Question: Regarding closed-door discussions at committee meetings and non-members being asked to leave the room, can a lot owner challenge this request and stay and listen to the committee’s discussion?
Regarding closed-door discussions at committee meetings and non-members being asked to leave the room, can an owner challenge this request and stay and listen to the committee’s discussion particularly if that owner had put the request to the committee to have a by-law amended? Also, can the owner request permission to comments on some of this discussion?
Answer: There is a process for the owner to go through, including giving notice.
You may be referring to a situation where a non-committee member (i.e. an owner) has requested attendance at a committee meeting. There is a process for the owner to go through, including giving notice.
Section 63 Attendance at committee meetings — non-members of the Standard Module provides for how a non-committee member attends and participates in the meeting. Participation is quite limited. You are there as an observer only and can only speak if invited to do so by the committee.
There are also several items of business for which you must not be present, including any item of business about a by-law breach. The legislation is quite clear on these points. You might like to review these sections yourself to see if your scenarios qualify, although my reading of them is that you probably don’t have any options to ‘challenge’ or ‘comment’ on discussions.
This post appears in Strata News #481
Chris Irons Hynes Legal E: chris.irons@hyneslegal.com.au P: 07 3193 0500