Receiving notice of meetings
The Secretary must give each person on the strata roll at least 7 days’ advance notice of a meeting, in writing. (Schedule 1, section 7)
If the notice is sent by post, the Secretary must allow an additional 7 working days for postage. (Interpretation Act, section 76)
Owners can choose to receive notices by email but the old ‘snail mail’ is still quite popular. The secretary, or the strata manager in larger schemes, must send the notice of meeting of the owners corporation to the address on the strata roll.
The Strata Schemes Management Act is silent on the issue of ‘time for postage’ and it is the Interpretation Act that appears to prevail for ‘service by post’
So, when calculating the notice period, 7 clear days’ notice is required:
- Exclude – the date of posting, the actual meeting date, weekends, public holidays and bank holidays
- Allow 7 business days for delivery
- Then 7 clear days’ notice
The basic rule of thumb is to allow a 3-week notice period but as per the Easter example below you would need to allow 3.5 weeks.
This table is a handy guide of how to calculate when a notice of meeting of the owners corporation must be sent for a meeting to occur on or after May 11 2019.
Day | Date | Event | Comment |
---|---|---|---|
Wednesday | 17 April 2019 | Meeting notices posted | |
Thursday | 18 April 2019 | 1st working day after postage | |
Friday | 19 April 2019 | Good Friday | Public holiday, not a working day |
Saturday | 20 April 2019 | Easter Saturday | Public holiday, not a working day |
Sunday | 21 April 2019 | Easter Sunday | Public holiday, not a working day |
Monday | 22 April 2019 | Easter Monday | Public holiday, not a working day |
Tuesday | 23 April 2019 | 2nd working day after postage | |
Wednesday | 24 April 2019 | 3rd working day after postage | |
Thursday | 25 April 2019 | Anzac Day | Public holiday, not a working day |
Friday | 26 April 2019 | 4th working day after postage | |
Saturday | 27 April 2019 | Weekends are not counted as ‘working days’ | |
Sunday | 28 April 2019 | Weekends are not counted as ‘working days’ | |
Monday | 29 April 2019 | 5th working day after postage | |
Tuesday | 30 April 2019 | 6th working day after postage | |
Wednesday | 1 May 2019 | 7th working day after postage | |
Thursday | 2 May 2019 | 1st day of 7 day notice | |
Friday | 3 May 2019 | 2nd day of 7 day notice | |
Saturday | 4 May 2019 | Weekends are not counted as ‘working days’ | |
Sunday | 5 May 2019 | Weekends are not counted as ‘working days’ | |
Monday | 6 May 2019 | 3rd day of 7 day notice | |
Tuesday | 7 May 2019 | 4th day of 7 day notice | |
Wednesday | 8 May 2019 | 5th day of 7 day notice | |
Thursday | 9 May 2019 | 6th day of 7 day notice | |
Friday | 10 May 2019 | 7th day of 7 day notice | |
Saturday | 11 May 2019 | The first day that the meeting could be scheduled |
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