QLD: Q&A Meeting Notice Periods and Electronic Meetings

This Q&A article is about body corporate communications and electronic voting during the Coronavirus crisis in QLD.

Table of Contents:

• QUESTION: Owners were denied entry to the budget meeting, Zoom attendance was not provided, and the meeting was not recorded. What options are open to me to redress these civil law breaches?
• QUESTION: Our upcoming AGM will be held via Zoom. A lot owner is unable to attend due to hearing difficulties. Is the AGM required to be held in person?
• QUESTION: A proposal for an EGM was sent to owners requesting they vote. Four owners voted by sending text messages. Are text messages an acceptable way to lodge a vote?
• QUESTION: Can a general meeting be conducted exclusively by electronic means?
• QUESTION: A motion for no online meetings was defeated. If the committee is determined to stop electronic meetings, can they ignore the AGM outcome and carry out the defeated motion?
• QUESTION: Our committee has called an owner’s meeting to discuss levies, finances, etc. Is this a general meeting? To call an owner’s meeting, what notice is required?
• QUESTION: Does our body corporate need to pass a motion by ordinary resolution to allow owners to vote at the AGM without attending? At the last AGM, nobody physically attended but they voted electronically. We incurred fees for not having a quorum to hold the AGM.
• QUESTION: At our AGM voting was conducted on our electronic voting platform. Due to an issue with the recording of the votes, the meeting minutes show passed motions as rejected and visa versa. Where do we stand regarding passed motions?
• QUESTION: If the chair can not attend due to personal family reason, can the committee meeting be postponed?
• QUESTION: When a general meeting is online meeting, can attending owners vote verbally by saying “yes” or “no” on a specific motion? How is that managed without electronic voting?
• QUESTION: In QLD, at least 21 days notice has to be given to call an AGM. Does that include postage time?
• QUESTION: We haven’t had an AGM in over two and a half years. How long can we go without a meeting? Can I call a meeting?
• QUESTION: Over 25% of owners have requested a meeting. If they issue the meeting notice themselves and provide less than the 21 day notice, is this meeting valid?
• QUESTION: Can an EGM meeting notice be served on a weekend in Queensland?

Question: Owners were denied entry to the budget meeting, Zoom attendance was not provided, and the meeting was not recorded. What options are open to me to redress these civil law breaches?

The committee only gave seven day’s notice of our budget meeting. Attending owners were refused entry as the committee claimed they failed to confirm attendance 24 hours before the meeting.

I attempted to attend via Zoom, but my request was ignored. The secretary declared that no recordings of the meeting were permitted.

A recent webinar webinar: Recording strata committee meetings stated it is unlawful to ban recordings (ref 6 minutes).

I have forwarded the video link to the committee and the body corporate manager, requesting they rescind the ban on audio recordings. I’ve been ignored.

Can you please advise if meetings require 21 days’ notice, zoom-in is permitted, and a ban on audio recordings is unlawful?

What options are now available to redress the above civil law breaches?

Answer: I would wait to see the AGM papers and whether the issues you worried about were addressed.

I think the first thing with something like this is to determine whether you are up for what could be a long, drawn-out legal bun fight. If you aren’t up for that, I would avoid the legal demands.

Your issues seem to relate to the budget meeting. The budget needs to be approved by owners at the AGM. Yes, the proposed budget will be set by the committee at that budget meeting, but all you could do from the floor of the meeting would be to observe discussions – not add to them or change them.

I would wait to see the AGM papers and whether the issues you worried about were addressed. If they weren’t, you are entitled to vote against the budget and ask others to do so. If the budget is not passed, the committee will have to do something else. If it is passed, you either accept the will of the people or look to challenge the approval because of your concerns, should those concerns be founded on some lawful, challengeable basis.

Frank Higginson
Hynes Legal
E: frank.higginson@hyneslegal.com.au
P: 07 3193 0500

This post appears in the September 2024 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Question: Our upcoming AGM will be held via Zoom. A lot owner is unable to attend due to hearing difficulties. Is the AGM required to be held in person?

Our upcoming AGM is being held via Zoom. There is one lot owner who is unable to engage in the meeting due to hearing difficulties. Our body corporate manager runs the AGM, does not allow lot owners to speak for more than two minutes, and discourages any discussion regarding the motions on the agenda. Is the AGM required to be held in person?

Answer: Electronic meetings are not the default.

