Excellent summary! However, owners should not confuse the issues of approval for renovations with a renovations by-law. Cosmetic renovations do not need approval, minor renovations need approval at a general meeting by an ordinary resolution (ie, majority vote) unless the Owners Corporation has passed a resolution that permits the strata committee to approve all minor renovations, and major renovations require approval at a general meeting as a special resolution (ie, essentially 75% vote to approve).
If you have this approval you can proceed. Note that the Owners Corporation only has sway over common property, and cannot directly control renovations of the owner’s property – for example if a wall is a dark line in the strata plan (ie a Unit boundary, or external wall) it is common property, but internal walls are owners property. But the OC also has sway over the works generally, such as noise, hours of work, disposal of waste, access via lifts, and parking etc.
A renovation by-law will define the works generally and specify those general things, and will specify how common property items are renovated. But the main purpose of a renovation by-law is to transfer the ongoing responsibility for maintenance and repair of the renovated items from the OC to the owner. If there is no renovation by-law registered, then the ongoing maintenance and repairs remains with the OC. So with a renovation by-law in place, if an owner replaces some plumbing in a common property wall, then the owner has to maintain it, and fix any leaks from then on. The warranty for the job attaches to the owner, so this is fair. But if there is no renovation by-law registered, if the new plumbing leaks inside the common property wall, then the Owners Corporation has to fix it at its cost.
So renovations just need to be approved. Lots of renovations don’t have a renovation by-law registered, so that just means that the Owners Corporation has to maintain the renovated work in the future rather than the owner would. After a period of time people forget who renovated what, so the OC then looks after it all.
And in that example, if the new plumbing leaks in a wall that is not a common property wall, such as an internal wall, it is always the responsibility of the owner to repair. That is assuming the plumbing just services that Unit. But if it is a pipe or system that services more than one lot, then that plumbing is common property, to be maintained by the OC. Many bathrooms have 2 walls that are common property (ie exterior or boundary walls with a neighbouring Unit) and 2 walls that are owners property. In which case, the cost of major repairs to replace tiles for example, should be split between the owner and the OC.