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Question: When buying or selling a strata property in NSW what Owners Corporation’s records is the Strata Manager (under law) required to provide to the current owner/purchaser/real estate agent in the sale of the property eg Minutes of Meetings, Financial Statements, Levy Ledger? Or nil, all purchasers must conduct their own due diligence research?
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Strata owners (or their agents) are entitled by law to see and copy any strata records.
Prospective purchasers and real estate agents are only entitled to see what the strata owner wants them to see (although the convention is that vendors give permission to strata search companies and lawyers to see their strata records).
Some companies will perform a strata search for one prospective buyer and then it sell to or share the costs with other buyers, which is good for the buyers and sellers alike as only one entity is doing the search.
Some real estate agents will supply strata searches but these tend to be very short on the kind of detail you really want – such as ongoing disputes, the emotional health of the community and plans to change by-laws in ways that might disadvantage you
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
According to a reader comment on today’s Sun-Herald:
One small example about buyers beware before they buy into a strata. There is new Regulation on the Strata Law that makes it compulsory to people in the Committee and the Strata Management to disclose all the problems in their building before they buy. I asked a strata lawyer who was informing us about the new regulation. Who would be fined if they did not disclose all the information to a future buyer if the people who are providing the information would be the ones fined? The Strata Lawyer responded that the Owners Corporation would be the one who will be fined.
Can anyone give chapter and verse for this if it exists?
There is new Regulation on the Strata Law that makes it compulsory to people in the Committee and the Strata Management to disclose all the problems in their building before they buy.
I am unaware of this new regulation, which sounds very woolly, if it exists at all. What does “all the problems” even mean? There’s a hole in the roof and Mrs Underminer in number 92 is a terrible gossip?
I suspect it’s yet another example of someone getting half the story – strata owners and their agents can view all correspondence and minutes if they wish – and turning it into an urban myth in an ill-informed response to a news item.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong and I’ve missed this earth-shattering new regulation.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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