NSW: How can a strata committee make decisions between meetings?

This article discusses the strata committee decisions between meetings process and when informal approvals must be ratified.

Question: What is the process for committee decision making between committee meetings?

I am a committee member in a building of 27 lots. Accountability, transparency to all owners, and correct procedures are very important to me.

Committee meetings are held every two months. In the interim, the secretary emails committee members seeking approval for paying accounts and other issues arising. One recent issue was a request to approve a lot owner’s renovation prior to the relevant by-law registration. If decisions are made by ad-hoc emails, are they considered resolutions?

I have requested that the agenda for upcoming committee meeting include ratifying each decision, including approval dates.

Another committee member argued that these decisions/approvals are resolutions and are not required to be agenda items. They state that the resolutions should be noted in the minutes of the next committee meeting with the date of the decision recorded, and it is not necessary for such decisions to be ratified at the meeting. Is this correct?

Answer: Any majority “decisions” made informally outside a meeting that require resolutions under the legislation should be ratified at subsequent strata committee meetings.

A treasurer will usually, in the exercise of their role, approve payment of invoices and often seek “approval” of other committee members for transparency. It would be unworkable if a committee meeting had to be held to approve payment of every invoice in the day-to-day running of an owners corporation. Approving an invoice for services rendered, for example, is not a decision of a strata committee.

In terms of the other issues arising, a strata committee may only make resolutions in duly convened strata committee meetings or paper ballot votes (in which case a notice must still be issued, and a majority of votes must be in writing and in favour).

Any majority “decisions” made informally outside a meeting that require resolutions under the legislation should be ratified at subsequent strata committee meetings.

This post appears in the October 2024 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.

Leanne Habib
Premium Strata
E: info@premiumstrata.com.au
P: 02 9281 6440