What's the difference between ordinary, special and unanimous resolutions?

Not every strata decision carries the same weight, and legislation reflects that by requiring different levels of owner agreement depending on what's being decided.

Ordinary resolutions

Most routine committee and scheme business — approving standard maintenance, adopting minutes, day-to-day decisions — is passed by ordinary resolution, generally a simple majority of those voting.

Special resolutions

More significant matters — commonly things like certain by-law changes or spending above particular thresholds — typically require a special resolution, which needs a larger majority and can be defeated by a smaller proportion of votes against than would defeat an ordinary resolution. The exact majority and opposition thresholds are set by each state's legislation and can differ.

Unanimous resolutions

The most significant matters — historically including things like adding or removing common property, in some states — require every vote cast to be in favour, with no votes against, though abstentions are usually still allowed. These are naturally harder to pass and are reserved for decisions with the biggest impact on the scheme.

Why getting this right matters

Passing a motion under the wrong resolution type can make it invalid even if the vote count would have satisfied the correct threshold. If a committee is unsure which resolution type a matter needs, that's worth checking against your state's current legislation or asking your strata manager, particularly for by-law changes and anything affecting common property.

How Flex Strata supports this

Meetings tools let you record each motion against its resolution type as it's moved, so the vote result recorded in the minutes lines up with the threshold that actually applied — reducing the risk of a mismatch being spotted only after the fact.