Not all owners are created equal – put simply some owners have greater voting rights than others – and they have to pay more levies. It is not uncommon in small apartments (say an apartment with only two or three units) for one owner to have greater units of entitlement than the other owner (more than 51%). In this situation they effectively control the strata scheme.
It is common for a group of owners to group together to form a voting block. However if they make resolutions that do not benefit all owners then all a disgruntled minority owner has to do is follow the procedure for disputes and an adjudicator is almost certain to intervene, usually by appointing a compulsory manager.
Units of entitlement are listed for each lot on the strata plan, lots do not necessarily correlate to apartment numbers and some translation or addition may be required.
Units of entitlement should be proportional to the value of the units on the date of registration of the strata plan. This is often not the case and unfortunately a large number of apartments have incorrect units of entitlement.
A procedure is specified in the Act to vary the units of entitlement, the section on disputes refers.
Special rules apply during what is called the initial period, the impact of these rules is to lessen the power of the developer and increase the power of new owners in a strata scheme.