As a tenant you have rights under the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 and Residential Tenancies Regulation 2006. If you live in a strata scheme you are also covered by the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996.

The owners corporation

The owners corporation (once called the 'body corporate') is the company of all the individual owners of the flats in a strata title building. Decisions about the management of the whole building are made by meetings of the owners corporation. The owners corporation will likely contract an agent to deal with day-to-day management.

Owners corporation meetings

Tenants have no legal right to participate in meetings of the owners corporation except with written permission from their landlord. You may consider speaking or writing to those who can vote at these meetings to gain support for things like getting repairs done. You may be able to attend a meeting and speak about a problem you have.

Older strata schemes must have a notice board displaying owners corporation minutes. These are not compulsory for schemes started after 1 July 1997.

Repairs

The owners corporation is required to properly maintain all areas of common property. This includes outside walls, shared laundries, stairwells, foyers, lifts and common parking and garden areas.

Repairs to individual flats are the landlord’s responsibility – see Factsheet 06: Repairs and maintenance.

If a problem is clearly on common property, write to the owners corporation or their management agent and ask for repairs to be done immediately. Send a copy of the letter to your landlord (or real estate agent). Ask the landlord to take action to make sure the owners corporation does the repairs. Keep copies of all letters.

If the landlord does not chase up the owners corporation to do common-property repairs, you can apply to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) for an order to have the repairs done. In your application you should argue that your landlord’s obligation to do repairs includes getting the owners corporation to do repairs.

By-laws and rules

By-laws are the rules for managing the strata scheme. By-laws are registered with the NSW Department of Lands. Tenants of strata title premises must be given a copy of the owners corporation by-laws within seven days of moving into the premises. The landlord can be fined $110 if the tenant does not receive a copy.

Examples of by-laws are: no pets on the premises, no access to rooftop after 10pm, no bicycles to be chained in the stairwell, all floors to have some form of carpet or floor covering.

Some owners corporations make 'house rules' which they expect all occupants to follow. However, if such rules are not registered as by-laws, they are not lawful.

Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, the owners corporation can serve notices on owners or tenants to comply with a by-law. If the notice to comply is not followed, the owners corporation can apply for an order from the CTTT for a fine of $550 to be paid by the owner or tenant.

Resolving disputes

The Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 sets out a process for resolving disputes between occupants of strata schemes, or between the owners corporation and an occupant.

Step 1: Mediation

If speaking or writing to each other does not resolve the dispute, apply for mediation (this is required under the Act).  Application forms for mediation are available from the Mediation Services Unit of the Office of Fair Trading. This service costs $67.

You can also use a Community Justice Centre, where mediation is free.

An attempt at mediation is required before a dispute can go to a Strata Schemes Adjudicator.

Step 2: Order from an adjudicator

If mediation fails, you can apply to a Strata Schemes Adjudicator for an order. Adjudicators are members of the CTTT. Applications cost $67.

The adjudicator will make a decision based on the written material in your application. There is no hearing – you will receive a written copy of the decision. Decisions of an adjudicator are binding.

The adjudicator can rule on disputes such as:

• repairs to common-property ceilings, walls and bathrooms
• water coming through windows and shower floors
• parking on common property without approval
• breaches of by-laws
• alterations to common property
• use of air conditioners
• insufficient floor coverings
• noisy residents.

Step 3: Order by the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal

If you are unhappy with the adjudicator’s decision, you have 21 days to appeal to the CTTT. The CTTT can dismiss your appeal if it thinks that the adjudicator made the appropriate order, or it can make a different order. Applications cost $67.

If an order is not followed, the matter may go back to the CTTT, which can order a person to pay a fine of up to $5,500. The CTTT can also award money to the applicant to cover the legal costs, but will not order compensation for any losses.

If you want compensation, get advice from a community legal centre about pursuing compensation through a court.

You can ask the Registrar of the CTTT to waive application fees at any stage of the proceedings, but you will need to show hardship.

Keeping pets

Some tenancy agreements have an additional term that says you must have the landlord’s consent before you can keep a pet. In strata schemes, some by-laws state that you also need to have written consent of the owners corporation.

In some circumstances, an adjudicator and/or the CTTT can make an order that the owners corporation has unreasonably withheld its approval to keep a pet.

Even if you have the consent of the landlord and the owners corporation, any occupier can apply for an order to remove a pet on the grounds that the pet is causing a nuisance.

By-laws cannot prevent you having a guide dog or hearing dog.

Can the owners corporation evict you?

The owners corporation cannot evict a tenant – only the CTTT can after the landlord or their agent has applied to the tribunal to end the tenancy. The provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 must be followed when ending a tenancy in a strata scheme.

Further Information and contacts

• NSW Office of Fair Trading website: www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au (under 'Tenants & Home Owners' > 'Strata Schemes')
• Mediation Services Unit (NSW Office of Fair Trading): 02 9338 7900 or free call 1800 451 431
• Community Justice Centres: 02 4925 0333, free call 1800 990 777 or TTY 1800 671 964

Updated: June 2009

Further help

Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services: see www.tenants.org.au/publish/contact-us to find your local general or Aboriginal service
Tenants NSW website: see www.tenants.org.au/publish/factsheets for other factsheets and sample letters
NSW Fair Trading Information Centre: 133 220

The information in this factsheet:
• is intended as guide to the law and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice
• applies to people who live in, or are affected by, the law as it applies in New South Wales, Australia.
© Tenants' Union of NSW.