If you’ve been spending more time at home due to COVID-19 restrictions, you may have come to realise that you would like to carry out some works to your lot. Once you’ve obtained a by-law to authorise the works, you will need to have it passed by the owners corporation, requiring either an Annual General Meeting (AGM) or an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to be called.
Who can call a meeting?
Section 19 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (SSMA) outlines that a general meeting can be convened by the secretary or the strata committee of an owners corporation. Generally, your strata committee will be happy to call a meeting provided that you agree to pay the costs involved such as postage for meeting notices and charges for your strata manager to attend.
A meeting must also be convened by the owners corporation, not later than 14 days after receipt of a qualified request, even if the first AGM has not yet been held.
What is a qualified request?
A ‘qualified request’ for the purposes of s19 of the SSMA, is a request made by one or more owners within the strata scheme, having a total unit entitlement of at least one-quarter of the aggregate unit entitlements. The effect of this section is that should you hold or obtain the support of lot owners with 25% unit entitlements of the scheme and have them sign a written request requiring that a general meeting be held.
Considerations during the COVID-19 restrictions.
It is important to be aware that the current restrictions and limitations in place with regard to physical gatherings will impact the way that a meeting is held and as such you should consider your scheme’s position in relation to alternative forms of meetings. We have also written an article to explore and explain this further which can be found here.
In summary, if you have a by-law or a motion you would like to take to a vote and a meeting is not currently scheduled, you may ask the secretary or strata committee to call for one, or you can utilise your unit entitlements or gather the support of other owners to obtain the necessary 25% and make a qualified request, requiring a meeting to be convened no later than 14 days following the request being made.
If you have any questions relating to the process of calling a meeting or would like to take the first step in undertaking works to your lot and discuss obtaining a by-law, please contact us.
Article authors: ZS and AB.