Question: Some lot owners are not receiving minutes from meetings although the secretary insists they have been sent. How we can ensure the secretary is sending out minutes?
Some lot owners are not getting emails and minutes from meetings. When they ask the secretary for them all she responds with is ‘They were sent out’.
I requested the cancellation of my email address so that information would be sent through hard copies, but the secretary won’t accept this. Do you have any suggestions for how we can ensure the secretary is sending out the minutes in the proper way?
Answer: We suggest you check with all owners to see if they are receiving and if all owners confirm they are not than it is evident that your agent is not sending the minutes out as required.
It is difficult to prove whether minutes have been properly despatched by your strata managing agent. We suggest you check with ALL owners to see if they are receiving and if all owners confirm they are not than it is evident that your agent is not sending the minutes out as required.
Additionally, you should ask the strata managing agent to confirm that they have updated the strata roll with your preferred method of receipt (being posts) as the Secretary cannot dictate to you how you wish to receive notices. The Secretary must accept your preferred method and requires your written consent to send communications electronically. We suggest you reply back pointing this out to your agent.
Further, Schedule 1, Clause 22 of the Strata Schemes Management Act, 2015 (NSW) imposes penalty units where minutes are not properly distributed on application:
- Records to be kept The owners corporation must keep full and accurate minutes of its meetings that include minutes of all motions passed at its meetings.
- Distribution of minutes and records of motions Within 14 days after a meeting, the owners corporation must provide copies of the minutes of the meeting in the following manner–
- by giving each member of the strata committee a copy,
- by giving each owner a copy, if the strata scheme is not a large strata scheme,
- by giving an owner a copy, if the strata scheme is a large strata scheme and the owner requests a copy within the period of 14 days.
:Maximum penalty–5 penalty units.
Your Secretary may respond to the threat of NCAT proceedings and the imposition of penalty units. In the meantime, if someone receives minutes of meeting, perhaps they could display those minutes on the notice board or circulate same via email until the Secretary observes proper practice.
This post appears in Strata News #548.
Leanne Habib Premium Strata E: info@premiumstrata.com.au P: 02 9281 6440