How to Get Your Strata to Fix Something in NSW

A common story in NSW apartments goes like this: something breaks, you email the strata manager, and nothing happens. You send a polite follow-up. Still nothing. After a while you start to wonder whether you wrote the request wrong, or whether the problem is even yours to raise.

Usually the request was fine. What is missing is structure. The owners corporation has a legal duty to maintain common property, and there is a clear path to follow when it doesn't. This guide walks through that path: working out whose repair it is, writing a request that is hard to ignore, and escalating when you need to.

Whose Job Is It? Common Property vs Your Lot

Before you ask anyone to fix anything, work out who is responsible. In a strata scheme, everything is either part of your lot (which you maintain) or common property (which the owners corporation maintains).

As a rough rule, common property is anything that is not inside the boundaries of a single lot, plus anything that services more than one lot. Under the Strata Schemes Development Act 2015 (NSW), pipes, wires, cables and ducts that are not for the exclusive benefit of one lot are common property.^[1] So a water pipe running inside a wall and serving several apartments is almost always the owners corporation's problem, even though part of it sits behind your kitchen.

Take a real example posted to an Australian property forum: a leaking shut-off valve under a kitchen sink. Whether that valve is yours or common property depends on what it connects to. A fitting that serves only your apartment is likely your responsibility. The riser or main it taps into, which feeds other apartments, is common property. The honest answer is that you cannot always tell from the kitchen cupboard. You confirm it by checking the registered strata plan and, if your scheme has one, the common property memorandum, a document that sets out who repairs what.^[2]

Getting this right early matters. If you demand the owners corporation fix something inside your own lot, you will be knocked back, and rightly so. If you let the owners corporation talk you into fixing common property at your own cost, you may be paying for something the whole building should fund.

What the Owners Corporation Must Do

Once you have established that the problem is common property, the law is firmly on your side. Section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) requires the owners corporation to properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property, and to renew or replace it where needed.^[3] This is a strict duty, not a suggestion. Lack of money, an inactive committee, or a busy strata manager are not excuses.

There is one narrow exception. The owners corporation can decide, by special resolution (a 75% vote at a general meeting), not to maintain a specific item, but only if that decision will not affect the safety of the building and will not detract from its appearance.^[3] A leaking pipe that is damaging your floors fails both tests, so this exception will rarely help them avoid a genuine repair.

The duty also has teeth. If the owners corporation breaches section 106 and you suffer a loss as a result (damaged flooring, ruined carpet, a water bill), you can recover that loss as damages for breach of statutory duty. Since 1 July 2025, you have up to six years from when you first became aware of the loss to bring that claim, extended from the previous two years.^[4] That longer window matters, because slow-moving damage from an unrepaired leak often is not obvious for months.

How to Write a Request That Gets Actioned

There is no official form for a repair request, and you do not need one. What you need is a written record that is specific, dated, and hard to brush off. Send it by email to your strata manager and copy the secretary of the owners corporation. A good request does five things:

• Describes the problem precisely. What is broken, where it is, and when you noticed it. "Water pooling under the kitchen sink from the shut-off valve, first noticed 3 June" beats "there is a leak."
• States why it is common property. Name the reason: the pipe services more than one lot, or sits inside a boundary wall. If you have checked the strata plan or memorandum, say so.
• Spells out the consequence of delay. Damage to tiles, carpet, or a neighbour's ceiling. This is what turns a "nice to have" into a section 106 obligation the owners corporation cannot defer.
• Asks for specific action and a date. Request that they arrange a contractor to inspect, and ask them to confirm by a reasonable date (for example, within 14 days). A request with no deadline is easy to leave in an inbox.
• Attaches evidence. Photos, a video of the leak, or the plumber's note. Evidence makes the problem real and gives the committee something to act on.

Keep every email. If this ever goes to mediation or NCAT, your paper trail is your strongest asset, and the absence of a reply from the owners corporation works in your favour, not theirs.

What to Do When They Ignore You

A clear, evidenced request often gets a response on its own. When it doesn't, you have three escalating options. You do not have to use them in strict order, but they roughly run from least to most formal.

