I hate to blow my own trumpet but I’m hearing lots of reports that people are turning up at strata committee meetings and being handed a copy of my “21 new strata laws …” article – which is incredibly gratifying (and just a little bit concerning).

Anyway, come Thursday we will all be living in a brave New Strata World and most of us probably won’t notice the difference.

Chief among the “changes? what changes?” brigade will be the people who never paid any heed to strata laws in the first place (and I include those who profess never to have seen their by-laws).

Then there are the people who are aware of the laws and by-laws but have decided that they don’t really apply to them so what’t the point in finding out more?

And, of course, there are those who are so terrified by the thought of not abiding by every nuanced letter of the law that they end up doing nothing.  A new set of laws means a whole new set of excuses for inactivity.  It’s called analysis paralysis.

The rest of us will stumble on, trying out new laws as we trip over them: “can we really move that car that’s been parked on common property illegally for six months?”

But, like everyone given a new gadget for Christmas we’ll fail to do one important thing: read the instructions.

Meanwhile, here’s another set of questions based on the old laws, one of which has a different answer based on the new laws.  See if you can spot which one.

• What happens when strata garages become ‘men’s sheds’.  That’s HERE.
• Can you stop kids from playing on common property? That’s HERE.
• How one owner is already subverting the new laws on banning agents from strata committees.  That’s HERE.
• My balcony balustrade would be illegal if it was built today – do I need to fix it?  That’s HERE.
• Who can issue Notices To Comply? That’s HERE.