Stra­ta Schemes Leg­is­la­tion Amend­ment (Mis­cel­la­neous) Bill 2025 — Round 4 Pro­posed Changes

The pro­posed NSW stra­ta reform Bill intro­duced into Par­lia­ment on 19 Novem­ber 2025 aims to clar­i­fy exist­ing pro­vi­sions, boost con­sumer pro­tec­tions, and reduce reg­u­la­to­ry bur­dens. Key changes include exemp­tions for two-lot schemes, stricter rules on stra­ta man­ag­er terms and com­mis­sions, manda­to­ry com­mit­tee train­ing, and tight­ened rules on bonds, fees, and pay­ment plans part of the government’s ongo­ing effort to mod­ernise stra­ta legislation.

The Bill was intro­duced to NSW Par­lia­ment on 19 Novem­ber 2025 but has not yet passed. If enact­ed, it would rep­re­sent the lat­est pro­posed step in NSW Gov­ern­men­t’s ongo­ing reform of exist­ing stra­ta leg­is­la­tion. The Bill pro­pos­es a series of tar­get­ed amend­ments intend­ed to clar­i­fy exist­ing pro­vi­sions, improve con­sumer pro­tec­tions and reduce unnec­es­sary reg­u­la­to­ry burden 

We have out­lined below some of the sig­nif­i­cant changes cur­rent­ly proposed:

2 lot stra­ta schemes (which make up more than 30% of all stra­ta schemes in NSW): The aim is to reduce the reg­u­la­to­ry bur­den for these schemes and intro­duce a sim­pler deci­sion-mak­ing process.

These schemes will be exempt from cer­tain require­ments, in par­tic­u­lar requirements:

• to hold AGMs or oth­er gen­er­al meetings;
• to form a stra­ta committee;
• to pre­pare 10 year plans of antic­i­pat­ed major expen­di­ture to be meet from the cap­i­tal works fund at the first AGM of the scheme and for each fol­low­ing 10 year period;
• to give infor­ma­tion to the Sec­re­tary of the Depart­ment of Fair Trad­ing under cer­tain reg­u­la­tions made;
• oth­er pre­scribed require­ments as may be determined.

This includes ancil­lary require­ments in the stra­ta man­age­ment leg­is­la­tion in con­nec­tion with the above exempt­ed requirements.

Deci­sions will need to be made by way of res­o­lu­tion in writ­ing, which becomes the record to be kept by the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion for a two lot stra­ta scheme, and writ­ten res­o­lu­tions will be required to be retained for 7 years.

Term exten­sions of stra­ta man­ag­ing agency agree­ments: a stra­ta man­ag­er can extend their term of appoint­ment by a max­i­mum of 3 months by writ­ten notice at least 1 month before expiry of the man­ager’s term of appoint­ment, but this exten­sion can­not occur if the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion gives the stra­ta man­ag­er notice at least 2 months before expiry of the term that the stra­ta man­ag­er will not be reap­point­ed, or oth­er­wise where the stra­ta com­mit­tee has already extend­ed the man­ag­ing agen­t’s term by up to 3 months pend­ing a deci­sion to reappoint.

Com­mis­sions and train­ing ser­vices to man­ag­ing agents: details will need to be pro­vid­ed by man­ag­ing agents to own­ers cor­po­ra­tions, includ­ing details of the per­son who pro­vid­ed or paid for the com­mis­sions or train­ing ser­vices to man­ag­ing agents.

Build­ing Man­ag­er agree­ments and appoint­ment terms: Terms of appoint­ment will now be sim­i­lar to terms of appoint­ment for stra­ta man­ag­ing agents. The max­i­mum term of appoint­ment of build­ing man­agers will be reduced from 10 to 3 years. 

If the build­ing man­age­ment agree­ment is entered into before the first AGM of the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion, it will expire on the date of the first AGM, and if entered into by res­o­lu­tion at the first AGM of the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion, it will expire at the end of the sec­ond AGM. 

