Question: Owners requisitioned an EGM after the council failed to call one in time. Do owners distribute the meeting documents directly or via the strata manager?
Our council of owners has consisted of three members for about 10 years, but it’s really only two people. The third person never has a say and ends up resigning, so our council runs with two out of three members until the next AGM, sometimes for 10 months of the year.
These two owners, through owning multiple units, outvote us on everything. Recently, one of the two council members sold one of his units, so we finally have the numbers in our favour.
In July, 70% of the owners signed a request for an EGM specifically to vote on changing the council from three members to five. The council failed to call the EGM within the prescribed 21 days.
Can the owners who made the request now call the EGM, as long as it’s within three months of the original request?
We’ve prepared all the documents required for the meeting and subsequent vote. Do we send these documents to the strata management company to distribute to all owners, or do we distribute them to all owners ourselves?
Answer: The strata manager should distribute, but the notice and documents should first be reviewed to ensure compliance with the Act.
Section 128 of the Strata Titles Act 1985 (the Act) deals with Extraordinary General Meetings.
Under section 128(2)(b), the council must convene an EGM following a written request from owners who together hold at least 25% of the total unit entitlements in the scheme.
If the council does not take steps to convene the meeting within 21 days, section 128(3) allows the requesting owners, or any of them holding more than 50% of the total unit entitlements, to convene the EGM themselves. The meeting must be held within three months of the original request and, as far as practicable, convened in the same manner as a meeting convened by the council.
Accordingly, provided the owners who made the request represent more than 50% of the scheme’s total unit entitlements, you should be able to proceed with convening the EGM yourselves. It is important to distinguish between the number of owners who have signed the request and their aggregate unit entitlements. The Act refers to unit entitlements, so the owners should confirm that the relevant statutory thresholds are satisfied based on the scheme’s unit entitlement schedule.
In terms of distribution, I suggest providing the proposed notice and supporting documents to the strata management company and asking that they distribute these to all owners on behalf of the owners convening the meeting. This will ensure the current ownership and contact records are used.
I recommend that you provide the proposed notice and all supporting documentation to the strata manager for review before distribution, particularly to ensure that the notice, motions and proposed changes to the council composition comply with the requirements of the Act.
Please also note that section 129 requires at least 14 days’ notice of the general meeting to be given to all owners and first mortgagees and sets out the information that must be included in the notice.
This post appears in the October 2026 edition of The WA Strata Magazine.
Rick Blampey SVN Perth E: rblampey@svn.com.au P: 08 9427 7955
