Filling casual vacancies
The number of committee members a body corporate has for the whole year is determined at each annual general meeting. Throughout the year, the body corporate cannot increase or decrease its numbers on the committee. For example, if 6 people were elected to the committee at the last annual general meeting the body corporate must ensure it keeps 6 members for the whole year.
From time to time a casual vacancy can occur. There are many reasons for this and some of those include:
- an owner selling their lot
- a person dies
- a member is removed from office.
You may wish to read more about a committee member's term of office and removing members.
How a body corporate fills a vacancy depends on how the vacancy arose and which regulation module the scheme is registered under.
Commercial Module
If a position on the committee becomes vacant (for any of the reasons outlined above) the committee must—even if it does not have enough members to form a quorum—appoint an eligible person to the committee, or call an extraordinary general meeting to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.
Small Schemes Module
If a position on the committee becomes vacant (for any of the reasons outlined above) the body corporate must hold an extraordinary general meeting to appoint someone to fill the vacancy. The person appointed must be eligible.
Standard and Accommodation Module
Removal by ordinary resolution
If the body corporate passes an ordinary resolution at a general meeting to remove a committee member from their position, it can pass a resolution to fill the vacancy at the same general meeting. Otherwise, it can fill the vacancy in the same way as it fills other vacancies.
While the person appointed must be eligible to hold a position on the committee, there is no need to invite nominations or hold a ballot.
Filling other vacancies
If a position on the committee becomes vacant and there are still enough committee members to form a quorum, the committee must either:
- vote to appoint an eligible person to fill the vacancy
- call a general meeting to choose an eligible person to fill the vacancy.
If a member has been removed by ordinary resolution, or there are no longer enough committee members to form a quorum, the committee must call a general meeting to fill the vacancy.
The process for filling a vacancy at a general meeting is different to electing a committee at an annual general meeting. This process is set out in sections 49, 50 and 51 of the Standard Module and sections 41, 42 and 43 of the Accommodation Module, and includes the following:
- the notice of the meeting must include an explanatory note about nominating and voting for the position
- nominations can be made at the meeting or given in writing before the election occurs
- an owner must be present personally at the meeting to be able to vote in the election.
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