VIC: Q&A Lot owner access to owners corporation records and information

This VIC article is about lot owner access to owners corporation records and information.

Table of Contents:

• QUESTION: I asked my strata company to share the owner’s register. They sent me a list of owners without any email or mobile numbers. Are they required to disclose contact details or is this a breach of privacy?
• QUESTION: A resident lot owner in our small strata scheme does not attend the AGM but, after a few days, sends an abrupt email demanding an ‘Overview of the Meeting’. As secretary/treasurer of our owners corporation, am I obliged to send this, or should they wait for the meeting minutes?
• QUESTION: Major decisions have been made in our building. As a lot owner who is not on the committee, what information should be passed on to owners and when?

Question: I asked my strata company to share the owner’s register. They sent me a list of owners without any email or mobile numbers. Are they required to disclose contact details or is this a breach of privacy?

Answer: There are two schools of thought.

Update 29 Oct 2024: VIC Owners Corporations Case law update: The Saint-John Decision. Lot owners have a right to emails and phone numbers! by Phillip Leaman, Tisher Liner FC Law.

Question: A resident lot owner in our small strata scheme does not attend the AGM but, after a few days, sends an abrupt email demanding an ‘Overview of the Meeting’. As secretary/treasurer of our owners corporation, am I obliged to send this, or should they wait for the meeting minutes?

Answer: Given they chose not to attend (either in person or via proxy), you should feel comfortable advising them that they can wait to receive the minutes of the meeting like all other owners who didn’t attend.

You have no obligation to send an ‘Overview of the Meeting’, as the meeting’s minutes are exactly that!

As a courtesy, you may wish to provide the owner with a summary of the more material outcomes of the meeting (the budget, any special or unanimous resolutions, contentious agenda items, etc).

If it isn’t the first time the owner has done this, I would remind them that they had the opportunity to appoint a proxy for the meeting, and that person could have relayed an ‘overview’ to them directly. Given they chose not to attend (either in person or via proxy), you should feel comfortable advising them that they can wait to receive the minutes of the meeting like all other owners who didn’t attend.

Callum Wilson
The Strata Shepherd
E: info@thestratashepherd.com.au
P: 0431 925 908

This post appears in Strata News #653.

Question: Major decisions have been made in our building. As a lot owner who is not on the committee, what information should be passed on to owners and when?

I am not part of the committee and missed the last AGM (more than 15 months ago) due to work commitments. Since then, I have received no information about the property despite several major special levies and improvement works. These were not part of the minutes from the AGM.

When I questioned this, I was told I’d given up my right to information when I didn’t attend the meeting. I thought I’d given up the right to vote, not the right to information.

I only found out we’d changed owners corporation managers when I received the new levy notice. What is the committee’s responsibility to keep owners informed of major decisions?

We paid a special levy to get the gate fixed. However, the committee used the money to repair a roof. I was not informed of this decision to change the use of the funds until I noticed the unfixed gate and tried to find out where the money for the ‘special levy’ went.

Answer: An owner still has the right to information that forms part of the records of the owners corporation even if they do not attend the Annual General Meeting.

Firstly, the committee have the delegated authority to pass an ordinary resolution to strike an extraordinary fee/special levy for the repair of the gate unless the cost of the repair is more than double the annual fees of the owners corporation. This would require a special resolution requiring 75% of lot owners to agree to the repair for the resolution to pass. If the special resolution is voted on at a meeting or by ballot, an interim special resolution can be passed where at least 50% of the votes for all lots affect by the owners corporation are in favour and not more than 25% of the votes are opposed. The interim special resolution becomes a special resolution 29 days after the motion was passed unless lot owners who hold more than 25% of the total votes for the lots affected by the owners corporation petition the secretary against the resolution.

If the cost of the repairs requires an ordinary resolution, the committee can revoke the resolution for the gate repair and resolve to strike the special levy for the roof repair. To do this, they must officially revoke the original resolution to strike the special levy for the gate repair and pass a new motion to strike the levy for the roof repair. They should then inform all owners of the committee’s decision to:

1. Revoke the resolution for the gate repair and striking of the special levy to fund this repair and:
2. The committee have resolved to engage a contractor to repair the roof and further resolved to pass an ordinary resolution to strike a special levy to all owners to fund the project.

A diligent and transparent committee should inform owners as to why the committee decided to get the roof repaired instead of the gate repaired.

An owner still has the right to information that forms part of the records of the owners corporation even if they do not attend the Annual General Meeting. Section 144 of the Owners Corporation Act 2006 lists the records the owners corporation must keep. The owners corporation must make the records available to an owner to inspect at any reasonable time, free of charge. An owners corporation must, at the request of an owner who is entitled to inspect the records and, upon payment of a reasonable fee, provide a copy of any record of the owners corporation. The fee must not exceed the prescribed maximum fee, which can be found on the Consumer Affairs Victoria Website.

Ben Quirk
OccamStrata
E: ben.quirk@OccamStrata.com
P: 03 7045 3371

This post appears in Strata News #653.

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