More Changes for Stra­ta — effec­tive 1 April 2026

The Fair Trad­ing and Build­ing Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment Bill 2026 was passed by par­lia­ment dur­ing Feb­ru­ary 2026 with the changes effec­tive on 1 April 2026. 

This forms part of a broad­er reg­u­la­to­ry over­haul aimed at strength­en­ing con­sumer pro­tec­tion, tight­en­ing com­pli­ance stan­dards and improv­ing account­abil­i­ty across build­ing and real estate indus­tries. The objec­tive is to reduce reg­u­la­to­ry gaps and align over­sight across the full prop­er­ty life­cy­cle, from design and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion through to sale, con­veyanc­ing and ten­an­cy man­age­ment. For prop­er­ty devel­op­ers, builders, agents and investors, the reforms sig­nal a con­tin­ued empha­sis on com­pli­ance, doc­u­men­ta­tion stan­dards and pro­fes­sion­al account­abil­i­ty.[1]

Sum­ma­ry of changes to the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015

Enforce­ment in 2‑lot stra­ta schemes

• Two lot stra­ta schemes will now be able to apply to the tri­bunal for a penal­ty where one own­er has failed to com­ply with a by-law. 

Sec­tion 211AA Definitions

• The fol­low­ing def­i­n­i­tions have been added or amend­ed: build­ing ele­ment, build­ing prod­uct, decen­ni­al insur­ance, DLI pol­i­cy, rel­e­vant defect, and ver­ti­cal Trans­porta­tion product.
• The change to the def­i­n­i­tion of rel­e­vant defect seeks to remove the reliance on seri­ous defects as defined in the RAB Act. This change aims to achieve align­ment of this new def­i­n­i­tion with the intend­ed pur­pose of decen­ni­al lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance, being to pro­vide cov­er for non-com­pli­ance relat­ed defects which result in dam­age, seri­ous injury or risk of death. This amend­ment is aimed at get­ting decen­ni­al lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance operational. 

Manda­to­ry forms

• New and reviewed 10 year cap­i­tal works plans must use the stan­dard form pro­vid­ed by the NSW Gov­ern­ment. You can access the link here 10 year cap­i­tal works fund plan — Stra­ta | NSW Gov­ern­ment. There is also a 10-year cap­i­tal works fund plan­ner avail­able to use. Be aware that a two lot stra­ta scheme may not need a cap­i­tal works fund if the lots are phys­i­cal­ly detached, no build­ings or parts of the build­ing are locat­ed out­side the two lots eg on com­mon prop­er­ty, and the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion pass­es a unan­i­mous vote that a cap­i­tal works fund is not required.
• Own­ers cor­po­ra­tions that have an exist­ing 10 year cap­i­tal works plan in place do not need to change those plans to the stan­dard form. How­ev­er, if an exist­ing plan is reviewed or pre­pared, the new form must be used.
• The ini­tial owner/​developer must pre­pare an ini­tial main­te­nance sched­ule and pro­vide this to the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion at least 14 days before the first AGM. For ini­tial main­te­nance sched­ules after 1 April, the pre­scribed stan­dard­ised form must be used. Access the form here Ini­tial main­te­nance sched­ule — Stra­ta | NSW Gov­ern­ment. For new mul­ti-storey schemes (which includes apart­ment blocks) using such ini­tial main­te­nance sched­ule and ini­tial levy esti­mates must be reviewed and cer­ti­fied by an inde­pen­dent sur­vey­or. The sur­vey­or must cer­ti­fy that this and the ini­tial esti­mate on levies meet the expect­ed expen­di­ture for the year fol­low­ing the first AGM. These doc­u­ments togeth­er with proof of inde­pen­dence of such sur­vey­or must be pre­sent­ed to the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion at least 14 days before the first AGM. Penal­ties will apply if the ini­tial owner/​developer does not adhere.

