Using S108 to request to view proxy forms.

Section 108 allows you to inspect a raft of documentation, including, specifically, current insurance contracts and last year’s financial records.

However, subsection (g) gives you access to: “any other record or document in the custody or under the control of the owners corporation.”

So the simple answer to all your questions is, if the Owners Corp or strata manager has the records on file, you are entitled to see them.  

However, there is no law that I am aware of that requires Owners Corps or strata managers to retain voting slips.  Proxy forms are different as they are “live” for a year or for two General Meetings so would have to be retained for at least that period.

Re your questions about what a calculations is called, you make the erroneous assumption that, apart from proxy forms, there is a set process with standardised forms for all Owners Corps.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

In my building, they register the owners entitled to vote then everything is decided by a show of hands because the chairman and secretary generally hold 50 percent of the vote so the show of hands is exactly that – a show.

Strata managers and ECs will often cite privacy as a reason for not showing you records.  99.9 percent of the time this is bulldust.  As a member of the Owners Corp you are entitled to see any document to which the Owners Corp is party or legitimately has on file. However, you may not be allowed to photocopy some of them for legitimate privacy reasons.

This is what section 108 says:

108   Inspection of records of owners corporation

(1) Who may inspect records?
An owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee of a lot, or a person authorised by the owner, mortgagee or covenant chargee, may request the owners corporation to allow an inspection to be carried out under this section.

(2) Form of request
The request must be in writing and be accompanied by the fee prescribed by the regulations.

(3) Items to be made available for inspection
The owners corporation must make the following items available for inspection by the person who makes the request or the person’s agent:

(a)  the strata roll,

(b)  any records or documents required to be kept under Division 2,

(c)  the plans, specifications, certificates, diagrams and other documents required to be delivered to the owners corporation at its first annual general meeting by the original owner or lessor,

(d)  if in its custody or under its control, the certificate of title comprising the common property or, in the case of a leasehold strata scheme, the certificate of title for the lease of the common property,

(e)  the last financial statements prepared,

(f)  every current policy of insurance taken out by the owners corporation and the receipt for the premium last paid for each such policy,

(g)  any other record or document in the custody or under the control of the owners corporation,

(h)  if the duties of the owners corporation under this subsection have been delegated to a strata managing agent, such other records (including records of the strata managing agent) relating to the strata scheme as may be prescribed by the regulations,

(i)  if a caretaker agreement is in force or has been entered into but has not yet commenced, a copy of the caretaker agreement.

 

Maximum penalty: 2 penalty units.

Section 11

(4) Period for which proxy effective
An instrument appointing a proxy has effect for the period commencing with the day on which it takes effect and ending with the later of the first anniversary of that day and the conclusion of the second annual general meeting held after that day, unless it is sooner revoked or a shorter period is provided by the instrument.