By Allison Benson -
Snapshot
- Reforms to strata and community title legislation came into effect on 11 December 2023.
- Governance changes impose new restrictions on meeting notices, voting, expenditure and disclosure in schemes.
- Changes also affect the termination and renewal of strata schemes.
The NSW Government reviewed the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 (‘SSDA’) and the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (‘SSMA’) with some 139 reforms recommended. As stated by the Hon. Mark Buttigieg in the second reading speech, the aim of the Strata Legislation Amendment Act 2023 is ‘to improve the governance, accountability and effectiveness of strata and community land schemes’.
The amending legislation is broader than simply a review of strata title legislation as it also amends the Community Land Development Act 2021 (‘CLDA’), the Community Land Management Act 2021 (‘CLMA’) and corresponding regulations. It responds to only 31 of the reform recommendations.
Amendments in effect
All but three of the amendments in Strata Legislation Amendment Act 2023 commenced on 11 December 2023. The following changes are already in effect and relate to both strata and community title schemes unless otherwise noted.
Committees
Strata and association committees must be elected at an Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’). However, they may now also be elected at other general meetings, which solves the issue of what happens when a committee is voted out between AGMs (s 30 SSMA and s 32 CLMA).
Committee members must disclose direct and indirect pecuniary interests and they may not participate in discussion or voting in relation to that interest (sch 2 cl 18(4) SSMA and sch 2 cl 16(4) CLMA). Committee members can now be removed by an ordinary rather than a special resolution (s 35(1)(e) SSMA and s 38(1)(h) CLMA). If removed by ordinary resolution, a person cannot be a committee member for 12 months from the date of the resolution (s 32(5) SSMA and s 35(5) CLMA).
Associations may now have up to 15 committee members, up from nine (s 32 CLMA).
