Rules & Legislation

Why is strata legislation different in every state?

There isn't a single strata act that covers Australia. Each state and territory runs its own Act, its own regulator, and its own dispute resolution pathway, which means the same question, say, can a body corporate ban short-term letting, can have a different answer depending on where the building is located.

Some of that variation is just naming. What New South Wales calls an owners corporation, Western Australia calls a strata company, and Queensland calls a body corporate. But the differences go deeper than terminology. Some states run two parallel Acts depending on the type of scheme, some run one Act for everything, and a few, like the ACT and the Northern Territory, split schemes by age in ways that can catch long-term owners off guard if they assume their rules work the same as other states.

Strata law is changing, and it's changing at different speeds in different places

If you feel like you can't keep up with strata reform, that's not just you. Several states have active reform underway right now.

New South Wales has had multiple rounds of reform rolled out in stages over the past few years, with more changes still to come. Victoria has flagged reform of its own, tied to broader housing policy. The ACT is waiting on a formal government response to a parliamentary inquiry into strata. South Australia has a Bill sitting in Parliament that would change quorum rules, insurance minimums and audit thresholds. Western Australia went through a full statutory review that reshaped several parts of its Act. Tasmania is partway through a three-stage reform of its own Strata Titles Act, with the first stage still being drafted.

Queensland's last major round of body corporate reform passed Parliament in November 2023. It commenced in May 2024, changing termination thresholds for uneconomic schemes and giving bodies corporate clearer powers on smoking by-laws, towing, and pet approvals. The government has flagged a second package of reforms, developed with its Community Titles Legislation Working Group. However, nothing has been introduced to Parliament. Separately, licensing and mandatory training for body corporate managers, who currently need neither in Queensland, has been a recurring industry advocacy position for several years without government commitment to act on it.

How do you keep up? Your state's hub page on this site is kept current specifically so you're not relying on old information.

What's the difference between strata legislation and by-laws?

Legislation is the Act (and its regulations) passed by state parliament. It sets the outer boundaries: how meetings must be run, what a body corporate can and can't do, how disputes get resolved, and every owner's minimum rights in their strata scheme.

By-laws (called rules or articles in a few states) are the rules a specific building makes for itself, covering things like pets, parking, renovations, or noise. Every scheme starts with a default set, either written into the Act itself or supplied as a model, and can then vote in its own by-laws.

The relationship between the two only runs one way. By-laws can add detail on top of legislation, but they can never override it. A by-law that conflicts with the Act is invalid, even if it was properly voted on and registered.

Who makes the legislation and the by-laws?

• Legislation: state parliament, after the usual public consultation and drafting process
• By-laws: your own body corporate or owners corporation, by special or unanimous resolution depending on the state and the type of change

If you want to know what your legislation says, the answer is the same regardless of which building you live in. Check your state's Act. If you want to know what your by-laws say, the answer is specific to your building, and you'll need your own scheme's registered documents, not a general guide, to be sure.

What can by-laws control, and what's off-limits?

By-laws are genuinely powerful. Most schemes use them to regulate things like:

• Keeping pets, and any conditions attached (though a growing number of states now limit how far a blanket pet ban can go)
• Parking on common property, including visitor spaces
• Renovations and alterations to a lot, especially anything affecting the building's structure or appearance
• Noise, behaviour, and use of shared facilities like pools or gyms
• Short-term letting, in some states
• Smoking in common areas or on balconies in states that have introduced specific powers for this

But by-laws have limitations, like not being able to override rights an owner has under the Act, discriminate unlawfully, or stand if a tribunal or court finds them unreasonable. The exact boundaries vary by state, so checking your own state's current legislation matters more here than relying on a general rule of thumb.

What happens if a by-law is breached?

The general shape of this process is similar across Australia, even though the specific steps and timeframes differ by state.

Most schemes follow something like this:

• Someone raises it, usually with the committee or body corporate. This can be a neighbour reporting an issue, a committee member noticing it, or the manager flagging it.
• A notice is issued. The body corporate (or its manager) formally notifies the person in breach, setting out what the by-law says and how they've contravened it, and giving a timeframe to fix it or stop.
• The person in breach can usually dispute it. Almost every state gives the recipient a right to challenge a penalty notice or contravention notice, either through the body corporate itself, a tribunal, or in some states a court, within a set time limit.