Question: At our AGM, budgeting for legal services was declared out of order. How do we gain approval for the spending?
At our recent AGM, a committee motion relating to budgeting for legal services was declared ‘out of order’.
What must the committee now do to obtain body corporate/owner approval of such spending in 2021/22? Would this, for example, warrant an EGM being called?
Answer: Unless there was a fundamental issue with how the motion was drafted I am unsure as to why the motion was declared out of order.
The body corporate is entitled to budget for, and expend, costs on legal services. So unless there was a fundamental issue with how the motion was drafted I am unsure as to why the motion was declared out of order.
If the committee does want to carry out spending on legal services, and the anticipated costs are less than the committee spending limit, the committee can simply make the decision to engage a lawyer. There is no strict and immediate obligation for an EGM to be called to amend the existing budget or strike a special levy for an unanticipated cost (however depending on the amount and length of time until the next meeting this may need to be considered retrospectively).
This post appears in Strata News #527.
Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753
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