Question: Can one lot owner in a six lot strata scheme form a strata committee and then sign with a new strata management agency?
Can one lot owner in a six lot strata scheme form a strata committee and then sign with a new strata management agency? Does that one owner hold the majority vote to do so? Can the one owner create the seal necessary under section 237 of the Strata Scheme Management Act to sign contracts on behalf of the owners corporation?
Answer: Not single-handedly and unilaterally, no.
Not single-handedly and unilaterally, no. Strata committee members must be appointed at each annual general meeting. Though it is possible for one person to be the strata committee and hold all the office bearer’s positions, it does not appear that this is the case in your scenario.
Irrespective of whether that one person comprises the strata committee, a strata management agency agreement must be approved by ordinary resolution at a duly convened meeting of the owners corporation (not a strata committee meeting). That person has no power under the legislation to appoint a new strata managing agent. Approval from the owners corporation is required. Any licensed strata managing agent would be aware of that statutory requirement.
The relevant provision regarding who may keep the owners corporation’s seal, Section 272, is set out below (emphasis added). Since the self-appointed one person strata committee is spurious, that person likely has no authority to keep or create the seal or indeed affix it to any instrument of appointment:
272 Persons who may keep seals of owners corporations
- If an owners corporation has only one owner, the seal of the owners corporation must be kept by the owner or by the strata managing agent of the owners corporation.
- If an owners corporation has 2 or more owners, the seal of the owners corporation must be kept—
- by an owner, or member of the strata committee, that the owners corporation determines is to keep the seal or, in the absence of a determination, by the secretary of the owners corporation, or
- by the strata managing agent of the owners corporation.
This post appears in the June 2023 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: info@premiumstrata.com.au
P: 02 9281 6440
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