The NSW Strata and Property Taskforce has published its first-year results, and the numbers give strata committees and building managers a useful signal about where regulatory attention is heading. Since its establishment, the Taskforce has completed more than 175 “Anywhere, Anytime” investigations in unit blocks, issued close to 80 fines totalling over $125,000, and taken disciplinary action against more than 70 licensees — with over 10 removed from the industry entirely. One Coffs Harbour-area strata managing agent was permanently disqualified after a fraud case affecting 66 buildings and nearly 1,000 residents.
What’s actually changed
Beyond the enforcement statistics, the release points to a fourth and final tranche of strata legislation currently before NSW Parliament. Measures already in force or moving through include:
- Increased penalties for strata managing agents who fail to disclose conflicts of interest
- Mandatory payment plans for owners in financial hardship
- New powers for NSW Fair Trading to issue compliance notices and enter enforceable undertakings where owners corporations neglect common property maintenance obligations
- Independently certified levy estimates for new-build strata schemes
- A ban on strata managers taking insurance commissions when they haven’t shopped the market on the owners’ behalf
- Removal of bylaw barriers to solar panels and EV charging infrastructure
A public Name and Shame Register has also been introduced, giving owners corporations a way to check an agent’s history before engagement — comparable in spirit to disciplinary registers already used in licensed trades.
Why this matters for building operations
None of this is directly a security-systems mandate, but the compliance direction has practical flow-on effects for anyone managing common property in a strata scheme. The enforceable-undertakings power around maintenance and repair obligations is the most relevant piece: owners corporations that have deferred maintenance on building services — including electronic security infrastructure, access control, and CCTV covering common areas — may find that neglect increasingly falls within the scope of what Fair Trading considers a “duty to maintain and repair common property.”
Strata committees that have been putting off upgrading ageing intercom systems, replacing failed access readers, or addressing gaps in CCTV coverage of car parks and common corridors should treat this regulatory tightening as a prompt to get ahead of it rather than wait for a dispute or compliance notice to force the issue. A documented baseline — knowing what’s installed, what’s end-of-life, and what the coverage gaps are — is the cheapest form of insurance against being caught out.
The mediation statistics (1,440 sessions in the first year) also suggest disputes between owners and strata managers over building services and expenditure remain common. Clear documentation of security and BMS assets — what was installed, when, and why — gives committees a defensible paper trail if a decision is later questioned.
Mallen’s take
We work with strata committees and building managers across NSW who are increasingly asked to justify capital spend on security and network infrastructure to owners corporations that are themselves under more regulatory scrutiny than they were two years ago. The direction of travel here is toward more accountability, more documentation, and less tolerance for “we’ll get to it eventually” maintenance postponement.
For committees wanting to get ahead of this, the Mallen site audit is a practical starting point — it produces the kind of device register, coverage plan, and capex forecast that makes it straightforward to demonstrate to owners (and, if it ever comes to it, to a regulator) that common property security infrastructure is being actively managed rather than neglected.
Original source: nsw.gov.au