Bylaw Consolidation

Bylaw Consolidation

Under clause 4 of Schedule 3 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) (“the 2015 Act”), an owners corporation of an existing strata scheme is required to review the by-laws for their strata scheme not later than 12 months after 30 November 2016 (see section 134 of the 2015 Act).

Section 141(4) of the 2015 Act provides that changes to bylaws must be registered within 6 months from the date of the resolution passing them. In addition, section 141(3) of the 2015 Act states that an owners corporation is required to keep a consolidated up to date copy of the by-laws for the strata scheme.

Now is the time for owners corporations and their strata managing agents to commence reviewing their existing by-laws and to consider whether they need updating.  In our experience, by-laws should be updated if the scheme is faced with:

• Inconsistent by-laws: if there are inconsistencies with other registered by-laws, Strata Management Statement by-laws, Community Management Statement by-laws, anti-discrimination laws, local council approval and consents and other laws.

• Out dated by-laws: the conditions of these by-law have truly past their use by date, they do not reflect today’s strata scheme’s standards or expectations, they can be one sided, or are no longer useful to the strata scheme.

• Invalid by-laws: if these by-laws contravene and/or are inconsistent with any other Act or law, they are made beyond the owners corporation’s by-law making power, create prohibitions against an owner which are unreasonable or have been declared invalid by an Adjudicator.

A by-laws review and update can significantly improve the by-laws in a strata scheme by eliminating the above types of by-laws and provide the owners corporation with a recommendation on which by-laws should be adopted by the owners corporation.  These matters may include, renovations works by-laws, the keeping of pets, damage to common property, behaviour of residents, parking on common property, hard surface flooring, etc.

If your scheme needs a by-law review, advice on its by-laws and/or to assist with the drafting and lodgement of a consolidated set of your scheme’s by-laws at Land and Property Information, please feel free to contact Michael Pobi on (02) 8710 3430.

Please note that the information contained in this article is not legal advice and should not be relied upon. You should obtain legal advice before you take any action or otherwise rely upon the contents of this article.