How to Run a Strata Meeting: AGMs, General Meetings and Committee Meetings

Two kinds of meeting, two sets of rules

A strata corporation runs on two kinds of meeting, and confusing them is the most common way a decision gets made and then unmade.

A general meeting is a meeting of every owner. It is where the corporation itself decides things: levies, budgets, insurance, the appointment of officers and the committee, and anything requiring a special or unanimous resolution. The Annual General Meeting is a general meeting with extra compulsory content. Any other general meeting held during the year is sometimes called an extraordinary general meeting, though the Strata Titles Act 1988 uses no such term — legally it is a general meeting like any other.

A management committee meeting is a meeting of the elected committee only. It is where the day-to-day business of the corporation gets transacted between general meetings, within the limits the corporation has set.

The two have different notice periods, different quorum rules and different powers. This article covers both.

General meetings: who can call one

Under Section 33(2) of the Strata Titles Act, a general meeting may be convened by:

• The secretary
• Any two members of the management committee, if the corporation has one
• Unit holders representing one-fifth or more of the total number of units
• The original registered proprietor, for the very first meeting
• Order of the Magistrates Court

That third option is the owners' safety valve. If the committee or the manager has gone quiet, a fifth of the owners can call a meeting themselves without anyone's permission.

Notice: 14 days, in writing, with the agenda

A general meeting is convened by giving written notice of the day, time and place to every unit holder at least 14 days before the meeting (Section 33(3)). Notice goes to the unit holder — an owner cannot nominate someone else to receive notices in their place, although the corporation is free to send a courtesy copy to a property manager or agent as well.

Whoever calls the meeting should take reasonable steps to make sure the day, time and place are reasonably convenient to a majority of members (Section 33(3a)). A 10am Tuesday meeting in a group full of shift workers technically complies and practically fails.

The notice must set out the agenda (Section 33(4a)). This is not a courtesy. Under Section 33(4b) the agenda must include:

• The full text of any special or unanimous resolution to be moved
• A motion confirming the minutes of the previous general meeting

And for an AGM, the agenda must also include:

• Presentation of the accounts for the previous accounting period
• The contributions to be paid by members for the current accounting period
• Presentation of the expenditure statement required under Section 33A
• Presentation of copies of all insurance policies the corporation is required to hold

An owner who arrives at a meeting and is asked to vote on a special resolution that was not set out in the notice can reasonably refuse to treat the vote as valid. Get the wording right before the notice goes out, not on the night.

The AGM must happen every year

The corporation must hold at least one general meeting in every calendar year, and the gap between AGMs must not exceed 15 months (Section 33(4)). Corporations that let this slip usually discover it when a unit sells and the buyer's conveyancer asks for two years of minutes.

Quorum: half the units, or a second meeting

No business may be transacted at a general meeting unless a quorum is present when the meeting turns to business. A quorum is the persons entitled to exercise the voting power for not less than half the units (Section 33(5)). In a group of eight units, that is four.

If a quorum has not formed within half an hour of the appointed time, the owners who are present must adjourn the meeting to another day at least seven and no more than fourteen days away, at the same time and place. The secretary must give reasonable written notice of the adjourned meeting to all unit holders. If a quorum still has not formed within half an hour at that second meeting, the owners who are present constitute the quorum (Sections 33(6) and 33(7)).

That last rule is worth understanding on both sides of the table. A small, motivated group can pass business at an adjourned meeting even if most owners stay home. So can a small, self-interested one. If you care about an item, turn up.

Who chairs

The presiding officer chairs the meeting. If they are absent, the owners present can appoint someone else to preside (Section 33(8)). A body corporate manager, or an employee of one, may chair only if a majority of the owners present and entitled to vote agree (Section 33(9)).

Disclosure of interest: not just the chair

Section 34A is wider than most owners assume, and it is one of the few provisions in the Act that puts a criminal penalty on an individual owner rather than on the corporation.

Under Section 34A(3), a person who attends and is entitled to vote at a general meeting, or who presides at one, and who has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any matter to be voted on, must disclose the nature of that interest to the members present before the vote is taken. The penalty is a Division 4 fine — currently a maximum of $20,000.

