From the Forum: Facts and fictions in meeting minutes

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Imagine you’ve had your AGM, there were a couple of contentious issues, a by-law here and there, a few raised voices, maybe, but eventually it was all resolved and everyone went back to their corners.

Then the minutes come out from the strata manager and they bear very little resemblance to what was discussed and decided.

One by-law isn’t there at all and an amendment on a decision to extend the strata manager contract by only three months isn’t even referred to (hmm… that explains the fishy smell).

So what do your secretary and chair do? That’s the question asked by a Flatchatter this week: do they have to wait another year until the next AGM to amend the minutes?

Okay, first of all, the answer to that is no.  The minutes, as issued, are plainly wrong.  They have not accurately reflected the discussions and decisions made at the meeting, so they are (in our humble opinion) invalid.

And this takes us into a whole other area in the relationship between a strata manager and their clients – who’s the boss?

It may feel like the strata manager is in charge of your scheme but strata law clearly states (in NSW, at least) that even where the owners corp or the committee has decided to delegate the roles of chair, secretary or treasurer, or any of their functions, they can take them back at any point.

The chair and secretary don’t stop being office-bearers just because they have paid someone to look after the nuts and bolts of their role. If they want to stick their oars in, and take back control, they have the full backing of the law to do so.

So our advice in this case has been to rewrite the minutes to reflect the decisions made, send them to the strata manager and ask him or her to re-issue them with an explanatory note.

Now, if anyone decides they are still wrong, or they don’t like what’s in them, they can still challenge them by calling for an Extraordinary General Meeting, filing a complaint at Fair Trading and NCAT, or waiting until the next AGM when the minutes have to be approved.

But you can’t jam up the management of a strata scheme by issuing minutes that fail, either by accident or design, to record legitimate decisions.  Just fix them, reissue them and move on.  You’ll find the original question HERE.

Elsewhere on the Forum, it seems to be open season on strata managers and other professionals …

  • Is it OK to criticise strata managers and other service providers on a closed Facebook group. That’s HERE.
  • How can we approve a strata management agreement when the owners haven’t been allowed to see it? That’s HERE.
  • How can we compel our committee to send out information? That’s HERE.

There’s a stack of other questions and answers, some new, many updated with new comments, on the Forum.  Check it out and don’t forget to “watch” or “subscribe” to make sure you’re kept up to date with the latest contributions.

 

 

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