Question: How do we convince all owners to obtain independent advice regarding updating our old, outdated by-laws?
How can we persuade all owners to seek independent advice on updating our outdated bylaws? Does NCAT have the authority to make an order to update by-laws? We have the original ‘no pets’ by-law in place from the 1960s, and the committee will not consider updating it, although there are plenty of pets in the building.
Answer: Put a motion on the general meeting agenda that the owners corporation has its by-laws independently reviewed.
You need to update them. Within 12 months of the Strata Schemes Management Act commencing on 30 November 2016, there was a requirement that all by-laws be reviewed because things change over time. A by-law that I pass today might not be valid in 20 years because of case law or other circumstances.
It is an excellent idea to review your by-laws. If you don’t get legal advice, go through by-law by by-law. Ask, “This one relates to parking. Do we have any parking issues? What are they? What could be a good rule to address that? What’s reasonable in this circumstance?”
Ideally, get independent legal advice, and that person giving the legal advice would then provide recommendations and, perhaps, motions to amend the by-laws.
The easiest way to get committee buy-in is to point out that if you look at your clothes from 20 years ago, you wouldn’t wear them today.
Can NCAT make an order that the by-laws have to be reviewed? Well, NCAT has broad power under Section 232 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015. The broad part of that power relates to settling disputes where the owners corporation has failed to exercise a function or hasn’t exercised it properly, such as a failure to review its by-laws or a failure to perform its functions. If the owners corporation has not done this within 12 months of 30 November 2015, then yes. However, NCAT would ask why you’ve waited so long to make a claim.
Place a motion on the general meeting agenda for the owners corporation to have its by-laws independently reviewed. If the motion is voted down, pick a dispute about, say, the pet’s by-law because there is very good case law around that now.
This post appears in the August 2025 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Allison Benson
Kerin Benson Lawyers
E: allison@kerinbensonlawyers.com.au
P: 02 4032 7990
I have a business but some people leave the fire exit door open and I got broke in many times . I told Starta many times but they do nothing. They never fix the problem in time which cause me lots of money where I can complain
I am the “Honorary Administrator” of a small strata scheme in NSW consisting of 4 town-houses.
Our building was constructed in the early 90s.
Where can I find the by-laws that apply to our scheme?
Hi No1Optimist
Leanne Habib, Premium Strata has responded to your question in the above article.
In 2014 I lobbied the then Minister about the absolute craziness of the need to download dealing after dealing after dealing to determine what an OCs by-laws were.
One needed the original by-laws and then a host of dealings that changed the by-laws and one had to work through the changes to come to what was current as the by-laws changed over time. In some cases a ‘brief’ might need to work through 20+ dealings to get from what was originally registered to what was current. It was crazy.
Part of the purpose of the by-law review was to see SPs lodged a consolidated set of by-laws so that only one dealing needed to be downloaded to determine the by-laws of any particular OC. A much more sensible way to find a SP’s by-laws.
I suspect it was an oversight of those writing the new legislation not to include the word consolidated in s178 as that would have meant if there was no change at the review an SP was still required to lodge a dealing with the ‘consolidated’ by-laws.
If there is no change to the by-laws then as the Act stands it appears nothing needs doing but if an SP has previous dealings that change the by-laws, but made no changes at the review, then it is in the interest of making life easy for everyone that even though there is no change the current by-laws are registered in a consolidated form.
Section 178 2(e) should have said … the (consolidated) by-laws for the time being in force for the strata scheme
Just to expand on the above
Top thread because I have had to deal with all this rubbish myself in the past and some of the responses to your questions are inconsistent with info I was given by Lands and others.
Where can you find your by-laws?
Indeed you can download the dealing and reverse engineer them if you do not have a consolidated form registered but that is not the easiest path.
Ask the secretary for a copy as it is a requirement of the Act for the OC to keep a copy under s 178 2(e) and 141 3.
If they do not cough them up then you can do a records search to see them for $34.10 (inc GST) under s 182 but that requires more paperwork than just asking. The most inefficient way would be via a third party doing the search for you. There is lots of info on the net about how to get your by-laws yourself. If you are happy just to pay for it then engage a third party but ask the secretary for a copy is my suggestion.
Are your by-laws still valid if not registered within the timeframe set out by the Act?
Contrary to the answer given I would tell you they are. Once registered they are valid until challenged and nothing in the Act contradicts that position.
In fact my own SP lodged after the 6 months and , surprise Andrew, Lands were happy to proceed with the registration until I questioned it. The OC then claimed they had passed a new resolution at another meeting. That meeting never occurred. Lands registered the by-laws on the basis of regularity after the fake date was placed on the original lodgment.
This amounts to fraud under s 141 of the Real Property Act just as would your SP having a by-law someone had registered without a special resolution at a meeting.
There is no consequence for failing most of the requirements of the Strata Schemes Management Act and lots of agents know it and so do savvy SC members and owners.
But fraud under the Real Property Act is an indictable offence you might say; and that is correct.
Humours part of it is when I tried to have charges laid for the fraud nobody cared. Not the police, not Lands, not FT. Nobody. So even though we live in a society where we are expected to be able to rely on the integrity of things register with Lands the bottom line is if people register things under the Torrens Title system by fraud not much is going to happen.
Lands have cleaned there act up since I gave them heaps of stick, including their legal staff who were hopeless, over the fake registration from my own SP and now it seem they actually scrutinize the 6 month date requirement. Lots of new policy papers flowed from me giving them stick.
Buy I expect your by-laws as registered are valid until contested for the flaws and non compliance issues, even then they might still be good.
Best to redo the resolution and re register. I struggled to, but eventually, get my own SP to do it; it was that or a trip to NCAT where the fraud would be front and centre in the argument. Agent didn’t want to go down the later path as it was his signature on the lodgment with the fake date.
How we register and who with?
Rather funny answer to that question as it does not even address the question.
It is not fairly complex to register by-laws. It is rather easy. You fill in two forms and take them down to your nearest Lands office and slip them the money and you are done.
The secretary in an SP I chair had never done it before, had no idea, but got it done rather easily to her surprise because it is easy.
If you have no agent, as the answer presumes, then knowledge is what you want. Not an invoice from a third party
What to do if no change is made at review.
I will go out on a limb here and say the whole review thing is a consequence of a representation I made in 2014 to the Minister over the way multiple dealings are often necessary to determine a set of by-laws.
The given answer is wrong.
The whole 2014 representation was about the idiocy of multiple dealings being required to be downloaded to find out what the by-laws are. That is more the norm than the exception.
Even though you will find a whole bunch of lawyers tell you there is no requirement if nothing changes at your review, there actually is.
Even if there is no change a consolidated set of by laws are required to be register or the OC fails to comply with s 141 (3).
The Act requires the OC to keep a copy of the consolidated by-laws. So upon review if there is no change then the existing by-laws (which are likely not consolidated because they are the product of a number dealings) get registered as the consolidated by- laws so people no longer need to download a plethora of dealing with individual changes to by-law.
If you do nothing then the strata roll is likely not as it should be because
Generally speaking, who is responsible for the upkeep, repair of the fence that divides common property to exclusive use property ie the boundary between owner’s courtyard and the strip of garden outside it which is common property?