To help with making decisions, the Owners Corporation will convene a meeting. All members of the Owners Corporation are invited to attend a General Meeting. There are two types of meetings that can be called, an Annual General Meeting and a Special General Meeting.

 

Annual General Meeting

 

An Annual General Meeting must be held every year and typically occurs after the end of the Financial Year.

An Annual General Meeting can be convened by the Owners Corporation Manager, or at the direction of the Committee. A notice of meeting is then circulated to all members of the Owners Corporation setting out the agenda, including relevant documents for consideration such as;

• Minutes of the previous General Meeting​​-  Proposed Budget
• Annual Financial Statements​​​​-  Maintenance Plan report
• Managers’ report​​​​​-  Election of the Committee
• Committee report​​​​​-  Insurance information
• Other documents, quotes or reports for consideration

The invitation to attend an Annual General meeting is extended to all owners in the Owners Corporation.

 

Special General Meeting

 

A Special General Meeting is less common and often called for a specific reason. This is usually if an Owners Corporation wishes to consider an urgent matter or if a Special or Unanimous Resolution needs to be voted on by all members.

The process to convene, attend and vote at a Special General Meeting is similar to that of the Annual General Meeting. The fundamental difference between the meetings is the agenda does not require a number of Annual items to be tabled and can be tailored exactly to the Owners Corporations needs at that time.

 

Proxies

 

If you are unable to attend, you may provide a proxy to another owner or a representative to attend on your behalf. You must elect a person as your proxy to attend the meeting and vote on your behalf. This option is listed in the relevant section on the proxy form.

A copy of the proxy form is available on our website to download and complete. Please send all proxy forms to our email address at: info@horizonstrata.com.au

 

Attendance and voting when Financial or Non-Financial

 

Members (whether by proxy or not) must be considered financial in order to vote at a meeting. This however only applies to voting on ordinary resolutions. In the event of a Special or Unanimous Resolution, a non-financial Lot owner is entitled to vote.

It is important to note that an overdue amount is only taken to be paid in full if it is paid not less than four business days before the vote in question. Although the Act states that arrears may be paid in cash and the Lot can then be declared financial, Horizon does not offer cash payment options and thus the funds must be received and cleared before financial status can be declared.

 

At the Meeting

 

If you are attending a meeting, please try and arrive at least 10 minutes before commencement allowing time to sign in and verify your details. Signing in and verifying your details are critical to calculating a quorum which can impact the resolution(s) at the meeting.

At the meeting, whether large or small, the Owners Corporation Manager from Horizon will often chair the meeting. They will greet those in attendance and set out the process in which the meeting will be conducted before commencement.

It is vital that a meeting is run in an orderly fashion. This allows for proper engagement with owners during the meeting and accurate recording of the discussion and resolutions.

 

After the Meeting

 

After the meeting the Owners Corporation Manager will prepare the minutes of the meeting for distribution. This generally takes around one week to prepare and circulate.

The Minutes will note all of the Resolutions of the Owners Corporation put forward at the meeting, either passed or not passed on the day. They will also list who was in attendance in their varying capacities.

At Horizon, we also upload the minutes of each General Meeting to the Owners Portal, allowing you to retrieve and review these in your own time.

Important points to note about meetings

• Keep questions relevant to the item on the agenda – it can cause extended delays to a meeting. Eg. if a question is raised about the insurance whilst the item being discussed is the acceptance of the Financial Statements. The key is to wait until the item is being discussed and if necessary, raise a question relevant at this time.
• The meeting minutes only record resolutions of the Owners Corporation. General discussion, although often relevant to the resolution is usually excluded or at best, condensed into a brief pre-amble.
• General Business is for consideration, not decisions – If you would like to put forward a topic for consideration, it is best to do this in advance of the meeting, not propose that it be resolved in General Business on the day. General business items can however be put forward and considered at a later time by the incoming Committee.

 

Ballots

A Ballot is a method of voting that allows an Owners Corporation to vote on a Resolution without convening a General Meeting. This is an efficient process given the work involved in convening a meeting and allows members to vote independently on a specific topic in their own time.

A ballot paper is issued to the members to consider, vote and return the ballot paper within the allotted time-frame without members needing to attend a physical meeting.