Your guide to the new NSW Strata Living Guide

The NSW government has released its long-awaited and much-vaunted guide to strata living and, like the proverbial curate’s egg, it’s good in parts.

On the plus side, it clearly and succinctly lays out and explains the basics of strata living which will be a huge help to strata newbies, especially, as well as owners and tenants who haven’t kept pace with changes in the law.

However, while it is an easy-to-read guide to how strata mostly works, most of the time, it has some pretty fundamental gaps in the knowledge it offers and promises information that simply isn’t there.

For instance, the accompanying press release says it will tell us how meetings should be run. Great! Finally we have set of guidelines about how strata committee and AGMs should be conducted – a suggested code of conduct and standing orders, for instance? Except we don’t.

Instead there’s a hyperlink to a page that contains just the same general procedural information (or lack thereof) that has been on the books for years.

And where is the section about how to deal with strata managers who are paying fast and loose with the rules and regs (as we have seen so vividly exposed this year, not least in the Netstrata scandal)?

Where is the section that warns first-time owners not to be duped into agreeing to binding embedded network contracts at their first AGM? In fact, where is the section that simply explains to owners to be very careful about what they agree to at the first AGM.

The guide is mostly adequate and largely uncontroversial and that latter aspect is a shame – this was an opportunity to make apartment owners aware of where they could be and often are taken advantage of.

Admittedly it outlines succinctly how to make and pursue a complaint. But otherwise it comes from a perfect world where everyone follows the rules or faces the consequences of not doing so – a fantasy land that we know simply doesn’t exist.

Done properly this guide would have extinguished any need for this website or others like it.  We feel no need to shut up shop.

The NSW Government Press Release

This is the Press release that arrived today, and we present it unedited and without comment.

Understanding how strata communities operate becomes easier from today, with the NSW Government launching a guide to support the 1.2 million residents living in strata properties such as apartments, townhouses, and duplexes.

The Strata Living Guide has been updated following consultation that has incorporated thecommunity’s feedback and responses.

The Guide will give strata property owners and prospective buyers clear advice in plain English on a range of topics aimed at improving decision-making in strata communities.

The new Guide has practical ‘how to’ information for those living in strata properties, such as how to run strata meetings and other key strata processes, how to manage strata finances, and how to raise issues.

The guide also helpfully suggests ways to go about getting things done such as regular or emergency repairs and approvals for renovations, resolving disputes, and managing relationships with the owners’ corporation and strata manager.

The Guide also highlights the strata law changes coming into effect in February 2025, which expand and strengthen strata managing agents’ disclosure obligations to owners, including reforms to make insurance arrangements more transparent.

NSW Fair Trading is also releasing information for strata property owners, and owners’ corporations, about options available when owners are having difficulty paying their strata levies on time, without compromising the financial viability of strata schemes.

Proposed legislation to be introduced to Parliament next week will make strata management practices around levies clearer, such as improving levy notice information and fairer conditions for payment plans.

This includes levy notices being accompanied by information encouraging early action by lot owners in financial hardship, and information about how to contact the National Debt Helpline.

To access the Strata Living Guide and other resources to help strata property owners, please visit: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata

Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong said: “The Minns Labor Government is continuing to improve the regulatory framework we need to build better homes and communities for the people of NSW.”