Best Practices for Strata Meeting Minutes [or, at least what Canada thinks]

Every strata building has at least one strata meeting every year.  And, many strata buildings have many more. And, every strata meeting needs the be documented in strata meeting minutes to be sent to strata owners, others and kept in the strata records.

But, since the beginning of strata title in the 1960s there’s been an ongoing debate about strata minute keeping practices with some stakeholders taking a minimalist approach where only the time, date, attendances, and decision outcomes should be included, others advocating the War and Peace approach where the strata minutes tell the full story of the strata meeting, and most taking a hybrid approach where the strata minutes are pretty simple with a few other important matters and details [as they perceive them at the time] added.

Who’s right and wrong is beyond the scope and capacity of this Daily Post.

So, instead here’s what some strata practitioners from British Columbia in Canada [which has similar laws to many Australian states] say are strata minutes best practices.

A few of the points they make include:

• Strata laws usually only require minimal information [like quorums, voting results, etc] to be included, but usually not detailed information, procedural information or more.

• Strata minutes need to be sent to strata owners and there’s usually, but not always, time limits.

• Strata minutes need to be approved at the next strata meeting.

• A good mantra is ‘If it’s not in the minutes, it didn’t happen’.

• Strata minutes shouldn’t include strata owner contact information and private or personal information.

Obviously, what’s required on Canada isn’t the same as in Australia, but since strata buildings all over the world also meet and have to records those meetings, what other strata stakeholders think and do can help us formulate a better approach.

Listen to and watch the YouTube video here.