Question: Are redacted committee minutes legally allowed? What are owners’ rights to an unredacted copy?
We recently had committee minutes from a newly appointed committee circulated with two agenda items completely blacked out and a third item with the lot number redacted. I understand this may occur if the information discussed is legally privileged, but if it is for ‘lot owner privacy’, is this legally allowed and is this appropriate?
If a future purchaser requested committee minutes, redacted text might alarm them. As an investor, I am alarmed. What is so private that owners can’t be told about it?
Are owners entitled to know what the committee discusses and discloses if they are supposed to be our representatives? It feels like they are ‘mothering’ us with what we are told or not told.
I have attempted to contact the committee about this and have sent three emails (at weekly intervals) requesting a copy of the unredacted minutes. I’ve had no response or acknowledgement from the committee. I have indicated I am willing to pay a fee to review the unredacted minutes. What are owners’ rights?
Answer: Certain items must be recorded, but redacting privileged, litigation-related or complaint-related content is generally lawful.
What must and must not be included in committee meeting minutes is prescribed by the Owners Corporations Act 2006 (the Act) and any registered rules of the owners corporation. Under section 114 of the Act, the committee must keep minutes of meetings. The following must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting:
- the date, time and place of the meeting; and
- the names of the members present; and
- the names of the members voting; and
- all resolutions of the committee; and
- the voting on all resolutions of the committee.
There is no obligation for a committee to include additional material in the minutes. With that said, there are some good reasons why some parts of the minutes may be redacted. They may include, by way of example, consideration of legal advice or matters that are subject to ongoing or prospective litigation and items related to complaints made under the dispute resolution process.
An owners corporation is not permitted to disclose details of complaints under the Act. Under section 159, the report must not identify the person who made a complaint or the lot owner or occupier alleged to have committed the breach.
There may also be other reasons such as matters that are commercial in confidence (for example, when a committee is considering tender proposals or other commercial arrangements).
Committee members have statutory duties to act in a certain way. That duty extends to the protection of the owners corporation’s interests.
Under section 117, a member of a committee or sub-committee of an owners corporation must, in the performance of the member’s functions:
- act honestly and in good faith; and
- exercise due care and diligence; and
- act in the interests of the owners corporation.
A member of a committee or sub-committee of an owners corporation must not make improper use of the member’s position to gain, directly or indirectly, an advantage for the member or for any other person.
Based on your query we do not know why the sections have been redacted. Whilst you might push for an answer, ultimately, committee members will have more information than the average lot owner. There is nothing unlawful in that. Lot owners have the right to stand for committee and if elected will have the same access to that higher level of information.
It is the nature of the operation of an owners corporation that lot owners won’t know every little detail of everything that occurs year to year.
This post appears in Strata News #806.
Phillip Leaman
Tisher Liner FC Law
E: ocenquiry@tlfc.com.au
P: 03 8600 9370
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