On 30 April 2020 sections 3 and 111 of the Unit Titles Legislation Amendment Act 2020 commenced (the remaining provisions of the Unit Titles Legislation Amendment Act 2020 will commence on 1 November 2020) and the Unit Titles (Management) Amendment Regulation 2020 (No 1) commenced.
The combined effect of the above is that an owners corporation and the executive committee of an owners corporation are exempt from any requirement in the Unit Titles (Management) Act, schedule 2 or schedule 3, that requires members of the owners corporation or the executive committee to be physically present at a meeting of the owners corporation or executive committee.
This amendment applies to an owners corporation and the executive committee of an owners corporation during the public health emergency declaration period. The public health emergency declaration period ends on the day the Public Health (Emergency) Declaration 2020 (No 1) ends.
Presently, the Public Health (Emergency) Declaration 2020 (No 1) is scheduled to end on 7 July 2020 (although it could be extended by the ACT Government).
This deadline creates a problem as, currently, from 7 July 2020 (until at least 1 November 2020), members of the owners corporation or the executive committee will need to be physically present at a meeting of the owners corporation or executive committee.
The requirement of being physically present during meetings will make compliance with social distancing rules difficult. Therefore, the ACT Government needs to either relax the social distancing rules or extend the public health emergency declaration period otherwise units plan owners in the ACT will find themselves in breach of the law (in one form or the other).
We understand that SCA (ACT) will shortly make representations to the ACT Government to extend the public health emergency declaration period.