New COVID-19 strata amendments

The Strata Schemes Management Amendment (COVID-19) Regulation 2020 commenced on 5 June 2020 and amended the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The amendments permit:

• Notice of, or any other document in relation to, a relevant strata meeting may be given to a person by email to an email address specified by the person for the service of documents.
• Voting at owners corporation general meetings and strata committee meetings by means of teleconference, video-conferencing, email or other electronic means while participating in a meeting from a remote location and voting by means of email or other electronic means before the meeting at which the matter is to be determined by the corporation or committee (not being an election), even if the owners corporation or strata committee has not, by resolution, adopted those means of voting.
• Instruments and documents, instead of being affixed with the seal of an owners corporation in the presence of certain persons under section 273 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 , to be signed (and the signatures to be witnessed) by those persons.
• The extension, to 6 months, of the time periods within which— (i) the first annual general meeting of an owners corporation must be convened and held, and (ii) a levy must be determined to reimburse an amount paid or transferred from an administrative fund or a capital works fund.