Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 116:

In page 74, lines 42 and 43, to delete all words from and including "with" in line 42 down to and including "meeting" in line 43 and substitute the following:

"with the approval of a 60 per cent majority vote of the members present and voting at the meeting".

Section 67(6)(a) refers to the apartment complex service charge being amended at a general meeting of the company's members, with the approval of 60% of those present and voting at the meeting. Subsection (6)(b) provides that where over 75% of the members present and voting do not approve of the proposed charge, the existing charge shall remain in place until the adoption of a new charge. The provision, as drafted, could be read as implying that each member present has only one vote on the service charge. However, as section 65(3)(a) makes clear, a person who owns more than one apartment in the complex, notably the housing authority, has one vote in respect of each such apartment. Therefore, the housing authority and any other multiple apartment owners, if present, should be counted separately for each apartment it owns, for the purpose of both voting and calculating the 60% and 75% threshold. These amendments clarify this matter.

See this speech in context