By law and the act

Notices can be sent electronically but I think they require both a by-law allowing the EC to do so and for the owners to ‘opt-in’.

This is what the Act says about EC notices:

Part 2 Provisions relating to meetings of executive committee

6   Notice of executive committee meetings

(1)  An executive committee of a large strata scheme must give notice of its intention to hold a meeting at least 72 hours before the time fixed for the meeting:

(a)  by giving written notice (which may be done by electronic means) to each owner and executive committee member, and

(b)  if the owners corporation is required by the by-laws to maintain a notice board, by displaying the notice on the notice board.

(2)  An executive committee of a strata scheme that is not a large strata scheme must give notice of its intention to hold a meeting at least 72 hours before the time fixed for the meeting:

(a)  by displaying the notice on the notice board, or

(b)  if the owners corporation is not required by the by-laws to maintain a notice board, by giving written notice (which may be done by electronic means) to each owner and executive committee member.

(3)  The notice must specify when and where the meeting is to be held and contain a detailed agenda for the meeting.

(4)  A notice may be given to a person by electronic means only if the person has given the owners corporation an e-mail address for the service of notices under this Act and the notice is sent to that address.

This is becoming quite confusing (to me at least).

With regard to the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (1996):

Cl 236 relates to legal “proceedings” and the service of documents in those circumstances, not otherwise such as for Meetings.

Schedule 2 merely requires that Notices of Meetings be “served”

Cl 43 states that “a by-law has no force or effect to the extent that it is inconsistent with this or any other Act or law”.

So in response to den19dy …..

1) A By-Law is not necessary to permit the electronic serving of Notices of General Meetings and for Levy Contributions, but individual Proprietors need to supply an e-mail address for that purpose. No e-mail address, and these Notices have to be sent as hard-copies personally, or by post, or by courier etc.

2) Notices of Proceedings need to be served in accordance with the Act, and no By-Law can override those Provisions.

Now that’s clearer (to me at least).

Our O/C placed a Motion regarding the Electronic Service of Notices on an AGM Agenda a few years ago, and included a Form to permit Proprietors to opt-in. The Motion was agreed to, and the Resolution worded to permit the electronic serving of General Correspondence, Meeting Agendas, Minutes, Levy Contributions, Payment Reminders, and “any other documents deemed appropriate from time-to-time by the E/C” to all Proprietors who supplied an e-mail address for that purpose.

I think its about 3 years down the track as of now, and I currently send only ≈30% of Notices by snail-mail, and receive ≈10% of Levy Payments by that means (as cheques).

Can I apply my well known “test of logic”?

With the exception of Exclusive Use By Laws By-Laws, I can’t think of any that don’t apply to all Residents of the Plan, so unless the intention is to require all Proprietors to accept the electronic delivery of Notices (agendas, minutes, levies etc), and that’s unlikely given that some may not have e-mail addresses or merely don’t want to, why would you want to or need to Register a By Law for that purpose.

Gees Louise, let’s not make administration any harder that the Act already makes it!

No more from me on this; no matter what !!! 

The non-service of General Meeting notices is such a serious issue that the creation of a by-law to allow agendas by email may jst be a belt and braces approach, just in case, for instance, someone changes their email address and hasn’t told the Strata Manager or secretary.

I do know however that sending out great wodges of paperwork that most people aren’t even going to read is incredibly wasteful.  Not only that, electronic notices are easily searchable for years after the original paper notices have gone to recycling.

That said, I think our strata manager sends out the agenda on hard copy, just to be on the safe side.  There are people who will claim they didn’t get proper notice of meetings and until such time as there is an automatic system for notifying the receipt of General Meeting notice, I think you will get both.

And I don’t think the by-law over-rides the law – it sits alongside it.  It would only appear tooverride the law if it said that’s what it intended to do.  And then, of course, it would be invalid because no by-law can override any other law on the statute books.

I think this particular horse has been beaten to expiration. There is nothing to be gained from going round in these circles.  Unless someone has a definitive statement that will put this to bed, let’s consider the matter closed.