What is the proper way to appoint a strata committee?
Posted 07 November 2024
Category:
Any owner or person entitled to vote at a general meeting may nominate a person for election as a member of the strata committee. However, the nominee must accept the nomination before the vote occurs, or they will not be included as a candidate for nomination.
From 11 December 2023, there have been changes to the correct nomination procedures to be followed.
The steps involved in appointing a strata committee include:
1. The written notice of an annual general meeting (or any other general meeting) must include the name of nominees already received and call for nomination for members for the strata committee. For more details on this please refer to FAQ 10.
2. At a meeting of an owners corporation at which the strata committee is to be elected, the chairperson must—
announce the names of the candidates already nominated in writing for election to the strata committee, and
call for any oral nominations of candidates eligible for election to the strata committee.
NOTE: Slightly different rules apply for co-owners. For co-owned lots, the co-owner of a lot can nominate one person for election to the strata committee.
For ease of reference, please see below table setting out the nomination rules for each circumstance:
| Ownership |
Nomination Rules |
| When you co-own one lot in the same scheme |
1. You can’t nominate yourself and your co-owner can’t nominate you if they are also a candidate for election.
2. You can nominate another person, who is a lot owner or the company nominee of a company lot owner. You can nominate another person, who is not a lot owner, but otherwise eligible to serve on the strata committee, if you are not a candidate for election.
3. Only one co-owner (including a company nominee of a co-owner) of the same lot may be a member of a strata committee at the same time. |
| Where you co-own multiple lots in the same scheme |
1. You can make one nomination for each lot.
2. You can nominate a different person for each lot However:
(a) you cannot nominate a non-owner if you are a candidate for election. If you nominate someone else for all of your lots and don’t stand yourself, this won’t apply; and:
(b) whether this permits co-owners of a lot to both serve on the strata committee at the same time, depends on how one interprets sections 31(4) & (5) of the SSMA. Our view is that the most probable interpretation by the Court or Tribunal, where the issue considered, would be that:
i. Other owners would nominate each of you, using some of their nominations per lot owned.
ii. You can’t nominate yourself but could use your nominations per lot to nominate other persons, perhaps returning the favor for the other owners who nominated you. |
3. After the chairperson declares that nominations have closed, the owners corporation is to decide the number of members of the strata committee.
4. If the number of candidates—
is the same as, or fewer than, the number of members of the strata committee decided on—those candidates are to be declared by the chairperson to be, and are taken to have been, elected as the strata committee, or
is greater than the number so decided on—a ballot is to be held.
5. If a ballot for membership of the strata committee of an owners corporation is required, the person presiding at the meeting of the owners corporation must—
- announce to the meeting the name of each candidate, and
- provide each person present and entitled to vote at the meeting with a blank ballot paper for each vote the person is entitled to cast.
- the voting slip provides for each owner to nominate one person for each committee position (e.g. if the owners corporation chose to set the committee at 5 members, then each owner can vote for 5 nominees). The slip must be signed to be valid and specify their capacity (e.g. owner of lot “X” and if by a proxy, also specify that capacity of the proxy giver).
6. The ballot for election of the strata committee can be conducted by electronic means while participating in the meeting. It cannot be done by pre-meeting electronic voting.
Please see the below extract of a draft motion relating to nomination:
This is an extract from our Strata Committee Manual.
To access more information, please fill in the below form to download our Strata Committee Manual for free.
