Voting by Poll

What the Law Says

Under the Unit Titles Act 2010, every timeshare owner receives one vote for each “unit” they own. In practical terms, this works out to one vote per week of ownership—whether the week is fixed, floating, or biennial. Even biennial weeks, which are only used every second year, still count as one full vote.

Non timeshare owners (referred to as private owners) also receive one vote per unit.

This creates a significant imbalance:

• A biennial timeshare owner pays their levy only every second year, while other timeshare owners pay annually.

• Non timeshare owners, who have access to their property 52 weeks a year, pay building levies that are far higher than timeshare owners.

• Many private owners have invested over $1 million in their property, yet under a normal vote, their single vote holds the same weight as that of any one-week timeshare owner.

How voting power is balanced

The Unit Titles Act provides a mechanism to correct the imbalance between non timeshare owners and timeshare owners: the Poll vote.

A poll is a voting method where each vote is weighted according to the Ownership Interest of the unit involved. Ownership Interest is set by a registered valuer when the unit plan is created. It is not a dollar value—it simply reflects each unit’s proportion of the overall development.

• In a timeshare building, there are 51 owned weeks (one per owner). The 52nd week is left unowned for maintenance, so each timeshare owner holds 1/51 of that building’s Ownership Interest.

• Non timeshare (private) owners, on the other hand, own an entire unit outright and therefore hold the full Ownership Interest for that building.

Example

Assume all buildings have equal Ownership Interest.

 There are 51 owners voting, including 3 non timeshare owners.

 In an ordinary vote, timeshare owners could out-vote non timeshare owners 48 to 3.

But in a Poll:

 The 48 timeshare votes are unchanged.

 Each non timeshare owner’s vote is worth 51 times a single timeshare vote.

• So the three non timeshare owners have voting strength of 3 × 51 = 153 votes.

In this example, non timeshare owners outvote timeshare owners 153 to 48.

This illustrates why non timeshare owners can have equitable voting rights—if they choose to use

them.

How to request a poll.

When can a Poll be requested?

A poll can be requested when a motion has been voted on and passed, but an owner disagrees with the outcome.

Any non timeshare owner (or their proxy) who voted on the motion may request a Poll.

Are Polls used often?

In short, no.

Most non timeshare owners are simply unaware of the significant voting power they hold.