All owners associations must file Societies Act transition paperwork by November 2018. Further, for owners associations to continue to have the ability to distribute assets to members at the end of the lease, it is necessary to approve a special resolution in general meeting to be designated a “member funded society”. If this is not done on transition, the owner association must get a court order to approve being designated as a “member funded society”.
If your owner association still needs file its Societies Act transition paperwork and become designated as a member funded society, the first step is to determine whether your next regularly scheduled annual general meeting will work with the transition deadline of November 2018. If not, your owner association may need to call a special general meeting to approve the member funded designation.
Remember, the Societies Act requires notice to members of the text of a special resolution to be passed by the members. This means that you need to put the member funded designation special resolution in the notice of meeting.
Further, the new Societies Act includes new options for owners associations of which you may wish to take advantage. Those options require an amendment to the bylaws approved by special resolution. For example, the new Societies Act allows for members to participate in general meetings through electronic communications mediums where certain requirements are met. This could be helpful for owners associations which have a high number of members who live away for part of the year.
Please contact us if you would like assistance with the process for your owner association being designated as “member funded” on transition, or a review of the options under the new Societies Act.
Andrea East is a business lawyer at Pushor Mitchell LLP practicing in the area of First Nations Law. You can reach Andrea at 250-869-1245 if you would like assistance.
