Due to the continuing impact of COVID-19 on strata and community schemes, the Government has passed the Strata Schemes Management Amendment (COVID-19) Regulation (No 2) 2020 and the Community Land Management Amendment (COVID-19) Regulation (No 2) 2020
to extend temporary changes to legislation until 13 May 2021.
The temporary changes to legislation are section 271A of Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, clauses 69 to 74 of the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016, section 122A of the Community Lands Management Act 1989 and clauses 21 to 29 of the Community Land Management Regulation 2018.
The effect of the extension of the temporary changes on strata and community schemes are as follows:
- Electronic voting – strata and community schemes can continue to vote and hold meetings electronically. This includes strata schemes that have not yet passed a resolution to allow electronic meetings and voting. The scheme’s secretary must take reasonable steps to ensure all owners can participate in and vote at meetings.
- Affixing the common seal – strata and community scheme can continue to sign and witness documents electronically instead of physically affixing the scheme’s seal on documents. The scheme’s representatives who sign and witness the documents will need to provide additional details to confirm their identity and relationship to the scheme. This includes the name of each signatory and witness and their relationship to the scheme.
- Extended time period to determine how to reimburse money transferred from one fund to another – strata and community scheme will continue to have six months to determine a levy to reimburse money borrowed from its administrative fund or capital works fund.
- Extended time period for new schemes to hold first annual general meeting – new strata schemes will continue to have six months after the initial period ends to hold its first annual general meeting.
More information on these changes is available on the Fair Trading NSW website: fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/resource-library/publications/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-strata-guidelines