Question: Does a committee motion carry when only 2 of 6 members vote in favour, 1 votes against, and 3 don’t reply?
We have 10 owners and 6 are on the strata committee. At a recent vote, only 2 committee members replied in the affirmative, 1 voted no and 3 didn’t reply. Does the motion carry in the affirmative?
Relevant considerations include quorum requirements for committee votes and how majority is calculated based on members present.
Answer: It depends on how the vote was conducted. The motion carries at an in-person meeting but fails if conducted by pre-meeting electronic or written vote.
In the case of an ‘in person’ strata committee meeting (face to face or via electronic meetings e.g. Teams or Zoom), a quorum exists under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (the Act) if not less than one-half of the persons entitled to vote on the motion are present. A motion is passed if a majority of the votes cast are in favour (Schedule 2, Part 3, section 12(2)(b)). In your example, three committee members voted (representing one-half of the six committee members entitled to vote), thereby potentially establishing a quorum. As a majority is two of the three votes cast and they were in favour of the motion, the motion would be carried.
However, if the voting occurred by way of pre-meeting electronic voting or voting in writing, different rules apply. Under Schedule 2, Part 3, section 9(2)(c) of the Act, a motion is taken to have been validly passed only if it is approved in writing by a majority of the members of the strata committee (excluding any tenant member). In your example, only two of the six committee members voted in favour of the motion. As this does not constitute a majority of the committee members, the motion would not be validly passed under these provisions.
This post appears in the August 2026 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Jana Antelmann
Strata Life
E: jana@thestratalife.com.au
P: 02 9456 9917
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