Question: For a Council of Owners meeting, can COO members unable to attend the meeting hand proxy votes to the Strata Manager or must they be given to the Chairman?
At a recent Council of Owners meeting proxy votes from COO members unable to attend the meeting were declared invalid as they were given to the Strata Manager. I’ve been advised these proxy votes can can only be given to the Chairman. Is this correct?
Bylaw 8 of the Strata Act Governance bylaws sub section (3) + (4) refers to companies appointing someone to act on their behalf at the meeting, which in fact can be anyone but is silent in regard to individual owners.
Does an individual have the same right to nominate anyone or are they discriminated against in this case or does Section 124 voting by proxy apply?
Answer: Only another Lot owner can be a proxy for a Council Member.
Council Meetings – who is the Proxy ?
The Schedule 1 By-law 8 “Meetings of Council” answers this question.
(3) A member of a council may appoint an owner of a lot, or an individual authorised under the Strata Titles Act 1985 section 136 by a corporation which is an owner of a lot, to act in the member’s place as a member of the council at any meeting of the council.
The explanation being that only another Lot owner can be a proxy for a Council Member.
The proxy for Council Members cannot be the Strata Manager or anyone else who is not an owner within the strata scheme.
There is no requirement that the proxy has to be the Chairman of the Council but another owner can be appointed as a proxy.
A Corporation doesn’t have a physical presence and under section 136 the company is allowed to appoint anyone they choose to represent them.
The Act only permits another owner to represent an owner by Proxy at a Council Meeting.
The Council of Owners is just that, a Council made up from the Owners in the strata scheme.
These requirements are different to a Proxy required for a General Meeting. Section 124 that you refer to deals with Proxies for a General Meeting.
Shane White
Strata Title Consult
E: shane.white@stratatitleconsult.com.au
Hi Jus Warren,
Thank you for your enquiry. I would like to separate your question into two parts just so that i can make my answer very clear.
Firstly – Only Owners can be on the Strata Council to be entitled to vote. Giving the proxy for a Council Meeting to the Strata Manager would not be valid as the Strata Manager [assuming they are not an owner themselves] is not an owner. This would also create a conflict of interest for the strata manager.
Secondly – If the Owner is a Pty Ltd, the Directors are the owners and can appoint a proxy to a real person to represent the Company. [see section 136(2) STA] The appointed person under the proxy nor could anyone else who is a proxy, hand off their obligation as a proxy to someone else who is an owner.
The proxy representative for a company Pty Ltd need not be an owner within the strata scheme.
In fact, the proxy for a company Pty Ltd could be a different person for each meeting.
I trust this makes my answer clear for you.
Can a company representative on the COO give their proxy vote to another COO member or is it only owners that can give proxies to COO members?