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Our last AGM was July 2025 and our next AGM has been advised late August 2026. Late last year we changed Strata Manager, and a successful handover has been completed with the new SM having all required documentation.
The new SM has just (June 2026) issued levy notices due 1st July 2026, with the same instalment amount set last year.
My interpretation of Sections 79, 81-83 of the Act is that we need 2025/6 final accounts, 2026/7 actual and estimated expenses, an AGM accepting the accounts, also accepting estimated expenses, setting levies and if wanted, setting instalments before we can issue Levy Notices.
None of this has happened.
Questions. Is there anything in the Act or Regulations that permit levies to be issued other than Sections 79, 81-83?
If not, are our levy notices legal?
If not, best way forward?
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Questions. Is there anything in the Act or Regulations that permit levies to be issued other than Sections 79, 81-83? If not, are our levy notices legal?
The sections to which you refer establish the principle that levies estimates and the contributions required should be agreed upon at an annual general meeting and can only be altered at another general meeting. There would be a concern if your new strata manager had said, “Okay, inflation is running at X per cent so we are bumping the levies up by that amount until the next AGM.”
Your AGM is only one month later than it would have been if it was held on the same date every year. Currently the legislation only requires AGMs to be held in each financial year, so your AGM could have been legally delayed until June next year.
Slippage of one month is neither here not there, and you are probably paying a little less in your latest levies than you will almost certainly have to do in the next tranche.
This would only be an issue if your scheme was running out of money and services were in danger of being cut off, in which case you could petition for an EGM to correct the financial situation.
Section 81 (4): If the owners corporation is subsequently faced with other expenses it cannot at once meet from either fund, it must levy on each owner of a lot in the strata scheme a contribution to the administrative fund or capital works fund, determined at a general meeting of the owners corporation, in order to meet the expenses.
There’s nothing in the legislation that says that levies authorisation expires on the anniversary of the AGM that set them. In other words, if there’s no problem, then it’s not a problem.
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Our AGM wording for the Budget and Levy Contribution clearly sets out payment dates for levies and includes the levies due in the following financial year. For example, our financial year ends 30 April and the AGM documents sets out levies due 1 May (we hold our AGM in July before the new levies start in 1 August).