NSW: Q&A Strata manager delegated authority

This article explains NSW strata manager delegated authority and delegated powers of the strata committee and its office bearers.

Question: Can our strata manager refuse to call an EGM to elect a new committee after receiving a qualified request from 25% of owners due to lack of delegated authority?

We had an AGM early this year, and none of the committee nominees were elected; therefore, we have no committee.

The AGM was held via a paper vote/pre-meeting electronic vote. There was no in-person meeting.

We provided our strata manager with a qualified request. 25% of all owners signed a document requesting the managing agent convene an Extraordinary General Meeting for a committee to be elected.

The strata manager ignored this legally qualified request, stating they do not have the “delegated authority” to convene a general meeting without instructions from the strata committee.

The manager further stated the only course of action for our plan to elect a strata committee is for an owner(s) or mortgagee(s) to make the necessary application to NCAT seeking an order for this office under Section 20 to be able to convene the necessary general meeting to elect a strata committee.

Is the managing agent correct? Surely the qualified request, as stated in the legislation, must be adhered to?

Answer: The qualified request must be given effect.

Pursuant to the section extracted below, despite your scheme having no strata committee per se, the qualified request must be given effect, and your delegated secretary would have had power to do so and should have done so within the statutory timeframe. The process should have been adhered to by your strata managing agent who would likely have had full delegated powers of the strata committee and its office bearers. See Section 19 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015.

19 Other general meetings

1. The secretary or a strata committee of an owners corporation may convene a general meeting (that is not an annual general meeting) of the owners corporation at any time.
2. The secretary of the owners corporation, or another officer if the secretary is absent, must convene a general meeting (that is not an annual general meeting) of the owners corporation as soon as practicable, and not later than 14 days after, receiving a qualified request.
3. A meeting may be convened on a qualified request even if the first annual general meeting has not been held.
4. A request is a qualified request for the purposes of this section if it is made by one or more owners of a lot or lots in the strata scheme having a total unit entitlement of at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements.

Further, the non-election of the strata committee is also a concern and breach of the legislation and should be remedied as a matter of priority.

You may elect to report both breaches to SCA (NSW) if the strata manager is a member of SCA (NSW) and further report the matter to NSW Fair Trading.

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

This post appears in the March 2025 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.

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