- with Finance and Tax Executives and Inhouse Counsel
- with readers working within the Property industries
In our previous article, we covered the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment Act 2025, which introduced a wide range of reforms to the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and its equivalent for community associations, the Community Land Management Act 2021.
The amending legislation is being implemented in multiple stages, with some changes having come into force on the day of assent in March 2025, followed by a second set of changes on 1 July 2025.
The third and most recent changes, commenced on 27 October 2025, and include:
- requiring owners corporations to offer a payment plan to owners who are falling behind on strata levy repayments prior to commencing debt recovery actions
- requiring owners corporations to provide a Financial Hardship Information Statement to owners alongside each strata levy notice
- introducing obligations and penalties for building managers to ensure that they act in the best interests of their clients, including disclosure requirements for any conflicts of interest or benefits received
- broadening NSW Fair Trading's powers, to allow it to issue compliance notices and enter enforceable undertakings with owners corporations that fail to repair and maintain common property. This is particularly significant, as it provides an alternative pathway to owners litigating at their own cost to compel an OC to repair serious defects.
The strata reform is broadly intended to give owners in strata schemes across NSW greater trust and confidence in how strata is regulated. Strengthening regulation supports the significant role played by strata in the NSW property landscape, particularly in the area of affordable housing.
Two more sets of changes from the Act are still anticipated to come into force in 2026, with the first scheduled to commence on 1 April 2026.These concern:
- increasing long-term planning requirements for owners corporations
- strengthening developer accountability for new strata schemes, including an obligation to prepare handover documents such as an initial maintenance schedule and estimates of expected contributions of administrative fund and capital works funds for the owners corporation
- introducing mandatory training requirements for strata committee members
- requiring exclusive supply networks (embedded networks) to be disclosed in off-the-plan contracts of sale.
A copy of the ministerial release can be found here.
This publication does not deal with every important topic or change in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you have found this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact one of the named individuals listed.
