FactSheet: Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Unit Titles Act 2001

An Act to provide for the subdivision of land by units plans, and for other purposes.

Unit Titles Regulation 2001

Made under Unit Titles Act 2001

Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011

An Act to provide for the management of units plans, and for other purposes.

Unit Titles (Management) Regulation 2011

Made under Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011

ACT Planning and Land Authority – on the portal of the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate

Strata Community Australia (ACT)

The leading professional body for the strata and community title sector in ACT.

Owners Corporation Network of the Australian Capital Territory

Representing the interests of Units Title owners in the ACT.

ACT: Contact your Member of the Legislative Assembly

If you believe there is a strata issue that needs to be brought to the government’s attention.

Problems With Apartments? Complaint handling in your owners corporation

The Department of Justice & Community Safety has a fact sheet discussing Dispute Resolution.

The Office of Regulatory Services has developed the Unit Title Dispute Resolution Guide – “designed to assist unit owners, people living in a unit and members of an Owners Corporation Executive Committee in dealing with disputes”.

Owners Corporation Network ACT

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Making an application to ACAT

What to do if you are unhappy with your strata manager

Page 13 – Disputes Relating to an Owners Corporation Manager of the Unit Title Dispute Resolution Guide covers:

• the appointment of an owners corporation manager
• code of conduct for owners corporation managers
• making an official complaint

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

Factsheet: Strata Managers

Many owners corporations choose to engage managers to carry out some or all of their functions under the Act.

Strata Reform and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Resources

ACT Strata Reform Update

ACT Government: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate – Planning
The Strata Reform Project is considering the issues surrounding the development, operation and management of mixed-use developments. A mixed-use development is where residential and commercial operations coexist under a single building envelope or unit title.

ByLaws and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

NSW & ACT: By-Laws & Rules – What are they? Who do they bind? Can they be enforced?

Allison Benson, Kerin Benson Lawyers
Aug 2015: Strata By-laws (called Rules in the ACT) are the rules that we must live by when we live in a strata or community title scheme.

Case Note: How to Count the Numbers – Voting Requirements in Unit Plans

Allison Benson, Kerin Benson Lawyers
Sep 2014: A reminder to Owners Corporations that they must strictly adhere to legislative requirements to ensure the validity of its special resolutions.

Resources

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

Factsheet: The Owners Corporation

Owners corporations are responsible for managing units plans. Owners corporations have obligations to insure all buildings, manage the common property and enforce their rules.

Factsheet: Rules (articles) and breaches

All unit owners and occupants of units are bound by the rules (or ‘articles’) of their owners corporation. One of the owners corporation’s primary functions is to enforce its articles.

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Rules and House Rules

Owners Corporation Network ACT
The Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011, (UTMA), is for the most part, concerned with the legal functions and responsibilities of the owners corporation itself. It sets out the things which the corporation may or must do and the responsibilities of the executive committee which is elected at each AGM to exercise the functions of the corporation until the next following AGM.

Strata Smoking and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

ACT: Q&A Bylaws to ban smoking in apartments

Jan Browne, Ian McNamee & Partners
Feb 2016: Question: Are there any bylaws for strata schemes in the ACT to ban strata smoking in apartments?

Strata Insurance and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Articles

FAQs

• ACT: Q&A Strata Insurance Excess Greater than the Cost of the Repair May 2017 - Question: We are unable to make a claim for a water leak in our apartment from either our contents or

Resources

Factsheet: Insurance

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety
The owners corporation must insure all buildings in the units plan and keep them insured. In much the same way that liability for damage to an ordinary residential house is the responsibility of the owner of that house, the owners corporation is responsible for liability for damage to all buildings.

Owners Corporation Network ACT

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Insurance

Division 5.4 of the Unit Titles (Management) Act (starting at S99) deals with the insurance responsibilities of owners corporations.

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Who pays Insurance Excesses?

Demonstrates the inescapable responsibility of owners corporations in respect of insurance policies and payment of excesses under the existing Act.

Pets and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Factsheet: Animals

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety
The law permits animals to be kept in unit titles.

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Strata Pets

Owners Corporation Network ACT

Pets can be a source of friction between neighbours in houses with individual fenced gardens, so it is likely they will be more so in OCs.

