For new strata owners, there is often a bit of mystery as to what happens in a strata committee meeting, who's on the strata committee and what the rules are relating to strata committee meetings and decisions. In this blog post I'm highlighting 2 key areas of strata legislation:
1) How a strata meeting gets called, or "convened"
2) What are the three office bearers of any strata committe and their roles:
a) The Chairman
b) The Secretary
c) The Treasurer
The following includes extracts of sections of the Strata Scheme’s Management Act 2015 – noted in italics to suit, with “S” in front of the Section No in that legislation.
When it comes to calling a meeting, the NSW strata law references covening strata committees like this:
S39 Convening meetings
(1) The secretary of the owners corporation may convene a meeting of the strata committee at any time.
(2) The secretary of the owners corporation, or any other member of the strata committee, must convene a meeting of the committee if requested to do so by at least one-third of the members of the committee.
(3) The meeting must be held--
(a) in the case of a large strata scheme, not later than 28 days after the request is made, or
(b) in the case of any other strata scheme, not later than 14 days after the request is made.
Sections 42, 43 and 44 of the NSW strata legislation set out the roles of the Office Bearers of the committee. Every strata committee needs at least these three roles, all other members of the committee are simply non-office bearing committee members.
S42 Functions of chairperson of owners corporation
The functions of the chairperson of an owners corporation include the following--
(a) to preside at meetings of the owners corporation and the strata committee of the owners corporation,
(b) to make determinations as to quorums and procedural matters at meetings of the owners corporation and the strata committee of the owners corporation.
S43 Functions of secretary of owners corporation
The functions of a secretary of an owners corporation include the following--
(a) to prepare and distribute minutes of meetings of the owners corporation and submit a motion for confirmation of the minutes of any meeting of the owners corporation at the next such meeting,
(b) to give on behalf of the owners corporation and the strata committee of the owners corporation notices required to be given under this Act,
(c) to maintain the strata roll,
(d) to enable the inspection of documents on behalf of the owners corporation in accordance with this Act,
(e) to answer communications addressed to the owners corporation,
(f) to convene meetings of the strata committee and (apart from its first annual general meeting) of the owners corporation,
(g) to attend to matters of an administrative or secretarial nature in connection with the exercise of functions by the owners corporation or the strata committee of the owners corporation,
(h) any other functions conferred on the secretary under any other Act or law.
S44 Functions of treasurer of owners corporation
(1) The functions of a treasurer of an owners corporation include the following--
(a) to notify owners of any contributions levied in accordance with this Act,
(b) to receive, acknowledge, bank and account for any money paid to the owners corporation,
(c) to prepare any strata information certificate,
(d) to keep the accounting records and prepare the financial statements.
(2) Delegation by treasurer of functions The treasurer of an owners corporation may delegate the exercise of any of the treasurer's functions (other than this power of delegation) to another member of the strata committee of the owners corporation if--
(a) the delegation is specifically approved by the strata committee, and
(b) the strata committee specifically approves of the function being delegated to that member, and
(c) the delegation is subject to any limitations as to time or otherwise that the strata committee requires.
(3) While a delegate is acting in accordance with the terms of the delegation, the delegate is taken to be the treasurer of the owners corporation.
(4) Strata committee may require treasurer to exercise functions jointly The strata committee of an owners corporation may, by a written notice given to the treasurer of the owners corporation, order the treasurer not to exercise any of the treasurer's functions that are specified in the notice unless the treasurer does so jointly with another person so specified.
As you can see the legislation is easy and clear to understand. With this information, you can be better prepared for what to expect of your strata committee - how strata meetings are convened, and what the key roles of the strata committee are.