While I will address your specific query about Zoom vs in-person meetings, a few points of clarity first:

• By default, the body corporate manager does not ‘run’ the AGM. The chair should be doing that. While there is scope for the manager to assist (and it makes sense they should) and, in some cases, actually be the chair, that is typically subject to a decision of voters at the meeting.
• There is no express right for discussion on agenda motions, or a duration for that discussion. If it were up to me – and perhaps I am in a minority here – an AGM would be over in 10 minutes, as it is really only a forum for people to say ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘abstain’. Discussion should happen beforehand.

Now to your specific query: the decision to conduct a meeting ‘electronically’ (essentially what Zoom is) is made by ordinary resolution. In other words, electronic meetings are not the default. I am going to assume your body corporate has resolved to hold meetings electronically, and if so, you or the other owner could submit a motion requesting meetings not be held electronically. That, too, would occur by ordinary resolution. If the AGM papers have already been issued for this meeting, it is too late to do that. Importantly, remember that if everyone else is happy with electronic meetings, they will have the numbers, and that motion will fail.

A practical question (and no disrespect is meant by this): wouldn’t the owner’s hearing difficulties be an issue whether it was a Zoom meeting or not? In other words, I am unclear why this owner also wouldn’t have challenges participating in an in-person meeting. While I am sympathetic to the owner’s situation, they also have a responsibility as an owner to do what they can to ensure they cast their vote. For example, they can cast a paper vote beforehand or seek assistance by having someone attend the meeting with them.

I also very much see the owner side of this coin: it is essential that all owners have a chance to participate in the AGM, and that, to me, means that efforts should still be made to assist the other owner to participate. It would be reasonable for the body corporate to do that. If an AGM outcome is ever challenged, the inability of that owner to properly participate may (I stress may) be a factor for the adjudicator to consider.

This is general information only and not legal advice.

Chris Irons
Strata Solve
E: chris@stratasolve.com.au
P: 0419 805 898

This post appears in the August 2024 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Question: A proposal for an EGM was sent to owners requesting they vote. Four owners voted by sending text messages. Are text messages an acceptable way to lodge a vote?

Answer: If you make a submission using text messages, I think it is quite likely it will be rejected.

Body corporate legislation isn’t very good at handling questions about modern technology. If you remember that the legislation was mostly written over a decade before the introduction of the iPhone, you can begin to understand why.

An update to version 2.0 of the Act is required, but until then we will get questions like this.

The question doesn’t say, but it sounds like a group of owners want to requisition an EGM.

If that’s the case, the submission request must include the signatures of at least 25 per cent of lot owners.

Does a text message consenting to the proposal constitute a signature? Some people might say that a text is sufficient to make clear the intention of the owner, but equally, they are a standard method of informal, non-binding contact. Here, you are talking about making a formal proposition to the body corporate, and the Act is clear in saying that signatures are required. As it is a formal proposal, you should follow the formal lines. If you make a submission using text messages, I think it is quite likely it will be rejected. You could challenge that decision, but you may be on shaky ground.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution here, which is to use an online signing tool like Docusign to complete your submission. You can create a document that can be sent to multiple people who can respond via their device. You get the convenience of doing things remotely while meeting the legislative requirements. Surely, it is easier to do things this way than enter a protected debate over the level of consent a text confers.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #671.

Question: Can a general meeting be conducted exclusively by electronic means?

Answer: During the COVID 19 pandemic, there was legislation that permitted a body corporate to hold a general meeting solely by electronic means, such as Zoom. However, the right to do so expired on 30 April 2022.

This means that any meeting to be held solely by electronic means is in breach of legislation. If there is an application made to the Commissioner’s office, then an interim order could be made to prevent resolutions from being implemented or final orders being made to invalidate the meeting.

We suspect that electronic only meetings are being called innocently without knowing the COVID 19 exemption has expired or to save time and money, but others may be called to deny owners a voice. However, the motivation is irrelevant as the meeting has been unlawfully called.

A committee can allow electronic participation of a general meeting. However, owners are still required to be able to attend a physical location within 15 km of the scheme (s.92 of the Standard Module). Interestingly, we are seeing more meetings taking place in more comfortable and neutral nearby locations.

Peter Hunt
Mathews Hunt Legal
E: peter.hunt@mathewshuntlegal.com.au

This post appears in the September 2023 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Question: A motion for no online meetings was defeated. If the committee is determined to stop electronic meetings, can they ignore the AGM outcome and carry out the defeated motion?