Levies and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Case Notes – Recovery Costs in Levy Recovery Matters

Allison Benson, Kerin Benson Lawyers
Apr 2016: In 20 Nov 2015, ACAT heard a levy recovery matter & made a decision having a significant impact on all strata levy recovery costs matters commenced in ACAT.

Resources

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

• Factsheet: Finance and levies

  The clarification of the rules about sinking fund plans, as well as the reduction in the voting requirement for the approval of yearly general funds budgets from a special resolution to an ordinary resolution took effect on 30 March 2012.

• Factsheet: Sinking fund plans

  Sinking fund plans are mandatory for most ACT unit plans. The plans must be periodically reviewed and must be properly funded.

• Factsheet: Sinking fund plans – What must be in the plan

  Sinking fund plans are mandatory for most ACT unit plans. The plans must be periodically reviewed and must be properly funded.

• Factsheet: Sinking fund plans – Levies – post 30 March 2012 plans

  Sinking funds must be properly funded to meet the expenditure identified in the sinking fund plan.

• Factsheet: Sinking fund plans – Levies – pre 30 March 2012 plans

  Sinking fund plans are mandatory for most ACT unit plans. The plans must be periodically reviewed and must be properly funded.

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Sinking Funds

Owners Corporation Network ACT
Every owners corporation must maintain its common property, and those with 4 or more units must have a sinking fund plan for doing so.

Maintenance & Common Property for Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Asbestos Compliance and Group Title in the ACT

Chris Kerin, Kerin Benson Lawyers
Dec 2015: Group title schemes, such as strata schemes and company title schemes, may be subject to various requirements to reduce the risk of asbestos under both statutory and common law duties.

Resources

Factsheet: Service Contracts

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety
Restrictions are placed on the term of all service contracts entered into after 31 March 2009. A service contract entered into in breach of the provisions is void.

FactSheet 4: Class A Units – What, Special Issues, Maintenance

Justice and Community Safety
Class A units are different from class B units and other forms of land ownership in that they
are limited in height, with boundaries defined by reference to floors, walls, and ceilings.

FactSheet 5: Class B Units – What, Special Issues, Maintenance

Justice and Community Safety
Class B units are different from Class A units in that Class B units have boundaries unlimited in height (apart from any encroachments by another part of the parcel).

Committee Concerns and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Articles

FAQs

• ACT: Q&A Financial Statements for AGM – What Should Be Included? Jul 2018 - Question: What financial statements for AGM is the Strata Manager obliged to include with the Agenda papers? We do not
• ACT: Q&A Privacy Act: Can a Strata Manager Refuse to Provide Lot Owner Details to the Executive Committee? Jul 2018 - Question: Can a strata manager supply an Owner’s Executive Committee with contact details of the complex’s owners or are they
• ACT: Q&A AGM Recording. Chair insists on verifying the recording. Jun 2018 - Question: If an AGM recording is made, does the Chair have the right to insist any proposed amendment to the
• ACT: Q&A Process for Obtaining Strata Legal Advice May 2018 - Question: If an Owners Corporation is considering obtaining strata legal advice, does it need to get the consent of the
• ACT: Q&A Members of the Executive Committee from the same lot Mar 2018 - Question: At our AGM last year, two part owners of the same unit nominated to be members of the Executive
• ACT: Q&A Cost of Holding a Special General Meeting Mar 2018 - Question: A number our lot owners have requested a special General meeting be held to discuss issues of concern to
• ACT: Q&A Rules Around How to Chair a General Meeting. Can this be done by an Independent person? Mar 2018 - Question: We have several contentious issues coming up for discussion at a General meeting. Due to this what are the
• ACT: Q&A Calling a Special General Meeting – What do I need to do? Feb 2018 - Question: How can I request, with other lot owners, that Special General Meeting be held? What procedures do I need
• ACT: Q&A Commercial in Confidence: Why can’t I view the maintenance works contract? Feb 2018 - Question: Our Executive Committee has signed a Contract with a project manager to undertake major roof works on behalf of
• ACT: Q&A Should proxies be used for election of Executive Committee? Aug 2017 - Question: Should proxies be used for the election of the Executive Committee? Are there limitations on the number of proxies

Resources

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

Factsheet: The executive committee

The executive committee exercises the functions of the owners corporation and is responsible for its day-to-day operation. It has a number of obligations under the law.

