Question: For part five engagement, does a special resolution require an open ballot? How does it work?
Answer: The new changes allow the body corporate to put a motion on the agenda to remove the requirement for a secret ballot and allow it to become an open ballot.
For a part five engagement, if the body corporate hasn’t done anything it needs a secret ballot at the moment. This is where you engage a returning officer to count all the votes, and they’re all done anonymously. What the new changes have done is they’ve allowed the body corporate to put a motion on the agenda in advance of that taking place to remove the requirement for a secret ballot and allow it to become an open ballot.
In the next 12 months is when you’ll see a number of these threshold motions go on to flick the switch on something like that happening, and it’s really the general meeting after the next one, where you can actually see some of these changes take effect.
This post appears in Strata News #490.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753