What is a Strata Committee?

The administration of an owners corporation may be undertaken on behalf of all the lot owners by a committee.

This consists of a small group of lot owners who are elected at the Annual General Meeting of lot owners.

Depending on the state or territory, the committee is called an executive committee, managing committee, committee of management, the committee, or council.

A committee must ensure state strata law and its own by-laws are adhered to. It also has the ability to change existing by-laws and make new ones, and is charged with making decisions on all matters which confront the owners corporation.

Operations

A committee is generally elected yearly at the Annual General Meeting of the owners corporation.

But the way committees work, their size, and the degree of third party involvement differs.

Some, but not all states limit the size of committees (minimum and maximum), with the permissible maximum sizes varying from seven persons to an unlimited number.

In most states committees can make most scheme decisions but can be overruled by owners in general meetings.

In the ACT the committee must approve a variety of scheme documents and actions before they proceed.

Responsibilities

General duties of the committee members include:

  • Attending all the committee meetings. These meetings are called as required and are usually quarterly.
  • Reading the meeting notices prior to attending the
  • Attending to various jobs (e.g. obtaining quotes for painting or gardening)

As representatives of all owners, not just themselves, committee members must be selfless in the way they go about their duties.

They must take a long-term view to ensure their management decisions have the most beneficial long-term impact on the owners corporation.

They must also disqualify themselves from voting on any issue where they have a direct pecuniary financial interest.

Generally, committee members are not entitled to payments for their services nor to reimburse their expenses unless such a payment is approved by ordinary resolution at a general meeting.

Removing committee members

Lot owners can remove a committee, or committee member, by ordinary resolution at a general meeting.

An owners corporation can also have sub-committees.

SCA (NSW) offers a simple online training course for committee members.

(http://nsw.stratacommunity.org.au/page/education/free-online-execut...) While it was developed in NSW, there's very little in the course that doesn’t apply right around Australia.

Ref: Strata Community Aust

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