Annual meetings for apartment owners do not typically lend themselves to compelling storytelling, but Shakespeare might not have written a more tragicomic tale than my building’s most recent strata meeting. It was the largest ever turnout for our AGM. They tend to be small, sleepy affairs. But this time, about 50 residents filed in, drawn by an opportunity to vote on a bylaw amendment that would finally end the ban on drying laundry on balconies and allow us to put out a portable clothes rack.

Nature’s dryer.Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

After some procedural matters, it was time for the results. And it was a nailbiter. As with any strata bylaw change under NSW legislation, this matter was voted on by “special resolution”, where change is possible only if at least 75 per cent of the votes cast support the motion. That is, even if just a quarter of voters oppose the motion, it is defeated.

That tally, to complicate matters, is based on the entitlements allotted to each unit rather than the number of apartment owners voting. And those entitlements are allocated in direct proportion to the market value of each unit, so they reflect people’s share of ownership in common property. Owners of more valuable units are bestowed greater voting........

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