Two qualifications. An owner is not obliged to disclose an interest they hold in common with all the other unit holders (Section 34A(4)) — your interest in the roof being repaired is everyone's interest. And it is a defence to prove you were unaware of the interest at the time (Section 34A(5)). Neither helps the owner quietly hoping nobody notices that the recommended paving contractor is their brother-in-law.

Proxies carry a parallel duty under Section 34A(1): a nominated person with a pecuniary interest in a matter must disclose it to the owner who appointed them, and where the appointing owner declared an interest in the proxy instrument, the proxy must disclose that interest to the meeting before the vote.

Put "disclosure of interests" as a standing item at the top of every agenda, and minute the answers — including the "nil" ones. It costs thirty seconds and removes an entire category of later argument.

Voting: one vote per unit

Each unit carries one vote, no matter how many people own it (Section 34). Where a unit has multiple owners and they cannot agree who casts the vote, it goes to the owner whose name appears first on the certificate of title.

• Proxies. An owner can appoint someone else to cast their vote. The instrument may be conditional, and a nomination generally runs for up to twelve months unless revoked in writing to the secretary.
• Absentee votes. An owner who cannot attend may vote in writing on a resolution already on the agenda, by giving the secretary written notice at least six hours before the meeting. This works only for items already on the notice — another reason the agenda matters.
• Unfinancial owners. A vote is not exercisable in relation to a unit unless all amounts due and payable to the corporation for that unit have been paid (Section 34(7)). The single exception is a matter requiring a unanimous resolution, where everyone's consent is needed.

For a fuller treatment of owner voting rights, see Your Rights and Roles as a Strata Unit Owner.

The three resolutions and what each needs

Unless the Act or the Articles say otherwise, decisions of the corporation in general meeting are made by ordinary resolution (Section 34(8)).

Ordinary resolution

A simple majority of the votes of unit holders present and voting on the resolution. Abstentions do not count against it. This covers most routine business: adopting the budget, setting levies, appointing officers, appointing or removing the management committee, engaging a manager.

Special resolution

Two conditions, both from the Section 3 definition:

1. At least 14 days' written notice setting out the terms of the proposed resolution, plus any information prescribed by regulation.
2. The resolution is passed at a properly convened meeting at which the votes cast against it are 25% or less of the total votes that could be cast if every unit holder attended and was entitled to vote.

Note the denominator. It is not 25% of the owners in the room — it is 25% of every vote in the group. In a twelve-unit corporation, four "no" votes defeat a special resolution regardless of how many "yes" votes it attracts.

Three-unit corporations where each owner has one vote work differently: a special resolution passes if no more than one vote is cast against it.

Special resolutions are required for the consequential decisions — changing the Articles, and authorising building work or changes to the external appearance of a unit under Section 29. For the full list of which decisions need which resolution, in both strata and community corporations, see Which Resolution Do We Need?

Unanimous resolution

A unanimous resolution is a special resolution passed without any dissenting vote. It carries the same 14-day notice and text requirements. What it does not require is that every owner attend and vote in favour — it requires that nobody votes against. Absences and abstentions do not defeat it.

Unanimous resolutions are needed for the heaviest decisions, including changing the basis on which levies are apportioned away from unit entitlement.

Attending remotely

Section 33(11) allows a unit holder to attend and vote by telephone, video link, internet connection or similar means, in accordance with the requirements prescribed by regulation and the corporation's Articles. The corporation is not obliged to provide the facilities. If your group wants reliable remote attendance, set it up in the Articles and put the meeting link in the notice.

Management committee meetings

Committee meetings are lighter, faster and governed almost entirely by Section 35.

