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.

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.

• In 2025 at our resort the standard levy for timeshare owners is $1,660.

• Private owners, who have access to their property 52 weeks a year, pay building levies that are far higher—around $10,500 per unit in 2025.
• 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 private 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.

• 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 private owners.

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

But in a Poll:

 The 48 timeshare votes are unchanged.

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

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

In this example, private owners win 153 to 48.

This illustrates why private owners have extremely powerful 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 a private owner disagrees with the outcome.

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

Are Polls used often?

In short, no.

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