Meeting Notices and Minutes – Back to Basics

Throughout the year, Lot owners can be issued with several Body Corporate meeting notices. These notices could include information related to Committee Meetings, voting outside of committee meetings (known as flying minutes), Extraordinary General Meetings (EGM) and the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Current legislation specifies these notices must be issued within certain timeframes, which range from 7 – 21 days (excluding postage) from the date of the meeting. This timing ensures that Lot owners and Committee Members have enough time to consider the contents of the notice to make informed decisions.

In this article we cover the basics of notices and minutes including the specific timeframes for issue of the different notice types so that you can be certain all decisions made are valid and the procedural matters cannot be disputed.

The current legislative time frames are as follows;

• General Meetings, i.e. an EGM or AGM – 21 days clear notice, therefore a minimum of 28 days’ notice is recommended to allow for postage; and
• Committee Meetings and Flying Minutes – 7 days clear notice, therefore, a minimum of 14 days’ notice is recommended.

The information in the AGM notice is essential to Lot owners, as it contains details about Body Corporate levies for the next financial year. It also contains important details about the insurance policy held by the body corporate, statement of income and expenditure, as well as any major projects to be approved, such as painting, and the costs and scope of works involved.

Committee meeting notices and flying minutes are sent to Committee members and all Lot owners (except when registered under the Commercial Module) to ensure that Lot owners are given the opportunity to attend Committee Meetings and so that any decisions of the Committee are notified to Lot owners.

The Legislation also sets out timeframes for the distribution of minutes from meetings, being that a copy of the minutes must be given to each owner of a lot within 21 days after the meeting. This applies for all types of meetings. These minutes must be a full and accurate record of that meeting. This means that;

For General Meetings;

(a) the date, time and place of the meeting;

(b) the names of persons present and details of the capacity in which they attended the meeting;

(c) details of proxies tabled;

(d) the words of each motion voted on;

(e) for each motion voted on—

(i) the number of votes for and against the motion; and

(ii) the number of abstentions from voting on the motion;

(f) if a committee member is elected at the meeting—the number of votes cast for each candidate;

(g) the time the meeting closed;

(h) the secretary’s name and contact address.

For Committee Meetings;

(a) the date, time and place of the meeting;

(b) the names of persons present and details of the capacity in which they attended the meeting;

(c) details of proxies tabled;

(d) for each motion voted on at the meeting—

(i) the words of the motion; and

(ii) the number of votes for and against the motion;

(e) details of correspondence, reports, notices or other documents tabled;

(f) the time the meeting closed;

(g) details of the next scheduled meeting;

(h) the secretary’s name and contact address.

As you can see there are specific and basic requirements to validly provide notice of meetings, record the decisions made and notify owners of these decisions. If you would like to know more about any of these requirements, please leave a comment below and we will get back to you.

This article was contributed by Teagan Gardner, Senior Strata Community Manager – Archers the Strata Professionals