This article discusses whether strata committees need formal meetings to make decisions in NSW and why informal decisions may not be legally valid.
Question: Are strata committee decisions made informally valid if no formal meetings or minutes exist?
In a newsletter to owners, our strata committee made the following comment:
On Communication, Transparency & Meeting Structure
There were some comments during the meet about visibility of committee activity and the sharing of documents and minutes. We want to clarify:
- All strata committee discussions to date have been informal and ad hoc — via WhatsApp, walk-throughs, building chats, meet-and-greets, and fact-finding sessions with the building manager, contractors or strata management.
- No formal committee meetings with quorum or decisions requiring distribution under the Strata Schemes Management Act have yet taken place.
- No formal minutes were required, and no information has been withheld.”
Given there have been no formal meetings and no formal record of the committee decisions, but visible actions are being taken by the committee, such as by law enforcement, signing new contracts, and determining agendas of owners corporations meetings, are the actions they have taken consistent with the NSW Act and thus legal and enforceable?
Answer: Committee members expose themselves to personal liability for decisions not properly made if found not to be acting in good faith.
A strata committee (and owners corporation for that matter), can only make decisions in a validly convened meeting. Any informal decisions made other than by a properly convened meeting and/or not ratified at a subsequent meeting are contrary to the legislation and could be invalidated by application to NCAT.
Further, the strata committee members expose themselves to personal liability for decisions not properly made if found not to be acting in good faith.
Please note that the committee does not need to convene a meeting to set agendas for strata committee meetings or for meetings of the owners corporation.
Matthew Jenkins Bannermans Lawyers E: enquiries@bannermans.com.au P: 02 9929 0226
This post appears in the April 2026 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
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Read next:- NSW: How does quorum works for strata committee decisions made at electronic meetings?
- NSW: Q&A Committee members’ rights to access records, correspondence and meeting information
- NSW: Q&A Encourage fair and balanced decision-making in strata committees
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