For several years, the Onehunga apartment building held its AGM on a Tuesday evening in November. Last year, they moved online. An invitation went out by email, with a link to the meeting platform and an electronic ballot. Of the building's 60 owners, 54 participated — directly in the meeting or via the electronic proxy function. That is compared to the nine who showed up to the previous year's in-person meeting. Every resolution was passed. The meeting took 45 minutes. Minutes were distributed the next morning.
Electronic meetings and electronic voting are explicitly provided for under the Unit Titles Act — remote attendance has been permitted since late 2022, and the updated Regulations set out the procedures for electronic voting. This isn't a special exemption or a temporary measure — it is a permanent change to how bodies corporate can run their governance, and for many buildings it is the most significant practical improvement the law has made in years.
What is actually permitted? The body corporate can hold meetings entirely online, entirely in person, or in a hybrid format where some people attend physically and others join remotely. Electronic voting is permitted for any resolution that can be voted on at a meeting. Proxy votes can be submitted electronically. The requirement for a physical signature on proxy forms — which was one of the reasons proxy participation was so low in many buildings — no longer applies in the same way.
There are rules about how electronic meetings must be run. The body corporate must take reasonable steps to provide facilities for owners to attend remotely, to enable electronic voting, and to verify the identity of those voting electronically. Voting mechanisms must produce a reliable record of who voted and how, and voting records — including proxy forms — must be retained after the meeting.
The quorum rules still apply. You can't hold a valid meeting without quorum just because it is online. But the practical effect of electronic participation is that quorum is much easier to achieve. In many buildings, the main reason quorum was borderline at in-person meetings was that owners couldn't make a specific time on a specific day. When attendance is possible from a phone at home, the barrier drops significantly.
Notice requirements haven't changed substantially. You still need to give proper notice of the meeting and provide all the documents that owners need to make informed decisions. What has changed is how notice can be given — electronic notice is explicitly recognised, which means email notice to all owners is valid as long as the body corporate's rules permit electronic communication.
Records: the body corporate must keep records of electronic voting and electronic meetings in the same way as for in-person meetings. Minutes, voting results, proxy records — all of these need to be retained and accessible to owners.
For buildings that are still holding poorly attended in-person meetings: the case for switching to an online or hybrid format is now both legally clear and practically compelling. The Onehunga building's jump from 9 to 54 participants isn't unusual — it is what tends to happen when the barrier to participation drops. Higher participation means more owners have a say in decisions, which tends to mean decisions are better accepted even by those who voted against them.
Quarter is the new body corporate — transparent, owner-first, and built for the way people actually live together. See how it works at quarter.nz.