A motion with ordinary resolution was proposed during the AGM to advocate discontinuing remote online participation in committee meetings. The motion opted, instead, for exclusively on-site gatherings. The vote on this motion, however, resulted in an equal number of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ votes and was therefore defeated.

Given this context, the committee intends to discuss this outcome in their next committee meeting. Could they decide to change the outcome or ignore the AGM outcome to carry out the defeated motion?

Answer: The committee cannot override the decision of the body corporate.

The committee cannot override the decision of the body corporate. If there has been a vote at a general meeting to approve electronic voting and attendance, that needs to be respected.

As a manager, I think it is nonsense that there even has to be a vote. Owners should be able to attend online automatically. Ultimately, body corporates should want to encourage the participation of owners and as owners live all over Australia and the world, and we have what is now commonplace technology to facilitate that, this should be encouraged. Still, the legislation is what it is, so there has to be a vote.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #660.

Question: Our committee has called an owner’s meeting to discuss levies, finances, etc. Is this a general meeting? To call an owner’s meeting, what notice is required?

An owner’s meeting has been called by a body corporate committee member. They have given only three days’ notice for the meeting.

Topics on the agenda are general, including financial matters, strata levies, the balance of funds, admin and sinking fund accounts and the investing of funds.

Would this be a “general” meeting or an informal, casual meeting? What notice is required for this meeting? What is the process?

Answer: There’s nothing wrong with informal meetings, provided people understand what they are.

This meeting is most likely an informal meeting.

As such, no decisions of the body corporate can be made at the meeting, although it may be useful to owners as a forum for information distribution.

The legislation clearly sets out the rules around the requirements for calling meetings. For general meetings, each lot owner has to be given written notice at least 21 days before the meeting.

The committee must provide notice at least seven days before committee meetings or at least two days if all voting members agree in writing or at the last meeting.

At a push, this meeting could be a valid committee meeting, although it doesn’t really sound like it. It is more likely an informal meeting, but you would have to see the notice to confirm.

There is nothing wrong with informal meetings, provided people understand what they are. Getting owners together and discussing how your scheme works is one method of communication. It may help some schemes and owners understand the considerations in running the body corporate. Providing an agenda for the meeting may confuse things a little if it makes people think the meeting is official, but it can also help give a bit of direction to the conversation so I can understand why people would do this.

If people start thinking the meeting is a formal meeting and any consensus achieved from it is now a decision of the body corporate, that’s where things can go wrong. The onus of communicating this should sit with the person who has called the meeting, although sometimes this isn’t done or the message doesn’t get across. When that happens, it tends to lead to confusion and anger.

If you have concerns, I suggest contacting the person who called the meeting to discuss these points. Otherwise, attend the meeting and speak on these issues.

See the BCCM website for more details on calling meetings: Queensland Government: General meetings

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #649.

Question: Does our body corporate need to pass a motion by ordinary resolution to allow owners to vote at the AGM without attending? At the last AGM, nobody physically attended but they voted electronically. We incurred fees for not having a quorum to hold the AGM.

Answer: The regulation module allows for electronic voting if the body corporate has passed an ordinary resolution to allow that to take place.

The regulation module allows for electronic voting if the body corporate has passed an ordinary resolution to allow that to take place. It also allows for the body corporate to decide if those votes count towards the quorum – again by passing a resolution to do so.

It sounds like the latter motion may not have been previously approved (or there were insufficient votes cast) which then required an adjourned meeting to take place.

Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753

This post appears in Strata News #631.

Question: At our AGM voting was conducted on our electronic voting platform. Due to an issue with the recording of the votes, the meeting minutes show passed motions as rejected and visa versa. Where do we stand regarding passed motions?

At our AGM, there were several motions put forward by the committee with votes to be submitted on our electronic voting platform. The meeting was held at Strata Manager’s Offices. Committee members noted and recorded the votes for each motion put forward.

The strata manager usually drafts the minutes and send out a draft copy to the committee for approval, however, on this occasion, due to time constraints a draft copy wasn’t provided.

The minutes did not reflect the outcomes of the AGM. Some motions that were passed were now recorded as being rejected and vice versa.

The strata manager states that when he went back to check the online voting after the meeting, the votes were different to what was brought to the meeting.

