Question: I chose to attend the AGM personally rather than online. I was told the AGM will be held at the strata manager’s office. My understanding of the bylaws is that meetings should be located in an area suited to the client. Is this correct?
Answer: The Acts state state that the day time and place of the meeting should be reasonable convenient for the majority of members.
The Community Titles Act Section 81 (3) and Strata Titles Act Section 33 (3a) states that the day time and place of the meeting should be reasonable convenient for the majority of members. With the use of online meetings, many Strata Companies, including Horner Management, have the facilities to hold online meetings in their boardroom to allow all owners to interact with ease via the online method.
If the majority of unit owners are electing to attend the meeting online as opposed to in person, it is likely that the set up in the Manager’s office would be the best for this occasion to ensure that all owners can interact easily with each other as opposed to relying on portal equipment to connect all units owners on line.
If the majority of owners wish to meet in person and agree that onsite would be most convenient, your manager should work with owners on this, however, you should check your management agreement as some companies do charge for attending onsite meetings, especially if they are not within the metropolitan area.
This post appears in Strata News #614.
Carrie McInerney
Horner Management
E: carrie@hornermanagement.com.au
P: 08 8234 5777
I appreciate that the question on abuse of contract workers is lodged on the wrong topic but it is disappointing that the response from Tyson is not more considered on the issue of abuse, bullying and harassment of contractors. This is such a common issue which impacts many strata developments and leads to ‘we don’t do strata work’ from contractors. The advice we received in relation to persistent abuse of gardeners by an owner was to encourage the contractor to pursue their rights under the Fair Work legislation to experience a work place feee of abuse, bullying and harassment. Quitting the job is certainly the easier option. The lack of consequences for difficult owners/ residents in relation to all aspects of strata (abuse of strata managers, executive committee, workers) is a major negative about strata living.
Meeting – 14 days notice: This requirement is dealt with under the SA Acts Interpretation Act.
33—Service by post
(1) Where any Act passed after the passing of this Act authorises or requires any document to be served by post (whether the expression “serve”, “give”, “deliver” or “send”, or any other expression is used), then, unless the contrary intention appears, the Act will be taken to provide—
(a) that the service is effected by properly addressing, prepaying and posting a letter or packet containing the document; and
(b) that, unless the contrary is proved, service will be taken to have been effected at the time at which the letter or packet would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.
We post at least 21 days notice just to be sure.
Regards, Gordon Russell Managing Director UnitCare Services, Adelaide.
Thank you for the piece on SA meeting law. I believe that Look Up Strata should insist that any contributions to your emailed newsletter references the relevant sections of the applicable legislation.
In this article the author states that a Budget along with the Audit must accompany the Agenda. I can find no such requirement in either the Strata or Community Titles Acts. In addition I would strongly recommend that the owners present at the inquorate meeting lodge a proxy for the reconvened meeting, otherwise as few as 1 person attending can overrule all the draft decisions of the inquorate meeting.
I believe that you have an obligation to ensure that advice given on public forums is correct. Regards, Gordon Russell. Managing Director. Unitcare Services Adelaide