Reg­u­la­tions will be able to pre­scribe dif­fer­ent terms of appoint­ment depend­ing on the spec­i­fied class of build­ing man­ag­er. It is envis­aged that let­ting rights busi­ness­es will be cov­ered under dif­fer­ent appoint­ment terms. 

NCAT will also be able to order ter­mi­na­tion of a build­ing man­age­ment agree­ment, if the build­ing man­ag­er breach­es pre­scribed duties.

Manda­to­ry stra­ta com­mit­tee mem­ber train­ing: to be deliv­ered by approved train­ing providers, with reg­u­la­tions to out­line the approval process.. New sec­tion also deals with approval of train­ing providers by the Sec­re­tary of Fair Trad­ing. These details are not yet known and changes are antic­i­pat­ed to occur next year.

More mat­ters that will be able to be includ­ed in Pay­ment Plans for Con­tri­bu­tions: These changes are intend­ed to clar­i­fy that pay­ment plans can cov­er both cur­rent and future con­tri­bu­tions. If agreed by an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion and an own­er, a pay­ment plan will also be able to include inter­est payable on over­due con­tri­bu­tions, a con­tri­bu­tion that has been levied but is not yet due and payable, or any oth­er mat­ters pre­scribed by the regulations.

Reminder Notices to own­ers for unpaid con­tri­bu­tions and inter­est, and addi­tion­al require­ments before action can be tak­en to recov­er these amounts from an own­er: Own­ers cor­po­ra­tions will be required to give a reminder notice to an own­er between 7 and 10 days after a con­tri­bu­tion becomes due and payable. Reminder notices will need to include the man­dat­ed mat­ters in pro­posed sec­tion 85A(2). The intent appears to be that recov­ery action is not to be tak­en against an own­er until at least 30 days after the lat­er of the reminder notice issu­ing and notice tak­en of the action. Reg­u­la­tions can also pro­vide addi­tion­al cir­cum­stances in which an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion may not take actions to recov­er for these monies, and the require­ments or con­di­tions for tak­ing such action. 

Require­ment for Rea­son­able Bonds or Fees: This is in addi­tion to the ban on bonds or fees for the keep­ing of pets under sec­tion 105A, and pro­posed sec­tion 105AA can have wider appli­ca­tion and impact, for exam­ple, bonds are com­mon­ly required by own­ers cor­po­ra­tions as a con­di­tion on an own­er under­tak­ing ren­o­va­tions to a lot (some of these are stan­dard require­ments in glob­al ren­o­va­tions by-laws for exam­ple). Any bonds or fees must be rea­son­able, hav­ing regard to the like­ly risk of dam­age to the com­mon prop­er­ty aris­ing from mat­ters to which the bond relates. Specifics need to be pro­vid­ed with regards to cir­cum­stances in which the bond is to be released to the own­er or occu­pi­er or claimed by the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion (whole or part), and when the oblig­a­tion is released must be with­in a spec­i­fied time if not claimed. Fees charged for goods or ser­vices must be rea­son­able and not greater than the rea­son­able cost incurred by the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion. The Reg­u­la­tions will be able to pre­scribe fur­ther bans on bonds or fees.

Changes to major work, fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion on cos­met­ic work and minor work: 