Factsheet: Meetings – voting requirements and proxies

The important decisions of owners corporations are made at general meetings in the form of resolutions. An annual general meeting (AGM) must be held once every year.

Building Defects and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

• ACT: Q&A Checking for asbestos while replacing the roof May 2018 - Question: We are undertaking a roof replacement. Should the Contract with the roofing firm contain a clause regarding checking for
• ACT: Q&A Setting Up A Fighting Fund For Building Defects in Individual Lots Aug 2017 - Question: If we set up a fighting fund to pay for legal advice around repairing strata defects on affecting individual

Guide to Obtaining a Rectification Order

Christopher Kerin, Kerin Benson Lawyers
Jan 2015: A brief outline of what occurs in the process of obtaining a rectification order from the ACT Planning and Land Authority against a building licensee.

Resources

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

Factsheet: Selling a unit – implied warranties

Buyers have valuable rights when buying an ACT unit. A buyer may cancel a contract if these rights are breached.

Factsheet: Developers

The decisions made by the developer can affect off-the-plan purchasers and future unit owners. The law places limitations on the actions of developers during the development process but recognises that developers require flexibility managing their development.

Buying strata property?

ACT Law Society
What happens when you want to buy a house, a unit, a block of land, or other form of real estate? How do you make sure that your rights are protected? How can your solicitor advise you, and what will he or she do on your behalf to make sure everything is in order?

Body corporate/owner’s corporation – what does it have to do with me?

Tenants’ Union ACT Inc.
Renting in Canberra? Know your rights.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BUYING OFF PLAN – PART 1: THE BENEFITS

Independent Property Group
This is the first part of a 3 part series that will answer the common questions we are asked about buying a new property off the plan. Today we’ll focus on the benefits you can experience from this type of purchase. Then, in the next 2 instalments, we’ll cover how to find the right property and the purchasing experience and process.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BUYING OFF PLAN – PART 2: FINDING THE RIGHT PROPERTY

Independent Property Group
Your personal circumstances will always determine your priorities so your approach could vary based on what you need to achieve as part of your purchase. Whether you are planning on living in the property or renting it out as an investment, the important fundamentals need to be considered to ensure you are really happy with the end result.

Strata Managers and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Resources

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety

Factsheet: Service Contracts

Restrictions are placed on the term of all service contracts entered into after 31 March 2009. A service contract entered into in breach of the provisions is void.

Factsheet: Managers

Many owners corporations choose to engage managers to carry out some or all of their functions under the Act.

Guide to the Obligations of Owners Corporation Managers

This guide is designed to assist owners corporation managers to understand their obligations under the Agents Act 2003 (ACT).

Owners Corporation Network ACT

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Employment of Managers

The Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011, (UTMA), provides the executive committee with the structure and powers to exercise the functions of the corporation, but in many cases, corporations decide that their committees should be assisted by a manager.

Unit Title (Management) Act in Practice: Management by Executive (Self Management)

Owners corporations can decide they would rather largely manage themselves and purchase the few specialist services they want. It does rather depend on whether you have an active Executive Committee who are willing not only to take responsibility for the affairs of the corporation (as all committees are obliged to do) but also actively do many of the tasks themselves.

Building Managers and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

Resources

Factsheet: Service Contracts

ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety
Restrictions are placed on the term of all service contracts entered into after 31 March 2009. A service contract entered into in breach of the provisions is void.

Sustainability and Australian Capital Territory Strata Legislation

• $5,000 rebate available to ACT owners corporations for efficiency upgrades Mar 2018 - Owners corporations in the ACT are invited to upgrade inefficient common area lights to LEDs with help from the ACT

Resources

Fact Sheet: Sustainability and utility infrastructure

Department of Justice & Community Safety, ACT Government

Section 23 has been included into the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 in order to create “a streamlined procedure for the installation of sustainability or utility infrastructure on common property. Previously, an owners corporation would have to pass a number of resolutions (financing, siting, easements etc) to install sustainability or utility infrastructure on common property, such as solar panels, a communal clothes line, cabling etc. The new rules applied from 30 March 2012.