Condominium Smarts: How strata company votes are calculated

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Pricey Tony:

Our strata company is a mixed-use of residential and retail. Since its opening in 2014, all of the property house owners confirmed up on the annual assembly, and every particular person was given a voting card, whether or not in particular person or an digital assembly.

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As a business property proprietor, I’ve all the time challenged the property supervisor about voting. Shouldn’t property house owners get a couple of vote? His response has been, no, every strata lot is entitled to at least one vote. We double-checked the strata plan, and since there was no voting schedule on the plan, we assumed that was right.

A brand new business proprietor confirmed up at our AGM final week and claimed he was entitled to three.7 votes. How will we confirm the voting rights of homeowners?

— Chelsea S.

Pricey Chelsea:

Traditionally, the voting rights and schedule of unit entitlement have been printed on the registered strata plan, however with the change to the Strata Property Act in 2000, they have been separated and printed as separate schedules on the Land Titles strata plan normal index.

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That is usually a typical error when strata companies depend on copies of the strata plan and bylaws. Residential strata companies, with a couple of uncommon exceptions, are all granted one vote per strata lot, and if no schedule of voting entitlement was filed, then all strata heaps, together with business, would have one vote.

In your strata company, there’s a schedule of voting rights filed. The non-residential (business) strata heaps certainly have completely different voting entitlement, which is predicated on the relative measurement of the business heaps to the typical measurement of residential items.

The smallest business unit is entitled to .59 votes, and the biggest has 3.7 votes.

A singular voting card that doesn’t acknowledge the business items individually and by strata lot quantity is ineffective and sometimes leads to errors in voting calculations because the chairperson can’t establish completely different voting allocations.

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Mockingly, digital conferences have resulted in a lot better accuracy of voting because the voting rights of every eligible voter are posted on registration.

In-person conferences require every strata lot proprietor to be given a voting card. The voting card should establish business house owners by the strata lot quantity and variety of votes they symbolize to make sure the chairperson can correctly depend the voting outcomes.

If the company is adopting new bylaws, the business and residential strata heaps should vote individually on the bylaw resolutions.

I like to recommend that every one strata companies pull Land Title paperwork printed on the Strata Plan Widespread Sheet and Basic Index. This can establish any bylaw amendments, property designations, voting and unit entitlements, and any easements or covenants filed on the property. You might discover a couple of surprises.

Tony Gioventu is government director of the Condominium Dwelling Homeowners Affiliation. E mail [email protected].

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