Short answer
Some strata decisions can be made without everyone gathering in one room — for example by pre-meeting electronic voting, or committee decisions made in writing — but only where the scheme has formally adopted those methods. The decision still has to follow the usual rules; only the format changes.
Ways a decision can happen without a physical meeting
- Pre-meeting electronic voting. If the owners corporation has adopted electronic voting, owners can cast votes before or without attending in person, and those votes count in the tally.
- Committee decisions in writing. A strata committee can make certain decisions by circulating them to members rather than meeting, where the process is followed and no member objects to it being dealt with that way.
- Meetings held by technology. A general meeting can be run by video or as a hybrid — that is still a meeting, just not entirely in person.
What doesn’t change
The format is more flexible, but the substance isn’t. The decision still needs proper notice, the right voting threshold (ordinary, special or unanimous), and a record in the minutes. And the method has to have been adopted first — you can’t decide on the fly to collect votes by text message and treat the result as binding.
Getting it right without a manager
Knowing which decisions can be made outside a meeting, and running the electronic or written process so the result actually holds, is easy to get wrong. Straita handles the pre-meeting voting and the written record for a self-managed scheme, so a decision made outside a face-to-face meeting is still captured and defensible.
Primary sources
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) — electronic voting, meeting procedure and committee decisions (Schedule 1).
- NSW Government — Strata schemes (Fair Trading) — strata meetings and voting.