Question: Are qualifications or previous experience required to join the council of owners?
Are there any qualifications or previous experience required to join the council of owners? Can the strata company contract a strata manager to work for a company without the office bearers having any previous experience or qualifications?
Answer: Generally, everyone tries to do their best.
Since the Strata Titles Act (STA) came out in 1966, there has been a requirement to have meetings to approve things.
There have been several iterations of the STA since then, and the current Act is still called the “Strata Titles Act 1985” even though the latest amendments were proclaimed (approved) on 1 May 2020.
One of the changes involved the inclusion of strata managers into the STA and also “volunteer strata managers”.
The Constitution of the Council is defined in Schedule 1 By-law 4.
If you are “entitled”, meaning a financial member of the strata scheme, you can nominate yourself or be nominated by someone else.
One of the curious things is that if you are unfinancial as of the date of the General Meeting, your voting power is restricted to only Unanimous Resolutions or Resolutions Without Dissent.
- You are unable to vote on Special Resolutions or Ordinary Resolutions.
- You may not nominate yourself to go on the council if you are unfinancial, but another financial member can nominate you.
It would be advantageous if the council of owners members knew how meetings were run and could follow an agenda. Despite having an agenda, some meetings get sidetracked and discuss things not listed as items of special business on the agenda. There is no prerequisite for this experience.
Whilst advantageous to have this prior experience, the SCA (WA) run short courses on council proceedings and what is expected of a council member.
Under the new provisions of the STA, a strata manager must have:
- A contract compliant with the requirements of the Act and the Strata Titles General Regulations 2019 (Regs);
- Professional indemnity insurance;
- A criminal record check;
- Educational requirements or progress toward completing the requirements during the transitional period;
- Must at all times act honestly and in good faith;
- Have a reasonable degree of skill, care and diligence in the performance of the functions;
- Must have a good working knowledge of the Act;
- Must disclose conflicts of interest.
A volunteer strata manager who may also be a member of the COO would also have to keep in mind the topic of conflict of interest.
The Act states that a volunteer strata manager:
- Is not required to have professional indemnity insurance;
- Is not required to have the same educational qualifications as a strata manager;
- Must have a criminal record check done;
- Must operate under a volunteer strata management contract;
- Must be an owner of a lot in the strata scheme;
- Must pay all money received on behalf of the strata company into an ADI account of the strata company;
Members of the COO represent all owners of the strata scheme and make decisions or follow instructions from a general meeting to benefit all owners.
I wouldn’t say that it happens all the time, but some people have agendas and only become a member of the council to influence decisions that are favourable for them.
Generally, everyone tries to do their best. The guidance of a good strata manager helps.
This post appears in the July 2023 edition of The WA Strata Magazine.
Shane White Strata Title Consult E: shane.white@stratatitleconsult.com.au