• Major Works: With regards to what now con­sti­tutes a major works, there is a small change pro­posed to com­mon prop­er­ty ref­er­ence in sec­tion 108 – the sec­tion 108 head­ing will refer to ​“prop­er­ty major work” and sec­tion 108(1) will clar­i­fy that such work to com­mon prop­er­ty does not need to be in con­nec­tion with the own­er’s lot. The reg­u­la­tions can now pre­scribe what will be a major work for the pur­pos­es of this sec­tion and can exclude work from the oper­a­tion of this sec­tion (wait and see what these will be exactly).
• Cos­met­ic Works: Will no longer be defined by ref­er­ence to sec­tions 109(2) (an open-end­ed inclu­sive list) and (5) (say­ing that the sec­tion did not apply to cer­tain work) of the Act – these pro­vi­sions described what ​“cos­met­ic works” were and con­tained the pro­vi­sion which pro­vid­ed that cer­tain works did not fall with­in that sec­tion 109. New sec­tion 109(6) will be insert­ed and will be a dif­fer­ent test, name­ly ​“work involv­ing attach­ing fix­tures to, apply­ing cov­er­ings to or dec­o­rat­ing the sur­face of walls, floors or ceil­ings with­in an own­er’s lot”, and also includes ​“work as pre­scribed by the reg­u­la­tions” and can include exclu­sions as per the regulations.
• Minor Ren­o­va­tions: Will now be known as ​“Minor Work” with a change in head­ing to sec­tion 110. Will no longer be defined by ref­er­ence to sec­tion 110(3) (open end­ed inclu­sive list). The def­i­n­i­tion of what con­sti­tutes a minor work will now be set out in new sec­tion 110 (9) and will mean ​“work involv­ing repair, replace­ment or alter­ation of an owner’s lot that does not affect a build­ing ele­ment or pre­scribed as minor work by the reg­u­la­tions, but does not include work exclud­ed by the reg­u­la­tions. It appears that this def­i­n­i­tion may require fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion as it is unclear whether it includes changes to com­mon prop­er­ty Intro­duc­tion of ​“build­ing ele­ment” def­i­n­i­tion which has the same mean­ing as in the DBPA.

It appears that this def­i­n­i­tion may require fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion as it is unclear whether it includes changes to com­mon property

Intro­duc­tion of ​“build­ing ele­ment” def­i­n­i­tion which has the same mean­ing as in the DBPA.

Glob­al ren­o­va­tions by-laws for Minor and Major Works may need to be rewrit­ten or amend­ed as many terms com­mon­ly used in by-laws of this kind are like­ly to be impact­ed this Bill becomes law, and terms will be depen­dent on what is con­tained in the Reg­u­la­tions, which is as yet unknown. Worth not­ing if your scheme is con­sid­er­ing under­tak­ing any by-law reviews.

Changes to Ini­tial Main­te­nance Sched­ules: These will need to com­ply with the require­ments set out in the Reg­u­la­tions. Penal­ties will be imposed for breaches.

Win­dow Safe­ty Devices: The Bill will clar­i­fy that win­dow safe­ty devices are an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to main­tain, in the same man­ner as its oblig­a­tion to main­tain and repair com­mon prop­er­ty. An own­er’s right to install these devices do not appear to have changed , nor that own­er’s oblig­a­tion to main­tain and repair devices installed by them. Penal­ties wil be increased on own­ers cor­po­ra­tions to ensure com­pli­ance with these amend­ed provisions. 

Stand­alone approval process for instal­la­tion of Elec­tric Vehi­cle Charg­ing Sta­tion on an Own­er’s Lot: Pro­posed new sec­tion 132D will be intro­duced which will only require an own­er to give the stra­ta com­mit­tee writ­ten notice (an instal­la­tion notice) set­ting out the own­er’s inten­tion to install a charg­ing sta­tion and pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion or doc­u­ments as required by the Reg­u­la­tions. A stra­ta com­mit­tee can­not unrea­son­ably object and has to pro­vide its approval or refusal with­in 3 months of the instal­la­tion notice, with deemed con­sent if no action tak­en by the stra­ta com­mit­tee 3 months from the instal­la­tion notice . This will oper­ate as a stand­alone pro­vi­sion, and not be sub­ject to Cos­met­ic Work, Minor Work or Major Works pro­vi­sion, under the Act or under any by-laws. An own­er will be required to pay the costs of instal­la­tion and indem­ni­fy the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion in respect of such charg­ing sta­tion installations.

