This article discusses tenants rights in a strata building. Can tenants attend NSW strata meetings, vote and hold positions on the committee?
Table of Contents:
- QUESTION: Can a tenant attending the meeting as his unit owner proxy become a member of the committee if the majority voted No to having tenants involved?
- QUESTION: An owners corporation is considering funding much needed repairs using an unsecured loan from a number of tenants. Are those same tenants able to vote on approving the loan at a committee meeting?
Question: Can a tenant attending the meeting as his unit owner proxy become a member of the committee if the majority voted No to having tenants involved?
Answer: A non-owner (eg a tenant) may be nominated for election to the strata committee by an owner who is not a committee member and is not seeking election as a member of the strata committee.
A non-owner (eg a tenant) may be nominated for election to the strata committee by an owner who is not a committee member and is not seeking election as a member of the strata committee.
Further, the tenant may vote at a general meeting as the holder of the landlord’s proxy, and, as the proxy holder may be present for all matters to be considered at a general meeting even though the proxy holder is a tenant.
Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: [email protected]
P: 02 9281 6440
This post appears in Strata News #624.
Question: An owners corporation is considering funding much needed repairs using an unsecured loan from a number of tenants. Are those same tenants able to vote on approving the loan at a committee meeting?
If an owners corporation is considering funding much needed repairs using unsecured loans ($300k) from a number of tenants at 5% interest over 7 years, are those same tenants able to vote on approving the loans at a committee meeting (they are all on the committee)? Or, due to a conflict of interest, should they be prohibited from voting?
Answer: Only one tenant representative is allowed on the strata committee and that tenant does not have voting rights.
This is not a lawful arrangement because there is only ever one tenant representative on the strata committee and that tenant does not have voting rights. Please see below. Further, any loan must be approved by resolution at a duly convened general meeting of the owners corporation not at a strata committee meeting. See Section 33 of the Act.
33 Tenant representatives
- This section applies to a strata scheme if there are tenants (being tenants notified in a tenancy notice given in accordance with this Act) for at least half of the number of lots in the scheme.
- The tenants of lots in a strata scheme (being tenants notified in a tenancy notice given in accordance with this Act) may nominate one tenant representative for the strata committee.
- The tenant representative on a strata committee, in that capacity:
- is not entitled to vote on decisions of the committee or to put a motion or nominate a person for office, and
- is not entitled to act as an officer of the owners corporation for committee purposes, and
- cannot be counted in determining whether there is a quorum of the committee
Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: [email protected]
P: 02 9281 6440
This post appears in the April 2021 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Have a question about tenants in strata or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.
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Should tenants be sent the Agenda and invited to Strata Committee Meetings and General Meetings?
It goes without saying they may only speak with permission and cannot vote.
Hi Mr Wong
This exceprt from NSW Fair Trading should assist:Tenants at meetings:
If you’re a tenant, you can attend meetings of the owners corporation. If you’re not receiving notice about meetings, contact your landlord or leasing agent.
A strata meeting is a private meeting. This is because members of the public are not entitled to attend a strata meeting. And normally the discussions which take place at a strata meeting are private conversations.
Mueller
https://www.lookupstrata.com.au/nsw-recording-strata-meetings/
In that case a tenant other than one covered by the Act (a tenant representative for example) would not be entitled to attend meetings.
35. It is clear that the nature of the communications which take place at the meetings are of a confidential nature and are private in the sense that they are “not public”.
ALLIANCE CRATON EXPLORER PTY LTD v QUASAR RESOURCES LTD [2010] SASC 266 (27 August 2010)
The other option is that an owner in the Strata can choose to appoint another person (including a tenant) to be their bona fide nominee. That nominee of an owner (including a tenant) is then eligible to stand for a committee position and exercise exactly the same rights and responsibilities as the owner, IAW their unit entitlement or share within the body corporate. Hence a tenant could be the chair, secretary, treasurer or ordinary member and have full access and authority within the defined role of their position. That would include full access to financial records, transactions and decisions.
Hi Phillip
We have received the following reply from Andrew Terrell:
Thanks.
Yes, that is true and has forever been the case.