High cost of a failed by-law

Hi there,

This is a bit of a long winded story but any assistance that anyone could offer would be very much appreciated.

A while back I put in an application to my strata scheme to move my internal gas hot water system to the outside.

I was told by my strata scheme that I needed to have a by-law created and that they would have to call an extra-ordinary meeting to vote upon it. 

I had the by-law created (around 900$) and the meeting was held last night. Out of 9 units, I was the only attendee. One person voted against the motion by-proxy. Other then that there was no other contribution.

I’ve been told that I have to pay approximately 700$ for having the held the meeting.

My questions are as follows:

– is that the usual cost of holding an extraordinary meeting?

– would it have been possible to hold the meeting to find out whether anyone disagreed ‘before’ the bylaw had been created, then, if I were have to find no objections, then have the bylaw created?

– I was told that had the proxy vote not come in, the bylaw would have been approved. It seems odd to me that a whole by-law could be approved on the basis on merely one vote?

I’m very new to all this and just want to make sure everything has been done by the book in this instance.

Thanks,