Costa – under the provisions of Sects 68 and 71 of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act (the Act) the only payments that can be made from the Funds of the Owners Corporation are those for which an estimate (of that expenditure) has been made in the respective Budgets under the “items and matters” shown there.
Strata Managers generally try to overcome Sects 68 and 71 of the Act by having broad categories such as “General Repairs” and “Building Replacements” in the Budgets, thereby hiding otherwise specific items and matters within.
Notwithstanding, and even in the absence of any limit on its committal expenditure, the E/C cannot authorise expenditure on projects such as those to which your post refers unless an estimate of the expenditure on those projects appears in the approved Sinking Fund Budget, and even if such estimates have been made, E/C’s of Plan’s >100 Lots (only) still cannot authorise expenditure on any item or matter if that would cause the corresponding estimate in the Budget to be exceeded by ≥10%, unless that limitation as prescribed in Sect 80 of the Act has been specifically removed by the O/C at the preceding AGM.
Hopefully one of the above provisions will be applicable to your Plan’s circumstances.