Prepar­ing Infor­ma­tion Cer­tifi­cates com­mon­ly known as Sec­tion 184 Certificates 

• Sec­tion 184 Cer­tifi­cates pro­vide infor­ma­tion about a lot, includ­ing finan­cial details. These are often request­ed when such a lot is to be sold. Such cer­tifi­cates will need to include infor­ma­tion about exclu­sive sup­ply net­works (com­mon­ly referred to as embed­ded net­works) and the nature of the ser­vice pro­vid­ed by these net­works. This includes the sup­ply of elec­tric­i­ty, gas, hot and cold water, inter­net access, or oth­er util­i­ties. No form for this is avail­able as yet but a link will be pro­vid­ed for such a form by the NSW Gov­ern­ment before 1 April 2026.
• Changes with respect to manda­to­ry train­ing for stra­ta com­mit­tee mem­bers and exclu­sive sup­ply net­works for off-the-plan con­tracts for sale are not yet finalised but are expect­ed to come into leg­is­la­tion dur­ing 2026.

Oth­er rel­e­vant legislation

Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment Act 1999 (NSW)

• The def­i­n­i­tion of busi­ness has been replaced with work­ing day.

Build­ing and Devel­op­ment Cer­ti­fiers Act 2018 No 63

• Dis­ci­pli­nary action will be allowed to be tak­en against a per­son no longer reg­is­tered as a certifier.

Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020

• The NSW Gov­ern­ment has been autho­rised to cre­ate reg­u­la­tions that exempt spe­cif­ic per­sons or types of build­ing work from this Act’s requirements. 

Home Build­ing Act 1989 No 147

• Intro­duces new pow­ers for the Sec­re­tary to vary, sus­pend or can­cel an author­i­ty if the hold­er of an author­i­ty is not qual­i­fied to hold such an authority.

(No change to the def­i­n­i­tion of author­i­ty but for ref­er­ence in read­ing this change, ​“author­i­ty” means the following:

(a) a con­trac­tor licence (whether or not an endorsed con­trac­tor licence),

(b) a super­vi­sor or trades­per­son certificate,

(c) an own­er-builder permit.

• Estab­lish­es the Build­ing Admin­is­tra­tion Fund (Fund) in the Spe­cial Deposits Account and sets out the amounts which must or may be paid into the which is to be man­aged and con­trolled by the Secretary.

Res­i­den­tial Apart­ment Build­ings Com­pli­ance and Enforce­ment Pow­ers) Act 2020 (RAB Act)

• Intro­duces a def­i­n­i­tion of build­ing leg­is­la­tion:

“build­ing leg­is­la­tion means this Act and the fol­low­ing Acts, includ­ing instru­ments made under the Acts:

the Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment Act 1999,

the Build­ing and Devel­op­ment Cer­ti­fiers Act 2018,

the Build­ing Prod­ucts (Safe­ty) Act 2017,

the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020,

the Gas and Elec­tric­i­ty (Con­sumer Safe­ty) Act 2017

the Home Build­ing Act 1989,

the Plumb­ing and Drainage Act 2011,

the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015, 

the Swim­ming Pools Act 1992.

• The def­i­n­i­tion of rel­e­vant agency has been amend­ed to include the Aus­tralian Pru­den­tial Reg­u­la­tion Author­i­ty, the Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties and Invest­ments Com­mis­sion, the Aus­tralian Tax­a­tion Office.
• This def­i­n­i­tion is used to pro­vide that infor­ma­tion exchanged pur­suant to the pro­vi­sions of the Act apply to infor­ma­tion rea­son­ably nec­es­sary for the pur­pos­es of enabling or assist­ing a rel­e­vant agency to reg­u­late or take action under build­ing leg­is­la­tion as defined, or inves­ti­gat­ing offences against laws of the Sate, Com­mon­wealth or any State or Territory.

If you need assis­tance with these changes and how to imple­ment them in your stra­ta scheme, Swaab’s spe­cial­ist stra­ta law team can

[1] https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bill/files/18857/XN_Fair%20Trading%20and%20Building%20Legislation%20Amendment%20Bill.pdf

Guide to stra­ta law changes for stra­ta com­mit­tees and own­ers | NSW Government