This article discusses whether minutes of council of owners meetings in WA strata schemes should be distributed to all owners and outlines the legal requirements and practical considerations.
Question: Should minutes of council of owners meetings be circulated to all owners in a WA strata scheme?
Are minutes of council of owners meetings required to be circulated to all owners in a WA strata scheme? If a scheme’s bylaw requires minutes to be circulated, should this requirement align with the Strata Titles Act? If the council of owners is making decisions outside of formal meetings, how should those decisions be recorded and circulated?
Answer: There are both pros and cons to the automatic distribution of CoO minutes.
The Strata Titles Act 1985 (STA85), under section 104, requires that minutes of its general and council meetings are kept for a period prescribed under the general regulations as 7 years.
The STA85 is silent on the distribution of council minutes, and it is common practice for councils not to circulate minutes of their meetings. The STA85 does, however, provide an avenue for access to persons with a proper interest via application under section 107. Section 107 allows such a person to apply to the strata company for an inspection of the materials outlined under Section 109. Section 109 applies to materials kept under Sections 104 and 105, which include minutes, as mentioned above. Section 109 states:
“A strata company commits an offence if, on application for inspection under section 107, it does not make material to which this section applies available for inspection by the applicant at a place and time —
- Agreed between the strata company and the person; or
- if agreement is not reached within 3 days after the strata company is given the application, specified in a written notice given by the strata company to the person.
The time specified in a notice under subsection (1)(b) must be between 9am and 5pm on a day not more than 10 days after the strata company is given the application. The material may be made available in electronic or hard copy form. A person inspecting material under this section —
- may take extracts from, or make a copy of, the material, including by photographing it, subject to any limitations specified in the regulations; and (b)
- must not, without the consent of the strata company, remove physical material from the custody of the strata company; and
- must not alter, damage, conceal or destroy any material or entry
The strata company may, but is not obliged to, provide a copy of any material at the request of the applicant, and, if it does so, it may charge a fee for the copy of an amount not exceeding an amount fixed by the regulations.
There are both pros and cons to the automatic distribution of CoO minutes. Distributing minutes can help create a better sense of community and make stakeholders feel informed and confident in their council. On the other hand, it can sometimes lead to interference by non-committee members in the council process, often drawing the voluntary committee’s attention away from progressing matters of importance.
There is also a possibility that, from time to time, the council minutes may contain information that the council believes to be of legal privilege and is not in the best interests of the strata company to be made readily available.
Luke Downie Realmark E: ldownie@realmark.com.au P: 08 9328 0999
This post appears in Strata News #764.
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