By the Paddocks Club team

Below are examples of two questions on the Paddocks Club discussion forum, to show you what is available to our Community members!

Owner leaves meeting, so it has no quorum: Is the initial quorum still valid??

Member’s question:

Good Day

If an owner was present at the start of the meeting when the quorum for the meeting was established, but left prior to when the voting for the budget took place is the quorum still valid as he does own a number of units in the complex and his participation quota does make up a large portion of the percentage vote.

Graham’s answer:

Dear member,

No, if the meeting lost its quorum because this owner left, it could not continue to do business.

See Prescribed Management Rule 19(1) which provides:

Business must not be transacted at any general meeting unless a quorum is present or represented.

Under Prescribed Management Rule 19(2)(b) schemes with more than 4 primary sections need at least one third of the total value of members’ votes to be present or represented to enable them to take resolutions. This quorum must be present not only when the meeting starts to do business, but also at all times during the meeting.

Graham.

Is an owner entitled to a refund of an over-payment of levies?

Member’s question:

Good afternoon Anton

If an owner within a scheme has overpaid on his levies over a period of time, and as a result has accumulated a substantial credit on his levy account, is he entitled to a refund? We have an owner in one of our schemes who is in this position and is instructing the body corporate to refund him this credit on his levy account. Kindly advise.

Many thanks

Ané’s answer:

Dear member,

It would largely depend on what the trustees resolution and accompanying notice says regarding when the levies become due and payable. In other words, was the entire year’s levy due and payable at the beginning of the financial year and the members simply afforded the opportunity to settle it over time OR does the monthly installments only become due and payable on a monthly basis?

If the owner has paid more than is legally due and payable by him, he is legally entitled to the credit. In other words, that money is not the body corporate’s (as it is not legally entitled to it). Therefore, the money should be paid over to the owner’s bank account if he so requests.

Ané.

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Article reference: Paddocks Press: Volume 14, Issue 03.

Graham Paddock and Ané de Klerk are available to answer questions on the Paddocks Club discussion forum for Community members. Get all your questions answered by joining Paddocks Club.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Back to Paddocks Press – March 2019 Edition.