Where do we stand in regard to what was passed at the meeting versus the minutes? What actions should we take to rectify this as we will not be able to accept the minutes at our next AGM as being true and correct?

Answer: You could consider calling a new general meeting to confirm votes or rescind the motions that have passed and pass new ones. It would be a complicated meeting, but it may be necessary if you feel that the minutes that have been issued are incorrect.

Sometimes meetings go wrong and it can cause a lot of confusion when they do.

In this case, I think you need to ask whether the final tally of votes as per the minutes issued is correct. There should be records of all voting papers received and hopefully an accurate count of votes received from the floor – so you should be able to double check.

If that happens, are you happy that the votes in the minutes have been recorded as the owners intended? Have the correct opinions of the body corporate been established?

If the answer is yes, then maybe that is sufficient for owners and the matter can just end there. Perhaps a letter could be sent to all owners to explain the situation. When voting on the minutes at the next meeting you could ask for some notes to be added about how the last minutes were issued.

If the answer is no, then there are a number of different pathways that could be followed. For starters, you could consider calling a new general meeting to confirm votes or rescind the motions that have passed and pass new ones. It would be a complicated meeting, but it may be necessary if you feel that the minutes that have been issued are incorrect.

If necessary, you could raise the matter with the Commissioner’s office to see what they say. This might depend on the import of the meeting and the mistakes made. The bigger the implications of the meeting the more you should consider this step.

You probably also want to look at your relationship with your body corporate manager and ask whether you are happy with the responses they have provided. Mistakes do happen no matter how hard you try, but the real question for managers is how they react when they realise there has been a mistake. Usually, the best thing to do is declare what has happened, apologise and rectify where possible.

Here, it seems, there is some confusion with how the manager has communicated the issue to the body corporate – or at least the Committee. I’m not really sure about the idea that time constraints prevented the minutes being sent to the Committee for a review before issuing as there is a 21 day period in which these can be sent out. Body Corporate managers do tend to be time poor, but still they have a responsibility for getting the documentation correct. 21 days is sufficient time to produce minutes and have them verified. It seems a bit odd they would realise the votes declared at the meeting were wrong, but then not advise this to the Committee at least. The result is that you don’t feel that the matter has been handled in a transparent way and so you are questioning the whole process. That’s reasonable, and it is fair to ask why you have been put in that position.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #592.

Question: If the chair can not attend due to personal family reason, can the committee meeting be postponed?

Answer: Provided a majority of the Committee were in agreement, then a committee meeting can be postponed.

Provided a majority of the Committee were in agreement, then a committee meeting can be postponed.

Is it worth postponing because of one individual member? It may depend on how critical that member was to the meeting, but there is no reason for this. If they want, the absent member can give a proxy to cover their absence.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #584.

Question: When a general meeting is an online meeting, can attending owners vote verbally by saying “yes” or “no” on a specific motion? How is that managed without electronic voting?

When a general meeting is an online meeting, can attending owners vote verbally by saying “yes” or “no” on a specific motion? Or is it possible to show hands? At a previous meeting online, the chair couldn’t have counted votes because owners called “yes” or “no” simultaneously. How can we deal with a situation like that? We do not have electronic voting available.

Answer: It is up to the Chair of the meeting to establish meeting procedures and how people should indicate their vote.

Running an online meeting can take a bit of getting used to, but generally, it is not too difficult to take in the votes. Ultimately it is up to the Chair of the meeting to establish meeting procedures and how people should indicate their vote. This will vary from meeting to meeting depending on how many people are attending online and in-person and, probably, the contentiousness of the issues.

The meeting managers need to direct people to indicate clearly how they are voting and record accordingly. Establish clear rules and it is not too different from having everyone in the room provided you manage it well.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #573.

Question: In QLD, at least 21 days notice has to be given to call an AGM. Does that include postage time?

Answer: Yes, 21 days is the minimum time period for a general meeting and this includes postage time.

Yes, 21 days is the minimum time period for a general meeting and this includes postage time.

Specifically, the standard regulation states:

A general meeting must be held at least 21 days after notice of the meeting is given to the owners of lots.

That’s it. No further restriction is noted.

The date of issue i.e. the date the notice is sent by post/email is usually taken to be the first of these 21 days.

Other states have different regulations, such as a requirement that a meeting must notice must allow 14 working days, but that is other states.

