Question: Is the Committee obliged to comply with a motion if compliance would contravene a by-law?
At our AGM the chairman held the view that a Committee motion should be ruled out of order although a majority of committee members disagreed with that view, as did the strata manager.
Nevertheless the chairperson felt obliged to put the motion to the AGM and the motion was resolved in the affirmative.
The motion was out of order as it contravened a by-law.
Is the Committee obliged to comply with the motion even though compliance would contravene a by-law? What alternative action should be taken?
Answer: It may be worthwhile confirming that the motion is actually invalid
If the body corporate passed a motion that was invalid it would be a matter of:
- the committee choosing to ignore the motion and seeing if a lot owner challenged the committee’s inaction in the Commissioner’s Office (where if the motion was invalid, the application ought to be dismissed); or
- the committee (or another lot owner) making its own application to declare the motion invalid.
The second option is the preferable approach as it means the adjudicator cannot criticise the committee for ignoring motions that were passed at a meeting (which is a risk with option 1).
It may be worthwhile confirming that the motion is actually invalid before the committee chooses either of the above options.
This post appears in Strata News #493.
Todd Garsden Mahoneys E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au P: 07 3007 3753