22 September 2026
Who has to approve your strata renovation in NSW?
You can paint your walls without asking anyone. A new kitchen is a different conversation. Most owners find this out the hard way, halfway through a quote, when the strata manager asks whether the owners corporation has approved the work.
The rule is simpler than it looks. NSW law sorts renovation work into three levels, and the level decides who has to say yes. This article walks through each one, with the section of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 behind it, so you can work out where your job sits before you book a tradie.
Why anyone else gets a say
In most schemes the walls, floors and ceilings that separate your lot from the building are common property. So is the waterproofing under your bathroom tiles and the pipework inside the wall. Your lot is, roughly, the airspace and the finishes. When you renovate, you almost always touch something the owners corporation owns and every owner pays to maintain. That is the whole reason approval exists. It isn’t red tape for its own sake. It’s the neighbours below you protecting themselves from your plumber.
Level one: cosmetic work. No approval needed.
Section 109 lets an owner carry out cosmetic work to common property in connection with their lot without the approval of the owners corporation. The Act lists what counts: hooks, nails and screws for hanging things; handrails; painting; filling minor holes and cracks in internal walls; laying carpet; built-in wardrobes; internal blinds and curtains (s 109(2)). Your scheme’s by-laws can add to that list (s 109(4)).
Two conditions come with it. You must repair any damage the work causes to common property, and the work has to be done in a competent and proper manner (s 109(3)). Paint the wall badly and it is still your problem.
Cosmetic work stops where the structure starts. Section 109(5) excludes anything structural, anything that changes the external appearance of the lot, anything that detrimentally affects safety including fire safety systems, anything involving waterproofing, plumbing or exhaust, reconfiguring walls, and anything that needs consent under another Act, such as a development approval. Hanging a mirror is cosmetic. Moving the shower is not.
Level two: minor renovations. Approval by ordinary resolution.
Section 110 covers minor renovations: renovating a kitchen, changing recessed light fittings, installing or replacing wood or other hard floors, wiring, cabling, power or access points, and reconfiguring walls (s 110(3)). The Regulation adds more: pulling up carpet to expose hard floors, a rainwater tank, a clothesline, a reverse cycle split system air conditioner, double or triple glazed windows, a heat pump and ceiling insulation (Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016, cl 28). Those additions only count as minor if the job stays clear of the exclusions in s 110(7). A split system whose outdoor unit changes the look of the building is not minor, whatever the Regulation calls it.
These need the owners corporation’s approval, given by resolution at a general meeting. An ordinary majority is enough; a special resolution is not required (s 110(1)). The approval can carry reasonable conditions and cannot be unreasonably withheld (s 110(2)).
Before you ask, you have to give written notice: what the work is, with copies of any plans; when it will happen and for how long; who is doing it and their qualifications; and how the rubbish and debris will be handled (s 110(4)). A committee that receives a complete notice can decide quickly. A committee that receives “I’m doing my kitchen” has to write back and ask, and nothing moves until it has what it needs.
The same two conditions apply as for cosmetic work: repair the damage, do it properly (s 110(5)). The owners corporation also has to keep a record of the approval for ten years (s 110(6C)), which matters when you sell and the purchaser’s solicitor asks who approved the floorboards.
The part most owners don’t know
A general meeting might be eleven months away. An extra one can be called, but that costs the scheme money and takes weeks. The Act allows for a better answer. A scheme’s by-laws can permit the owners corporation to delegate its minor renovation approvals to the strata committee (s 110(6)(b)). Where that by-law exists, the committee decides, and it decides on a clock. If the committee refuses, it must give the owner written reasons within three months of receiving the request (s 110(6A)). If three months pass and the committee has neither refused nor given reasons, the approval is taken to be given (s 110(6B)).
That is the difference between waiting for the AGM and a decision inside a quarter. If your scheme doesn’t have that by-law, ask why not. Adding one needs a special resolution at a general meeting (s 141(1)) and registration with the Registrar-General within six months (s 141(2), (3)), so it is a single piece of work that saves every owner after you a long wait.
Level three: everything else. Special resolution or a by-law.
Anything structural, anything involving waterproofing, anything that changes the outside of the building and anything that needs consent under another Act sits above minor renovations (s 110(7)). Section 111 puts the position bluntly: an owner must not carry out work on common property unless authorised under the Act, under a by-law, or by an approval of the owners corporation given by special resolution or in another manner the by-laws allow.
In practice that means one of two routes. The owners corporation passes a special resolution under s 108 authorising the specific work. That resolution has to say whether you or the owners corporation maintains the altered common property afterwards; if it says nothing, the owners corporation is responsible (s 108(3), (4)). If it makes you responsible, the resolution has no effect until you consent in writing to a maintenance by-law and the owners corporation makes it (s 108(5)). Or the scheme makes a common property rights by-law giving you the right to the works, which needs your written consent and a special resolution (ss 141, 143). Either way, if you are taking on the upkeep, expect a by-law.
A special resolution passes if not more than 25 per cent of the votes cast, counted by unit entitlement, are against it (s 5(1)). For sustainability infrastructure, solar panels for instance, the bar is lower: the resolution fails only if 50 per cent or more of the votes are against it (s 5(1)(b)(ii)).
Before you book the tradie
Work out which level your job sits at. If any part of it touches waterproofing, structure or the outside of the building, the whole job is at level three, whatever the rest of it looks like.
Read your by-laws. They can widen what counts as cosmetic, widen what counts as minor, and hand minor approvals to the committee.
If it’s minor, send the full s 110(4) notice in one go. Most of the delay in strata approvals is the back and forth over missing details.
If you’re told no, ask for the reasons in writing. Where the committee decides under a delegation by-law, the Act requires written reasons within three months. Where the general meeting decides, it doesn’t, but a committee that can’t explain a refusal usually can’t defend it either.
Then put one question to your manager: does our scheme have a by-law delegating minor renovations to the committee? If the answer is no, that’s the first thing to fix.
John Martin (JM), Founder and Managing Director, Bettr Strata
This article is general in nature and is not legal advice for any particular scheme or renovation. Sections cited are from the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) and the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 (NSW) as in force on 21 September 2026.