Can an owner of two lots give both proxies to one person?

Yes. Clause 26(8) of Schedule 1 to the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 says that, “Despite subclause (7), a person who owns more than 1 lot in a strata scheme may appoint a single proxy in respect of all the lots.”

Subclause (7) is the cap you’ve described. In a scheme of 20 lots or fewer, a person can hold one proxy. In a larger scheme, a person can hold a number “equal to not more than 5% of the total number of lots”. For 24 lots, 5% is 1.2, and you can’t hold a fraction of a proxy, so the limit is one. Your maths is right.

Subclause (8) is a carve-out from that limit. Without it, an owner of two lots in a 24-lot scheme would have to find two different people to vote for them, which is nonsensical. The owner is one person with two votes, and they can choose one trusted person to exercise both. In our view, the proxy holder counts as holding one proxy, even though it covers two lots. They vote separately for each lot, following the owner’s instructions on each.

Why proxy limits exist. A proxy lets an owner who can’t attend still have a say. Without a cap, one person could collect proxies from many owners and carry a bloc of votes into the meeting, enough to swing a committee election or an ordinary resolution. The limit keeps votes tied to owners actually engaged in their own community, not to whoever is best at collecting forms. If a person does hold more than the permitted number, the prescribed proxy form (Form 1) says they cannot vote using the additional proxies. That is why the form allows an owner to name a second-choice proxy in case the first has already reached the maximum.

Two practical points.

• The clause 26(8) carve-out is about the same owner appointing the same person. It doesn’t let that person also collect proxies from other owners. Having used their one proxy, they couldn’t also accept one from a different owner in a 24-lot scheme.
• Form 1 is worded around “the owners of lot”, so many owners complete one form per lot. That is fine where the same person is named on each. The cleaner approach is a single form listing both lots, which removes any question at the meeting.

Co-owners of a lot are treated differently. Proxies a person holds as a co-owner of a lot aren’t counted towards the limit.

The prescribed Form 1 is available from NSW Fair Trading.