What is an Owners Corporation Special General Meeting?

There may be numerous occasions when it may be appropriate to call a Special General Meeting of an Owners Corporation to attend to urgent business.

This may include:

• urgent repairs that have not been budgeted for
• security issues
• problems with the management of the property and
• disputes with other members of the Owners Corporation

These kinds of meetings may fail because:

• the meeting was not properly called; or
• the procedure for the conduct of the meeting was not properly followed.

What is a Special General Meeting?

Essentially, a Special General Meeting is any meeting of an Owners Corporation that is not an Annual General Meeting. [1] A Special General Meeting may be convened by:[2]

• the Chairperson of the Owners Corporation;
• the Secretary of the Owners Corporation;
• a Lot Owner nominated by lot owners whose collective lot entitlements total at least 25%;
• the manager of the Owners Corporation if the manager is acting on authority from the Committee or if nominated by lot owners whose entitlements total 25%.

What should the person convening a Special General Meeting do?

Should an Agenda be given?

The person convening a Special General Meeting must prepare an agenda.[3]

If the person convening a Special General Meeting is a lot owner, the agenda should be an agenda approved by the nominating lot owners. Practically speaking, for nominating lot owners to approve the agenda, they would generally need to be notified of the draft agenda prior to being asked to approve it.

Should Notice be given?

The person convening a Special General Meeting should give notice in writing of the meeting to each lot owner at least 14 days before the Special General Meeting (notice can be given electronically i.e. by email).

The notice should include:[4]

(a) the date, place and time of the Special General Meeting;

(b) the agenda for the Special General Meeting;

(c) the text of any special resolution or unanimous resolution to be moved at the meeting; and

(d) a statement that the lot owner has the right to appoint a proxy.

What happens after a Notice is given?

A meeting is then called. The Meeting should be conducted in accordance with the normal procedure for conducting Owners Corporation meetings.

If the procedure is not properly followed, the resolutions of the Special General Meeting will likely not be binding.

A quorum for a general meeting (including a Special General Meeting) is at least 50% of the total votes. If 50% of the total lots are not present, the quorum is at least 50% of the total lot entitlement.

In the event a quorum is not present, then a resolution or resolutions passed at the Meeting will be interim resolutions.[5]

If there are Interim resolutions, what happens?

Notice of all interim resolutions, including minutes of the Special General Meeting, must be forwarded to all lot owners within 14 days of the Special General Meeting.[6]

If the lot owners would like to prevent any interim resolution passed at the Special General Meeting from becoming a resolution, then notice of a further Special General Meeting should be given to lot owners within the time limits prescribed with a further Special General Meeting held no earlier than 14 days (but no later than 28 days) after the date of the notice.[7]

Lot owners at that further Special General Meeting would then need to resolve to reject the interim resolution(s).

How can DSA Law help?

If you have an Owners Corporation issue or question, please Contact Us or one of Commercial Lawyers at DSA Law on (03) 8595 9580 so we can assist you with your concerns .

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[1] Owners Corporations Act 2006 (Cth) s 73.

[2] ibid s 74.

[3] ibid s 75.

[4] Ibid s 76.

[5] ibid s 78.

[6] ibid.

[7] Ibid.