An outline of the proposed strata committee training plan, due to come into force on October 1, has been posted on the Fair Trading website and current strata committee members quaking in fear of what it might mean need tremble no more – well, not until after their next AGM, and even then…

The plan, as outlined has little in the way of compulsion and absolutely zero in terms of enforcement.  All the way through, actions are “encouraged” and “suggested”.

And if that weren’t signal enough that no Stratakops are going to turn up and drag you kicking and screaming from a committee meeting if you haven’t completed the training, the website blatantly announces, “NSW Fair Trading will not take action against a committee member who fails to comply with their training requirements.”

The guts of the proposal are that new and returning strata committee members appointed between 1 October this year and 30 September 2027 must complete free online ‘Introduction to Strata Committee Rights and Responsibilities’ training to be delivered by NSW Fair Trading.

This must be done within three months of being appointed to the committee and must be renewed every year. This applies whether they are new to a committee, a returning committee member, or appointed to fill a vacancy of more than 3 months.

Current members excused

However, current committee members elected before 1 October this year, won’t have to do the training until after their next AGM when, notionally, the committee is cleared out and elected from scratch.

Otherwise, if a committee member’s training is not completed on time, and they don’t have a certificate of completion to prove it has been, they are automatically removed from the committee.

Decisions will still be valid if they were made when the other committee members were unaware that one of their number hadn’t completed the training.

What happens with decisions made when members knew that some of them hadn’t done the training is not spelled out.

The training will be free and self-paced and will take about 1 hour to complete, says the website, and will be available from Strata Hub with the Fair Trading webpage updated with a link once the training is launched. How Fair Trading plans to ensure that the training is actually undertaken by individuals – rather than a ‘helpful’ chair or secretary – is not addressed.

If a committee member does not complete the training within 3 months of being appointed, they automatically stop being a committee member, says the website, although how that is policed is a little vague and seems to fall back on the strata secretary.

And this is where we find those wishy-washy weasel words. The website says the committee secretary may send a notice to untrained members advising them that they have failed to complete the training and are no longer a committee member. That said, even if a notice is not sent, the committee member will still automatically cease to be a member.

If a committee member is appointed to the committee again during the same 12-month period they were first appointed, they will have three months from their new appointment date to do the training.

Cronies carve-out?

So, imagine the scenario in a committee where a secretary would rather have their cronies on the committee than bounce them for not doing the training and have them replaced by an outsider?

The committee member gets themselves re-elected – easy when you have a controlling committee that tells owners to direct their proxy votes to its members – comes back for three months, still doesn’t complete the training, rinse and repeat.

Okay, that’s an extreme but far from impossible case and it may be why the FT website says the vacancy must be filled by an election at a general meeting, rather than the co-option of a new member by committee-only vote, as happens for other mid-term vacancies.

Once committee members have completed this introductory training, they will have access to additional training each year, the website says.

Training requirements will not apply to committee members in two-lot strata schemes or committee members filling a casual vacancy for less than three months.

One positive note is that the website encourages anyone to do the training on a voluntary basis at any time, once it has been launched, including people who are interested in joining their strata committee, those who don’t plan on joining but want to learn more about how strata works and who makes the decisions, committee members who were appointed before 1 October 2026 and members of a two-lot scheme who would like to learn more about strata on a voluntary basis only.

If a committee becomes aware that a member has failed to complete training, they should, says the website, take steps to prevent them taking part in future committee decisions, and check if they will need to appoint another owner to fill the vacancy.

For instance, when the Owners Corporation votes at a general meeting to have a certain number of members on its committee, then the secretary should arrange an election as soon as is expedient to fill that vacancy and that will require a general meeting of the owners corporation, says the website.

Certificate of Completion

And this is where the compliance burden falls on secretaries. “To help committee members meet their obligations and be aware of consequences if training is not done, NSW Fair Trading recommends secretaries carry out certain tasks,” says the website.

“When a strata committee member completes the training, NSW Fair Trading issues them a Certificate of Completion,” it continues. “It is recommended that each committee member give a copy of their Certificate of Completion to the committee secretary, within the training period, so that the committee knows they have completed training.  

“Committee secretaries are encouraged to keep copies of Certificates of Completion for at least 1 year for record-keeping purposes and to avoid uncertainty about who has completed training.” (My emphasis in bold italics, not FT’s)

“It is recommended that committee secretaries issue a reminder notice to each member of the strata committee. This should be done no later than 2 months after the member’s appointment.

“The reminder notice should advise the committee member of the date by which the committee member must complete their training, and ask them to provide a copy of their Certificate of Completion to the committee secretary.”

It continues: “Committee secretaries are also encouraged to keep a copy of any reminder notices sent for at least 1 year for record-keeping purposes.

“If a Certificate of Completion is not provided by a member by the training deadline, the committee secretary is encouraged to issue the committee member a Failure to Complete Training Notice as soon as practicable. This notice will inform the committee member that they are no longer on the committee due to not completing training within the required 3 month period.”

NSW Fair Trading says it will publish a template of this notice closer to the 1 October launch date for the training.

“When a committee member’s position becomes vacant, the committee secretary is encouraged to notify the remaining committee members as soon as practicable. This will support committee governance and help ensure only current committee members make decisions,” says the website.

Zero penalties

So, lots of encouragement but zero penalties for committee members and, especially, secretaries who decide to just ignore the whole thing.

Would it be too harsh to rule that strata committee secretaries should be removed from that role for at least a year if they fail in the most basic of duties – to ask members if they have completed their training?

This has a whiff of Strata Hub about it, where many secretaries have just decided to ignore its existence or provide only minimal information. By the way, and we are grateful to Flatchatter ‘Blueman’ for letting us know; Fair Trading didn’t bother to alert us.

Speaking of which, Fair Trading says it will email strata committee members who have their contact details on Strata Hub as part of strata reporting. And it encourages committee members to Log in to Strata Hub to check their contact details are up to date or ask their strata manager (if they have one).

You can read the Fair Trading announcement in full HERE.