NSW Strata Reforms 2025-2026: What's Actually Changed

Reviewed and updated 14-10-2026. We corrected several items: accessibility works need a special resolution with a lower bar (it passes unless 50% or more of the votes cast are against), not a simple majority; the capital works plan form applies to every plan prepared from 01-04-2026; the 3-month deemed approval applies only where the committee has been given the power; committee training and the 2-lot Strata Hub exemption started on 01-10-2026. We removed details we could not verify, including inspection fee amounts.

NSW strata law has changed in several stages between late 2024 and October 2026 — with more still before Parliament. Here's the quick version: what's now in force, what isn't yet, and what it means for a small townhouse or villa scheme.

If you own in strata, you don't need to memorise every detail. But you should know roughly what's changed, because it affects how renovations get approved, how levies are recovered, how solar gets installed, what your strata manager has to tell you, and what your committee has to do.

Stage 1 — 8 November 2024 and 3 February 2025: strata manager disclosure

• Before appointment — the manager must disclose connections with suppliers it routinely uses for other schemes, and any advice it gave the developer in the previous 2 years (s71).
• During the appointment — written notice before entering a contract where the manager could receive a commission or the supplier is connected to it, and connection disclosures at every AGM (s60).
• Commissions — only with a general meeting resolution, supported by the manager's written statement of the amount and why it's in the scheme's interest (s57).
• Insurance quotes — must break down the base premium, commission, broker fee, stamp duty, levies, other fees and GST (s166).
• No commission on insurance that the owners corporation obtained and arranged itself.

Stage 2 — 2025: most of the 2025 package (mainly from 1 July 2025)

• Minor renovations — where a by-law lets the committee decide them, refusals need written reasons, and no response within 3 months means approval (s110).
• Alterations to common property — the special resolution must now say who maintains the altered area (s108).
• Sustainability infrastructure — by-laws can't block it on appearance grounds alone (heritage properties excepted) (s139B); a sustainability item is now required on every AGM agenda, and sustainability spending must be estimated in the budget.
• Accessibility infrastructure for people with a disability — approved by a special resolution that passes unless 50% or more of the votes cast are against (a lower bar than the usual special resolution). Set considerations must be weighed first (s132C).
• Unfair contract terms law now applies to contracts with owners corporations.
• Repairs (s106) — owners now have 6 years (was 2) to claim damages for a failure to repair; the owners corporation may defer repairs only while it pursues another party, and only if safety and access aren't affected.
• Assistance animals — the evidence an owners corporation can ask for is set out in the Act and Regulation.
• Strata managers must give the owners corporation records of the functions they've exercised at least every 6 months (s55).
• Supply agreements — the 3-year maximum term now also covers communication and domestic services.
• Developer penalties for late first AGMs or late documents — $11,000 plus $220 a day.
• Legal services — no general meeting approval needed for urgent legal action up to $15,000 or non-urgent legal services up to $3,000; any other approval must be unlimited or capped (s103).
• Committee duties — honesty, fairness, care and diligence (s37), and a defined role for the chairperson (s42).
• Common property rights by-laws — can only be amended or repealed with the benefiting owner's consent, which can't be unreasonably withheld (s143).

Stage 3 — 27 October 2025: levies, hardship and enforcement

• NSW Fair Trading can now enforce the repair duty directly — investigations, compliance notices, enforceable undertakings and NCAT applications (Part 10A).
• Levy notices must include the approved information about payment plans (s83).
• Payment plans — a prescribed request form; no fee; a written reply within 28 days; and no blanket policy of refusing plans (s85).
• Recovery — at least 30 days' written notice before recovery action, and no recovery action while an owner keeps to a payment plan (s86).
• Building managers — narrower definition and new duties and disclosures.

Stage 4 — 1 April 2026: planning and certificates

• Every 10-year capital works fund plan prepared from this date must be in the prescribed form (s80).
• Developers must prepare an initial maintenance schedule in the prescribed form; for multi-storey schemes it must be certified by an independent surveyor.
• Section 184 certificates must disclose exclusive supply (embedded) networks.

Stage 5 — 1 October 2026: committee training and 2-lot schemes

• Committee training — every committee member appointed on or after 1 October 2026 must complete the free online course on Strata Hub within 3 months of appointment, or they automatically stop being a committee member (Regulation cl 69 and the Secretary's published requirements). Exemptions include 2-lot schemes and licensed strata managing agents.
• 2-lot schemes no longer lodge the Strata Hub annual return (Regulation cl 43(1)).

Not yet law

• The 2-lot "small strata scheme" reform (proposed section 7A) — the Bill is still before Parliament. See our 2-lot schemes article.
• A limit on recovering levy recovery costs unless a payment plan was offered and a tribunal or court order obtained (s86(2AA)) — passed but not yet started.
• Embedded network disclosure in contracts for sale — not yet started.