Question: Can our committee implement electronic delivery of notices and other communications to lot owners without formal consent, given that we already possess their email addresses?
As secretary of our 72 lot strata plan, I wish to streamline communications between the owners corporation (OC) and the lot owners. I want to favour the electronic delivery of notices and reports over snail mail.
Our strata manager says we cannot change to email communication without first receiving consent to do so from owners. Do we have to formally seek, by mail delivery, consent to electronic delivery of notices, etc., when we already have email addresses for each owner? We have enough trouble forming a quorum at General Meetings, such is the disinterest shown by owners. I’m seeking to drag our OC into the 21st Century. We’re strangled by inefficiency, and this would save escalating postage costs.
Answer: You need to formally seek owner’s consent to use their email address as their address for service.
Under the Strata Schemes Management Act, 2015 (NSW) an owner must specify their preferred method of service, which may be an email address or an Australian postal address. Depending on what owners elect (which may be changed by them), that determines how they are to be served by the owners corporation.
So, in short, yes. Your strata manager is correct. You need to formally seek owner’s consent to use their email address as their address for service.
Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: info@premiumstrata.com.au
P: 02 9281 6440
This does not align with the WA Strata Titles Act which states that if owners provide an email as part of their service address then it can be used by the strata company (or their appointed manager) to distribute relevant information to owners. There is no requirement for seeking owners’ permission, they have in effect granted their permission to use their emails as their service address by including them in the section 105 form they would have completed when purchasing their apartment.