strata Committee, what happens to the status of the SC? 

It has a committee of one.  There is no minimum number on the committee in NSW.

(3) Does the role of SC chairperson automatically roll over if there is no new committee elected at an AGM for the following year?  

Answered above.

@Stevecro said:
The number of members allowed on the SC is between 1 – 9. So in response to Jimmy’s answer, the minimum number is 1, you cannot have zero members on the SC.

Well, exactly. I think you’re being a bit pedantic in correcting what I said.  A committee with zero members on it doesn’t exist so there has to be a minimum of one.

My point was, there is no minimum in NSW, unlike some states that say there must be two or three, depending on the size of the strata scheme.

Sir Humphrey, if there is no SC, the OC does not become the SC. One cannot become the other, they are two different groups. 

Not so. In fact Section 29 (4) says this:  “If there is no strata committee of an owners corporation, the strata scheme must be administered by the owners corporation, but nothing in this subsection prevents a strata managing agent appointed under this Act from exercising any functions conferred on the agent.”

Also, they are not completely separate and distinct bodies. The Strata Committee can act as the owners corporation, provided those powers have been delegated, and many SCs do in matters that don’t require a special resolution. 

Also the OC can rescind any decisions made by the strata committee and the chair of the committee is automatically the chair of the OC.  They may be different but they are closely intertwined.

There are plenty of small strata schemes where the committee comprises all of the owners so the OC and SC are one and the same thing.

FYI, Section 29 (1) says: “An owners corporation must appoint a strata committee of the owners corporation in accordance with this Act.”