17 October 2026
There’s a water stain on your ceiling. You reported it months ago. It has been to two committee meetings, the minutes say “carried forward”, and the stain is bigger than it was.
Most owners in that position want to know two things. Does the owners corporation have to fix it, and what can one owner do if it doesn’t? This article answers both, with the sections of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 behind each answer.
First, check it’s common property
The duty in this article applies to common property, so that’s the first thing to settle. In most schemes the roof, the external walls, the structure and the stormwater are common property, and often the waterproofing under balconies and bathrooms is too. The registered strata plan fixes the boundary between your lot and common property, and nothing in the by-laws changes where that line sits.
What by-laws can change is who carries the maintenance. Section 106(7) makes the repair duty subject to a common property memorandum adopted by the by-laws, a common property rights by-law, or a by-law made under s 108 for work an owner has done to common property. If an earlier owner of your lot renovated under a by-law that made the lot owner responsible for maintaining that work, the repair may be yours even though the item is still common property. Ask your manager for the plan and the by-laws before going further. The NSW Government’s strata repairs and maintenance page has a useful list of what usually falls on which side.
The duty is not optional
Section 106(1) says an owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property and any personal property vested in it. Section 106(2) adds that it must renew or replace any fixtures or fittings comprised in the common property.
The word is must. It isn’t a power the owners corporation can use when the timing suits, and an unpopular levy doesn’t switch it off. If the money isn’t in either fund, s 81(4) requires the owners corporation to levy a further contribution, determined at a general meeting, to meet the expense. Not having the funds on hand is a problem to solve, not a reason to leave the roof.
The two ways a repair can lawfully wait
The Act allows two exceptions, and both are narrower than most owners assume.
The first is a special resolution at a general meeting under s 106(3). The owners corporation can determine that it is inappropriate to maintain, renew, replace or repair a particular item, but only if that decision will not affect the safety of any building, structure or common property in the scheme, and will not detract from the appearance of any property in the scheme. It suits a decorative feature nobody wants replaced. It doesn’t suit a leaking roof.
The second is in s 106(4). Where the owners corporation is taking action against an owner or someone else over damage they caused, it may defer the repair until that action is finished. Again, only if the deferral will not affect the safety of buildings, structures or common property, or a person’s access to or use of the common property or a lot.
“We’ll look at it next year” is not one of the exceptions.
When “we’re getting quotes” is a fair answer
None of this means a committee has to accept the first quote that arrives. For any item of expenditure over $30,000 the owners corporation must obtain at least two independent quotations under s 102(1), with the amount set by the Regulation, and if it can’t, the reasons go on the agenda of the next general meeting. Emergency work such as burst pipes and serious storm damage is exempt. A proper scope, competitive quotes and, where the work is significant, a report from an engineer or building consultant are part of doing the repair properly, not a way of avoiding it. Staging work over two or three years can be sensible when the urgent parts go first and nothing is getting worse in the meantime.
Committees also carry things an individual owner doesn’t see: a building with three problems competing for the same fund, a special levy some owners can’t easily pay, an engineer who has gone quiet. So a delay is not automatically a breach. When and how to repair is a legitimate decision for the owners corporation. Whether to repair, in most cases, is not.
What you can do, in order
Start with the records. An owner can ask to inspect the owners corporation’s records by written notice under s 182, with the prescribed fee, which at the time of writing is $31 for the first hour. Ask for the minutes where the item was first raised, the quotes obtained and the current capital works fund plan. Section 80 requires a 10-year plan, in the form prescribed by the Regulation, setting out the proposed work, its timing and anticipated cost and how it will be funded. The plan must be reviewed at least once every five years, and the owners corporation is to implement it so far as practicable. If your repair is in the plan and its year has passed, say so.
Then put the request in writing. Set out what the problem is, when it was first reported and what has happened since, with photos. Ask the committee for a decision and a timeframe. Keep it factual. The date on that letter matters for what follows.
If the committee decides not to act, you can take the next step straight away. If it simply doesn’t respond, the Act draws a line at two months: an owners corporation or strata committee is taken not to have exercised a function if an application is made to it and, for two months, it neither acts on it nor tells you it has decided not to (s 232(2)). That is a deeming rule for silence, not a waiting period. A decision to refuse, or a refusal in substance, can be taken further at once.
From there the path is mediation, then the Tribunal. NSW Fair Trading runs a free strata mediation service, and for most orders the Tribunal’s registrar must not accept an application unless mediation has been attempted without success, a party has refused to take part, or the registrar considers it unnecessary or inappropriate (s 227(1)). The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal can then make an order to settle a dispute about the management of a scheme, including a failure to exercise a function under the Act (s 232(1)(a) and (e)), and repairs to common property are one of the examples it gives.
Since 27 October 2025 there is a second route. NSW Fair Trading can now investigate a possible breach of the duty to repair and maintain common property and, where it finds one, accept an enforceable undertaking from the owners corporation, issue a compliance notice requiring the work, and fine an owners corporation that ignores either. Its guide to the strata law changes sets out how that works. In practice Fair Trading expects owners to have raised the matter with the scheme and tried mediation first.
Very few repairs need to get that far. A clear written request, with the history and the cost of waiting set out, usually does the job.
If the delay has cost you money
Section 106(5) lets an owner recover from the owners corporation, as damages for breach of statutory duty, any reasonably foreseeable loss suffered as a result of a contravention of s 106. If water from a neglected roof ruins the ceiling and flooring in the lot below, that loss can sit with the owners corporation as well as the repair. An owner cannot bring the action more than six years after first becoming aware of the loss (s 106(6)).
Two things follow. Keep a record of what the damage has cost you and when you first knew about it. And remember who pays: a damages claim against the owners corporation is met from levies, so every owner contributes, including the ones who wanted the repair done. A claim like this turns on its own facts, and it is the point at which to get legal advice.
What waiting costs everyone
Water keeps getting in and the damage spreads past the original scope. Building costs move. The quote that looked too expensive two years ago becomes the cheap option, and the job is bigger than it was. That is the argument to put to a committee that is weighing up the levy, because it is usually the one that lands.
The question to ask
Ask your committee, in writing, for a date. If the honest answer is that the investigation isn’t finished, ask for the date the next step is due and who is responsible for it. “It’s being looked at” is not a date.
John Martin (JM), Founder and Managing Director, Bettr Strata
This article is general information about NSW strata law, current at October 2026. It isn’t legal advice about your scheme. If you’re dealing with a specific repair dispute, get advice on your own facts.