Dear Tony: Who decides at a general meeting whether a proxy is valid or not?
At our recent annual meeting, we did not have a quorum until the last minute when an owner registered with five proxies. Our secretary of council was registering owners and registered the proxies, but turns out three of the forms were blank other than unit numbers. They had not been signed, and we would have had to wait a week for another meeting, and one of our important resolutions only ended up passing by one vote.
The bulk of our time was spent arguing about the proxies and the president gave up and told us the person at the desk determines whether the proxy is valid or not. Is this true? We need to know what authority a council member has at general meeting.
Mark W.
In the absence of any bylaw amendments, there are only two parties who have any authority at a general meeting: The chairperson of the meeting, who is either the president or vice-president or an eligible person who has been elected to chair the meeting, and the voting quorum who are present that determine matters by majority vote, unless a higher voting threshold is required.
Whether a meeting is electronic, in person or a hybrid, a record of the registration is necessary either electronically, visually or documented, to verify proxies are valid and eligible voters participate in the meeting. The proxy is the person not the document that transfers the vote. Strata corporations cannot impose restrictions on proxies as the assignment is issued by the owner, not the strata corporation. A proxy is not a vote, the person who is the proxy must exercise the vote.
Once registration is complete, the chairperson of the meeting certifies the proxies and confirms the number of votes in attendance and whether there is a quorum. Provided the proxy assigns a person eligible to hold a proxy and the name of the owner and unit or strata lot number are confirmed, and the proxy is signed either manually or digitally, the obligation of the chairperson is to certify this as an eligible vote.
Never take a person’s “word for it” that they have a proxy. If the meeting is electronic, you will have an electronic copy of the proxy, or they can hold a manual proxy up to the camera to be verified, or scanned, and emailed it to the chairperson or manager to be confirmed.
Where there are multiple owners of a strata lot, which is common, and multiple proxies have been issued by multiple owners to different proxy holders, it may be impossible to permit that vote. The owners of the strata lot will be required to sort out the representation to assign a proxy.
Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association