• Notice: a decision is a decision of the committee if it is supported by a majority of the members at a meeting of which at least three days' notice has been given to all members (Section 35(4b)). Three days, not fourteen.
• Quorum: divide the total number of committee members by two, drop any fraction, add one. A four-member committee has a quorum of three. A five-member committee also has a quorum of three. A seven-member committee needs four. No business may be transacted without it (Sections 35(4) and 35(4a)).
• Proxies: a committee member who cannot attend may appoint a proxy, who must be a unit holder in a residential group. Not a tenant, not a spouse who is not on the title, not the body corporate manager.
• Minutes: the committee must keep minutes of its proceedings and cause proper accounting records to be kept of money received and expended (Section 35(8)).
• Everything else: subject to the Articles and any direction from the corporation, the committee can regulate its own meetings as it sees fit (Section 35(9)).

What a committee meeting cannot do

A management committee has no power to do anything for which the Act or the Articles require a special or unanimous resolution (Section 35(3)). Approving an owner's pergola, changing the external appearance of the building, amending the Articles — none of these can be dealt with at a committee meeting, no matter how sensible the decision or how unanimous the committee. They go to a general meeting with the resolution text in the notice.

The committee's authority over ordinary business is also subject to any limitation the corporation imposes (Section 35(2)). Most well-run groups set a spending cap at the AGM. See What Is a Management Committee, and Why Should Your Group Have One? for how to set that up.

Minutes: what actually needs to be in them

Minutes are not a transcript. They are the corporation's legal record of what was decided, and under Section 41 they are handed to prospective purchasers as part of a corporation search. Write them for someone reading in two years' time who was not in the room.

Record:

• The date, time and place, and who attended (in person, by proxy, by absentee vote, or remotely)
• Whether a quorum was present
• Any interests disclosed
• The exact wording of each motion, who moved it, and the outcome — carried or lost, and by what margin where it matters
• For special and unanimous resolutions, the votes for and against, so the threshold can be verified later
• An action against each decision: what was agreed, who is responsible, and the date it is due

"It was agreed that Jo from Unit 12 will obtain two quotes to replace the paving on the main path and report back to the committee by 14 Aug 2026" is a minute. "The paving was discussed" is not.

Circulate the draft minutes promptly while the meeting is fresh, and put a motion confirming them on the agenda of the next general meeting — which the Act requires anyway.

Running the room

The legal framework gets you a valid meeting. These get you a useful one.

• Open with introductions and a sign-in. Mark attendance against the unit numbers on the draft minutes as people arrive; you need it for the quorum count.
• Set a finish time. Sixty to ninety minutes is realistic for most groups. Say it out loud at the start.
• Take one item at a time. Park side conversations. "Let's come back to that under general business" is a complete sentence.
• Summarise before you vote. State the motion in the words that will appear in the minutes, then call for the vote. Most disputed decisions are disputed because nobody was sure what they were voting on.
• If a vote ties, discuss and re-vote. A tied vote is not a decision.
• Chair neutrally on heated items, and draw out the owners who have not spoken. The quiet owner is often the one who will complain later.
• Vote yourself. The chair's opinion counts the same as everyone else's.

Common mistakes that undo decisions

• Fourteen days' notice counted from the day it was posted rather than received.
• A special resolution moved from the floor without its text in the notice.
• Business transacted without a quorum, or with the quorum count including an unfinancial owner.
• The manager chairing without a majority of owners agreeing to it.
• A committee deciding something that needed a special resolution.
• Minutes that record the discussion but not the decision.

Any of these can leave a decision open to challenge under Section 41A, which lets an owner apply to the Magistrates Court where a decision of the corporation or the committee is unreasonable, oppressive or unjust, or where the Act or the Articles have been breached.

Community corporations

Community corporations under the Community Titles Act 1996 follow a parallel framework — an AGM each year, written notice, quorum, and the same three resolution types — but the section numbers and some of the detail differ, and the committee's spending authority is capped by regulation rather than left to the corporation. See Community Title Management Committees.

Get in touch

If your group needs help convening a meeting, drafting a notice and agenda, or getting the resolution wording right before it goes out, we can help. Acacia Collective manages strata and community title groups across South Australia, and we chair and minute meetings for our member corporations as part of the service.

Call us on 1300 792 255 or email hello@acaciacollective.com.au.

This article is a practical reference, not legal advice. For a specific question about your corporation, consult a solicitor.