NSW: Q&A Proxies and Voting Rules for Owners Corporation Meetings

Question: Can Owners Corporation members use their unit entitlements when calling a poll vote to form a strata committee?
Answer: In some circumstances, the motion can be decided according to the value of unit entitlements voting for or against.
In short, yes. Generally, a motion put to a meeting, or an election of officers of the owners corporation or members of the strata committee, is to be decided according to a majority of votes of owners voting for or against based on one vote per lot.
However, if a poll is demanded by a person present and entitled to vote on a motion or for the election of officers of the owners corporation or members of the strata committee at the meeting, the motion is to be decided according to the value of unit entitlements voting for or against.
Question: My wife and I are co-owners. Do we really have to submit proxy forms for the other when only one of us attends a meeting?
My wife and I are co-owners. My reading of the act is that if one of us is not at the meeting then the other speaks and votes for us. The management says no, I must give her written proxy each time I am not there because my name is written first in the ownership document. Is that right? we are equal owners.
Answer: There are proxy rules in the case of co-ownership.
In case of co-ownership, the proxy may be one of the co-owners (or someone else) OR if no other co-owners show up, the co-owner who actually showed up OR if more than one co-owner turns up, they all consent to one of them being proxy OR if they don’t consent, the first named on the strata roll.
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For the full question and our detailed response, visit the original publication at Look Up Strata.
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