NSW: Can an unfinancial owner be elected to the strata committee?

Question: Can an owner be voted to the committee if they are unfiancial in one of the two lots they own?

What is the recourse if an unfinancial member is voted to the strata committee? The question was asked at the beginning of the AGM “is everyone financial?”. The Strata manager replied “Yes”. The member was unfinancial in one of the two lots owned.

What is the recourse for a Strata Manager who has allowed this unfinancial member be elected on to the Strata Committee?

As the member was invalid to be elected at the AGM, am I allowed to go onto the Strata Committee as the replacement?

Answer: If an owner owns two lots, and one of those is financial, they can use that lot to nominate themselves (or another person) as a candidate for the strata committee.

If an owner owns two lots, and one of those is financial (i.e. has no amounts owing to the owners corporation as of the time of the notice of the general meeting being issued, and those amounts are paid before the meeting), the owner can use that lot to nominate themselves (or another person) as a candidate for the strata committee.

Section 32(2) of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) (‘the Act’) does attempt to explain that an unfinancial owner is not eligible for appointment, however fails to clarify a scenario in which they own more than one lot.

It is therefore section 31(5) of the Act that provides this clarification, as it states “A person who is an owner of more than one lot in the strata scheme may nominate one person for election as a member of the strata committee for each lot for which the person is an owner.”

If a person was not elected properly, one could seek an order from the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal to invalidate the resolution, in accordance with section 24 of the Act. However, when seeking such orders, one must note section 24(3), which states:

“The Tribunal may refuse to make an order under this section only if it considers—

1. that the failure to comply with the provisions of this Act or the regulations, or of the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015, did not adversely affect any person, and
2. that compliance with the provisions would not have resulted in a failure to pass the resolution or affected the result of the election.”

This post appears in Strata News #618.

Tim Sara
Sara Strata
E: tim@sarastrata.com.au
P: 04 8500 7960