Trust question

[gavinc]

I live in a block of 9 apartments, there is no Body Corp but an Owners Committee.
Before each meeting there is a spiel that one vote per apartment and only the owners can vote - i.e. if the property is owned by a Trust then the resident of the apartment may not necessarily be the owner and the trustees will have to be present to vote.
One of the apartments is occupied by a "little old lady" and the trustees always turn up and make the decisions and vote - I have no problem with that.
There is also one other apartment in a Trust and the resident is particularly obnoxious and he always votes himself.
So my questions are this-
1) Can an occupant of an apartment who acknowledges that it owned by a Trust also be a Trustee of that trust?
2) If there is more than one trustee then I would have thought that all would need to be present to vote ?
3) The obnoxious one is also the Chairman of the Owners Committee - am I correct is saying that since he is not the owner he cannot be the Chairman ? (I suppose this depends on the owners committees rules)

Feedback appreciated

[props4u]

This sounds terribly fishy. Unless theyre all owned by one and same owner, I thought buildings with 4 or more properties had to be registered as a body corp? Maybe it actually is registered as body corp but body corp has delegated all its powers and decisions to the owners committee? I think the title plan should shed light and reveal if it’s a body corp or not

1) Pass
2) Am guessing here –They could argue that – A formal statement from Trust that Mr Xxx may represent it as owner and vote on its behalf should do the trick – However, its up to you to force the issue (or not) by requesting/requiring Mr Obnoxious to formally produce such documentation
3) If #2 is valid argument (which I believe it is), it applies here too, he can Chair comtee meetings until someone else is appointed or voted as Chairman (Voting power comes into the equation here)

As far as I know, there are no published comtee rules, there are only body corp rules called “operational rules” which come under the “unit titles regulations 2011” a derivative from “unit titles act 2010”

If its not a body corp (which normally has to meet once a year), I would suggest you ask them for a copy of the rules. That is, to find out if they are making up the rules as they go along or what

[artemis]

Possible it could be a company share structure, though that is unlikely. If unit titles then there is a body corporate, and the committee of owners is carrying out the BC functions on behalf. Proxy votes are permitted. Might be worth a look at the rules around proxies in the Act.

Agree, get a copy of the rules, also minutes and accounts if not already getting them.

There is further info on BC operational rules in ss 105 - 107 of the Unit Titles Act, and also the default rules are set out in Schedule 1 of the UT Regulations. If there have been no properly authorised changes to the BC rules for your complex the default rules stand. They are very minimal. .

It is worth checking out the UT Act and Regs when issues arise. Both are pretty straightforward

[gavinc]

Possible it could be a company share structure, though that is unlikely. If unit titles then there is a body corporate,
It is worth checking out the UT Act and Regs when issues arise. Both are pretty straightforward

Thanks for the input Artemis and Prosp4u.
It is a building built in the 70's prior to the Unit Titles Act, it is cross lease i.e. we are all joint owners with exclusive use of our own unit and shared use of the grounds, this was pretty common at the time. My Solicitor tells me the owners committee structure is perfectly legit and a Body Corp is not necessary.