The pro­posed sec­tion does not how­ev­er deal with about who will ulti­mate­ly be respon­si­ble for upgrad­ing the elec­tri­cal sys­tem or elec­tri­cal load capac­i­ty of stra­ta build­ings to cope with the changes. This will like­ly be a mat­ter for the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion to deal with.

Embed­ded Net­works and Exclu­sive Sup­ply Agree­ments: New sec­tion 132AA is pro­posed to be intro­duced to deal with these kinds of agree­ments and will them void to the extent they require the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion to pay mon­ey by way of cov­er­ing cap­i­tal costs (usu­al­ly charged as exit and ter­mi­na­tion fees), or requir­ing it to pur­chase the infra­struc­ture at the ​“end” of the agree­ment (“end” is defined). No removal of infra­struc­ture will be per­mit­ted by the net­work provider with­out the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion’s writ­ten con­sent. This applies to all future agree­ments, and is sub­ject to any exclu­sions in the reg­u­la­tions. It does not appear to apply to exist­ing agree­ments which is of concern. 

Alter­na­tives to affix­ing com­mon seal of own­ers cor­po­ra­tion: The Bill will sup­port alter­na­tive ways for own­ers cor­po­ra­tions to exe­cute doc­u­ments oth­er than by affix­ing its com­mon seal. The Bill will enable reg­u­la­tions to require nec­es­sary records to be kept if an alter­na­tive to the com­mon seal is used. These records are to be avail­able for inspec­tion as an appro­pri­ate con­trol and for sake of pro­bity and transparency.

Ini­tial peri­od restric­tions: Penal­ties will be increased and imposed for non-com­pli­ances – this of par­tic­u­lar rel­e­vance to own­ers cor­po­ra­tions who are new­ly formed and they must ensure exclu­sive use by-laws are not passed dur­ing this peri­od. Pro­posed new sec­tion 140(6) makes clear that action can be tak­en for dam­ages at the same time as pros­e­cu­tion for an offence by the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion of doing some­thing it should­n’t dur­ing the ini­tial peri­od with regards to by-law changes.

Own­ers Cor­po­ra­tion needs at least 2 quotes for pro­posed works exceed­ing $30,000.

Meet­ing pro­ce­dures: Cur­rent Sched­ules 1 & 2 to the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 which deal with meet­ing pro­ce­dures will be moved to the Reg­u­la­tions for more flex­i­bil­i­ty. Updat­ed pro­ce­dures will be released once the Bill is passed, by such Regulations.

Fair Trad­ing can pub­lish com­pli­ance notices and under­tak­ings: NSW Fair Trad­ing may pub­lish infor­ma­tion about com­pli­ance notices and under­tak­ing issued under the stra­ta man­age­ment legislation.

NCAT expand­ed pow­ers: NCAT can order repay­ment of an unrea­son­able bond or fee, or a bond that the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion failed to release in accor­dance with its terms. NCAT will now have pow­er to order that any mon­ey payable by an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion be paid from con­tri­bu­tions only in rela­tion to cer­tain lots, instead of all lots. For­mer­ly only a court could order this. This will be of inter­est to lot own­ers tak­ing on an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion for repair of com­mon prop­er­ty. Changes pro­posed will also con­firm NCAT’s pow­er to award dam­ages for cer­tain breach­es of statu­to­ry duties with respect to ini­tial peri­od restric­tions under sec­tion 26 and 140, as well as sec­tion 106.

Real estate agents or lessors: will be required to give the own­ers cor­po­ra­tion notice of a ten­ant vacat­ing a lot.

Stra­ta Hub Fund: will be cre­at­ed to receive pay­ments to Fair Trad­ing relat­ing to the main­te­nance of stra­ta infor­ma­tion on Stra­ta Hub.

The intent will also be to shift many things from the Stra­ta Schemes Man­age­ment Act 2015 into Reg­u­la­tions for increased flex­i­bil­i­ty. Also, watch this space, as there may be fur­ther changes to the pro­posed Bill before it is passed into law.