The Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management has issued some guidance on how a body corporate can manage the fallout from the coronavirus.
An extract from the guidance is as follows:
"Committee meetings
- It may be prudent for committees to avoid face-to-face meetings unless they are essential, and to practice appropriate hygiene and social distancing when meetings are held.
- There is no legislative reason why meetings cannot be held remotely; for example, by telephone, video conference, skype and similar technologies.
- The need for a quorum at meetings does not mean that committee members need to be present in the same room.
- A committee can also decide to vote outside committee meetings.
General meetings
- Bodies corporate, particularly in larger schemes, can consider deferring calling general meetings unless there is urgent or essential business to consider.
- Bodies corporate are able to seek approval from an adjudicator for annual general meetings to be held outside the legislative timeframe, and this may be an option to consider. Please read Practice Direction 19 for further information.
- Where meetings are held, it may be appropriate to encourage owners to only submit voting papers (or vote electronically in those bodies corporate that have approved electronic voting) rather than attending the meeting personally.
- While the legislation requires a minimum number of persons to be ‘present personally’ at a general meeting to form a quorum, this will generally only be one or two persons (depending on the size of the scheme).
- All other voters could submit written votes and potentially also participate in the meeting remotely (for example, by telephone, video conference, skype or similar technologies) if the body corporate is able to facilitate such participation.
- Provided that bodies corporate make reasonable endeavours to comply with the legislative requirements for holding general meetings, instances of non-compliance that do not affect the voting outcomes will be unlikely to affect the validity of meetings.
- The statutory capacity to approve expenditure above the committee spending limit with the written consent of all owners, may reduce the need to call a general meeting in some cases, particularly in smaller schemes.
- In schemes registered under the Small Schemes and Commercial Modules there is also a capacity to approve any general meeting motion with a vote outside a meeting.
Maintenance of common property
- A body corporate must maintain common property in good condition.
- The body corporate may need to consider the need for additional cleaning of common areas and facilities if necessary.”
An extract from the guidance is as follows:
“Committee meetings
- It may be prudent for committees to avoid face-to-face meetings unless they are essential, and to practice appropriate hygiene and social distancing when meetings are held.
- There is no legislative reason why meetings cannot be held remotely; for example, by telephone, video conference, skype and similar technologies.
- The need for a quorum at meetings does not mean that committee members need to be present in the same room.
- A committee can also decide to vote outside committee meetings.
General meetings
- Bodies corporate, particularly in larger schemes, can consider deferring calling general meetings unless there is urgent or essential business to consider.
- Bodies corporate are able to seek approval from an adjudicator for annual general meetings to be held outside the legislative timeframe, and this may be an option to consider. Please read Practice Direction 19 for further information.
- Where meetings are held, it may be appropriate to encourage owners to only submit voting papers (or vote electronically in those bodies corporate that have approved electronic voting) rather than attending the meeting personally.
- While the legislation requires a minimum number of persons to be ‘present personally’ at a general meeting to form a quorum, this will generally only be one or two persons (depending on the size of the scheme).
- All other voters could submit written votes and potentially also participate in the meeting remotely (for example, by telephone, video conference, skype or similar technologies) if the body corporate is able to facilitate such participation.
- Provided that bodies corporate make reasonable endeavours to comply with the legislative requirements for holding general meetings, instances of non-compliance that do not affect the voting outcomes will be unlikely to affect the validity of meetings.
- The statutory capacity to approve expenditure above the committee spending limit with the written consent of all owners, may reduce the need to call a general meeting in some cases, particularly in smaller schemes.
- In schemes registered under the Small Schemes and Commercial Modules there is also a capacity to approve any general meeting motion with a vote outside a meeting.
Maintenance of common property
- A body corporate must maintain common property in good condition.
- The body corporate may need to consider the need for additional cleaning of common areas and facilities if necessary.”
