441. The 5 strata law reforms you didn’t see coming (NSW)
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New strata legislation has been made in NSW, expected to commence in mid-2025. This is the most significant strata reform since our 2015 Act. In this podcast episode, I’m highlighting 5 last-minute changes that were made to the Bill, which will have significant impacts on owners, committees, and managers. Make sure you didn’t miss them.
Links mentioned:
- Get the transcript here!
- Podcast Episode 431. Highlights from the NSW strata law reform
- Strata Shake-Up Webinar: What the Proposed New Laws Really Mean for You (just make sure you’re logged in to the members’ portal to access this resource)
- Final Form of the Bill
- Not a member yet? Join our online community here: stratamembership.com
This is interesting in the light of payment for Strata committee , so much personal time.. No reimbursement..Needs to change i think.. Less money to strata management , and some for strata committee..
Thank you for the very informative comments on the new legislation. As a recent new home owner to strata the information was both informative and raised a few questions that will new answering.
About training for the Committee — good one.
But about not passing debt recovery expenses on owners — very bad. Now there is not much incentive to pay levies.
Suppose:
1. First reminder notice — no response from lot owner.
2. Second reminder notice — no response.
3. A letter to owner offering to discuss if there is any hardship and about possible payment plan — no response.
4. Letter of demand — ignored, no response.
5. Filing statement of claim to Court — and at this time the owner pays.
Now, are ALL THE ABOVE associated strata and legal expenses not claimable? Or all claimable on the grounds that the owner ignored the initial steps (reminder letters)? Or some claimable? Who and how will make such judgement? And if that ruling (which expenses are claimable and which are not) are to be decided by NCAT, then is the cost of NCAT application itself and preparation thereof are claimable?
I think stratas might prefer not to bother with arrears collection (unless a debt is large), and slackers and crooks who do not pay levies would rejoice. And NCAT will be flooded and paralysed with millions applications for orders to recover debt collection expenses…
If the government was really “compassionate” they should have set a list of (affordable) recoverable statutory fees for each step of arrears collection. That would be a deterministic approach — every lot owner would know exactly how much they will be up to for procrastinating levy payment.
Regards, Alex
Charges made to your invoice account without notifying you
Dear Amanda,
Friends have advised that you are conducting a survey to obtain opinions of strata property owners regarding the requirement for strata committees to attend training. We feel:
1) Education of strata committee members can probably be done by experts in strata law (i.e
solicitors) from a syllabus set by the NSW government. This is to ensure that everybody is taught the same things and that nothing is missed.
2) It is vital for the government to produce a text book for strata committees so that people can refer to it in future.
3) Content hopefully will include step by step procedures and requirements to get all aspects done.
4) Unless people attend training sessions in person there’s no way of knowing whether they have read and understood the material.
ALSO:
5) By the way, it would be a good idea for all new owners of strata and community title properties to also attend a similar course within one month of purchase. This is to prevent new owners breaching the legislation and by-laws AND they will be semi-ready to take over from current strata committee members when they retire. That is, there will be two separate courses; one for strata committees and another for purchasers.
6) We also hope that a separate training session be held for tenants before they rent a strata property for the first time. It would be a short 1-2 hour session explaining only those strata laws and by-laws relevant to tenants. This is to prevent tenants from wrecking common property as well as unit interiors and causing other problems, e.g. noise and parking. A certificate could be issued to those who complete the session and this certificate would be valuable for tenants to show leasing agents when they want to move to a different strata property. It would also help leasing agents to choose suitable tenants.
Thank you.
Diana and Peter