1. Put It Up as a Motion

If the strata manager or committee is not acting, you can have the repair formally considered by the owners corporation. Any owner can submit a motion to be included on the agenda of the next general meeting, and you can ask the secretary to add it. A motion forces a recorded decision: the owners corporation either resolves to do the work or votes against it. Either outcome is useful, because a documented refusal to repair common property is exactly the evidence you need for the next step. If a meeting is a long way off, owners holding at least a quarter of the unit entitlements can requisition a general meeting to deal with it sooner.

2. Apply for Fair Trading Mediation

NSW Fair Trading offers free mediation for strata disputes, and it is usually the required step before you can go to the tribunal.^[5] You lodge an application describing the dispute, and Fair Trading invites both sides to talk through a resolution with a neutral mediator. Many repair disputes settle here, because the owners corporation would rather agree a timeline than face a tribunal order.

Mediation is low cost and less adversarial than a hearing, but it is not instant. Wait times can run to a couple of months, so lodge your application early rather than treating it as a last resort.

3. Apply to NCAT for an Order

If mediation fails or the owners corporation refuses to take part, you can apply to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). Under section 232 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, NCAT can make orders to settle a dispute about the owners corporation's failure to exercise a function, which includes its duty to repair common property.^[6] In practice, that means the tribunal can order the owners corporation to carry out the repair.

NCAT applications for strata matters generally require evidence that you attempted Fair Trading mediation first, which is why the paper trail and the mediation step matter. The application itself often prompts action, because facing a tribunal order tends to focus an owners corporation that has been sitting on a problem.

Urgent and Emergency Repairs

The process above assumes you have time. Some repairs do not give you any. A burst pipe, a failed lift, a fire safety fault, or anything posing a health or safety risk needs to be reported immediately, by phone and in writing, to your strata manager.

If common property damage is causing active harm to your apartment and you cannot reach anyone, document everything: photos, timestamps, and a written record of who you contacted and when. Take reasonable steps to limit further damage (turn the water off at the main if you safely can). Do not rush into paying for major common property work yourself expecting a refund, because reimbursement is not guaranteed unless the owners corporation has agreed or a tribunal orders it. The exception is genuine emergencies where you have no realistic alternative, and even then your records are what justify the cost later.

Fair Trading's New Enforcement Powers

The balance of power shifted in late 2025. NSW Fair Trading introduced a Common Property Repairs and Maintenance Compliance and Enforcement Policy, which took effect on 27 October 2025 and gives the regulator real tools to act against owners corporations that neglect their section 106 duty.^[7]

Where Fair Trading finds an owners corporation has failed to maintain common property, it can now:

• Require documents and answers from the strata manager, committee, or owners corporation, and inspect the premises.
• Accept an enforceable undertaking, a formal written commitment to fix the breach.
• Issue a compliance notice requiring specific work to be done by a set deadline.
• Issue penalty notices if a notice or undertaking is ignored, and apply to NCAT for orders, including the compulsory appointment of a strata managing agent.

Urgent matters involving health and safety, such as fire systems, lifts, waterproofing, or structural issues, are treated as a priority. For an owner who has been ignored for months, this means a complaint to Fair Trading now carries more weight than it used to.

A Repair Request Template

Here is a plain template you can adapt. Replace the bracketed parts with your own details.

That is the whole secret to the "expected format" people worry about. There is no magic wording. A specific problem, a stated responsibility, a real consequence, and a deadline are what move a request from ignored to actioned.

Key Takeaways

• Work out first whether the problem is common property (the owners corporation's job) or inside your lot (yours). Check the strata plan and common property memorandum.
• Section 106 imposes a strict duty on the owners corporation to maintain and repair common property. A tight budget is not an excuse.
• Make every request in writing, dated, specific, and backed by evidence. Keep the paper trail.
• If ignored, escalate: a motion at a general meeting, then free Fair Trading mediation, then an application to NCAT under section 232.
• Since October 2025, Fair Trading can directly enforce repair obligations with compliance notices and penalties, so a complaint to the regulator carries real weight.
• You have up to six years from becoming aware of a loss to claim damages for a breach of section 106.

If you are weighing up a purchase rather than dealing with your own building, the way an owners corporation has handled past repairs is one of the clearest signals of its health. StrataChecks reviews maintenance, disputes, levies, and insurance across 88,000+ NSW strata plans, so you can spot a building that drags its feet on repairs before you buy in.