One recent trend you may have seen among body corporate companies is that they set their own notice periods as longer than this – 24 or 28 days. This has been in response to the inconsistencies of Australia Post since Covid started – many managers were finding that if sending mail by post and receiving votes the same way, 21 days was insufficient and they have lengthened the time to allow for this. Still, if it came down to it, these are just voluntary restrictions and 21 days is the requirement.

My recommendation would be that owners take the postal service out of the equation altogether and opt to receive your notices by email. Aside from the speed, it is more accurate for delivery and records are more exactly kept on where the mail was delivered and things like bounce backs. I understand some owners like to receive a paper copy of the AGM notice, particularly if they have to print it, but you can ask for this notice to be posted and emailed in that instance.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #547.

Question: We haven’t had an AGM in over two and a half years. How long can we go without a meeting? Can I call a meeting?

We haven’t had an AGM in over two and a half years. How long can we go without a meeting? There has been no communication with lot owners. I’m on the committee and the only update I have had was a request to approve an extension until August last year. I have emailed the body corporate manager twice this week asking when the AGM will be held with no response.

The committee don’t hold meetings, so to my knowledge, there has been no verification of our funds etc. Can I, as a lot owner/committee member, ask the committee/chairperson/secretary, to call the AGM or ask to see the Body Corporate financial records?

Answer: The body corporate is required to hold its AGM every year within 3 months of its end of the financial year.

The body corporate is required to hold its AGM every year within 3 months of its end of financial year as section 83 of the Standard Module relevantly provides:

An annual general meeting, other than the first annual general meeting, must be called and held within 3 months after the end of each of the community titles scheme’s financial years.

A lot owner and committee has various rights to ask for body corporate records which must be provided. If an AGM cannot be arranged through the committee/body corporate manager an application can be made to the Commissioner’s Office appointing an administrator to hold one on the body corporate’s behalf. I suspect that this should be able to be resolved at the committee level though by asking the body corporate manager to arrange an AGM to be called.

Todd Garsden
Mahoneys
E: tgarsden@mahoneys.com.au
P: 07 3007 3753

This post appears in the October 2021 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine.

Question: Over 25% of owners have requested a meeting. If they issue the meeting notice themselves and provide less than the 21 day notice, is this meeting valid?

A group of owners in our body corporate wants to call a meeting using the part of the legislation that requires one to be called if 25 per cent of owners request one be held. They want to issue the notice for this meeting themselves and provide less than the 21 day notice period. Is this meeting valid? Can additional motions be added to the meeting notice?

Answer: A meeting is only valid if it is validly called.

A meeting is only valid if it is validly called.

In this case, if owners are requesting an extraordinary general meeting the notice requesting the meeting must be given to the body corporate secretary or, in the secretary’s absence, the chairperson. This can be done via the body corporate manager.

The request must include:

• signatures of at least 25 per cent of lot owners or their representatives.
  motions the owners want to have decided at the meeting.
• And, the person receiving the notice must call the meeting within 14 days of receiving the notice.

Then, each lot owner has to be given written notice of the meeting at least 21 days before the meeting. This must include:

• the agenda
• a proxy form
• a company nominee form, if the owner is a company
• a voting paper for all open motions
• for all motions decided by secret ballot
• a secret voting paper
• an envelope marked ‘secret voting paper’
• a separate particulars tab or envelope
• any explanatory schedule or material required.

The question seems to suggest that the owners who make up the 25 per cent or more group that have triggered the meeting have then arranged their own meeting outside of the criteria set out above. In that case the likelihood is that the meeting would not have been valid.

The second question is whether additional motions can be added to the meeting. There is no reason why not. If a body corporate manager/secretary received the notice they would ordinarily advise the committee of this and the requirement to call a meeting and it is an opportunity consider other motions relating to the issue or to deal with other plan matters.

For more info see the government website on calling meetings: Queensland Government: Calling an extraordinary general meeting.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #483.

Question: Can an EGM meeting notice be served on a weekend in Queensland?

Answer: The legislation requires that a general meeting must be held 21 days after the meeting notice is given to lot owners. There is no reference to this being working days so provided the notice was legally served, probably by email or hand delivery if on Saturday or Sunday, serving a notice on the weekend is feasible.

William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924

This post appears in Strata News #475.

Have a question about communications and electronic voting in a QLD body corporate or something to add to the article? Leave a comment below.

Read next:

• QLD: Q&A Meeting Notice Periods and Electronic Meetings

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