How to run a strata committee in NSW without a strata manager

Plenty of small and mid-sized NSW buildings run themselves — no strata managing agent, no monthly management fee, just owners sharing the work. Done well, self-management saves thousands a year and gives owners real visibility over their money. Done badly, it turns into a shoebox of receipts and a treasurer who lies awake worrying. This guide is about doing it well.

The short version

Self-managing a strata scheme means the owners corporation performs the functions a managing agent would normally handle — keeping the books, issuing levies, arranging insurance and repairs, holding meetings, and meeting the scheme's legal obligations — without appointing (or paying) a licensed agent. It is completely legal in New South Wales, and for smaller schemes it is often the sensible choice.

What makes it work is not heroics; it is good systems. The committees that self-manage successfully are the ones with clean records, a predictable annual rhythm, and tools that keep everyone informed. The ones that struggle are almost always undone by the same thing: the building's money and history living in one person's spreadsheet, invisible to everyone else.

Is it legal to self-manage?

Yes. The owners corporation is free to manage the scheme itself. There is no requirement to appoint a strata managing agent at all. The distinction that matters is this: if you pay an external person or business to perform owners-corporation functions for you, that person generally must hold a licence under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002. But owners managing their own building, on a volunteer basis, do not need a licence.

What you cannot opt out of are the obligations themselves. The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (SSMA) and the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 apply to every scheme, whether it has an agent or not. Self-managing means you take on the work and the accountability — the law does not get lighter because you went without a manager.

Does self-management suit your scheme?

There is no legal size limit, but in practice self-management fits some buildings far better than others. Consider it seriously if:

• You have a smaller scheme (very roughly, a handful up to a few dozen lots) with relatively simple common property.
• You have willing, reliable owners — ideally at least a couple who will share the load so it does not all fall on one person.
• Your finances are straightforward and your building is in reasonable condition (no major defects or live disputes).

Think twice — or get help — if your scheme is large or complex, has significant capital works coming, is dealing with building defects, or is in the middle of a dispute. Those situations reward professional experience.

The jobs you take on

When there is no agent, these land with the committee (and especially the office bearers). At a high level:

• Money. Maintain the two legally required funds — the administrative fund (day-to-day costs) and the capital works fund (long-term, major expenses) — set budgets, and keep the books reconciled to the bank.
• Levies. Calculate contributions by unit entitlement, issue notices, track who has paid, and follow up arrears.
• Insurance. Hold building insurance (with cover based on a current valuation) and public liability cover of at least $20 million, and renew on time.
• Maintenance. Keep common property in good repair, engage contractors, and keep records of the work.
• Records & transparency. Maintain the strata roll, minutes, financial records and key documents — increasingly in electronic form — and make them available to owners on request.
• Meetings. Hold the annual general meeting each year, plus committee meetings as needed, with proper notice and minutes.
• Reporting. Lodge the scheme's annual report with the NSW Strata Hub within three months of the AGM.
• By-laws & disputes. Apply the scheme's by-laws fairly and handle disagreements.

It is a real list. The good news is that almost all of it is repeatable — the same handful of tasks, on a predictable calendar. That is exactly what software is good at.

Setting up: a 7-step start

If your scheme is moving to self-management (or you have just inherited the books), here is a sensible order of operations.

1. Confirm the decision properly. If you are ending an agent's appointment, follow the terms of that agreement and record the decision at a general meeting. Make sure someone is appointed to each office-bearer role (chairperson, secretary, treasurer).
2. Take control of the bank accounts. The owners corporation's money must be held in its own account(s). Get signatories sorted and obtain the full transaction history.
3. Gather the records. Collect the strata roll, by-laws, insurance policies, the latest financial statements, contracts, and the capital works fund plan. Missing history is the single most common headache when taking over.
4. Set up your system. Decide where the books, documents and owner contact details will live. A spreadsheet can work for a tiny scheme, but it concentrates risk in one person and offers owners no visibility. Purpose-built software removes both problems.
5. Build the budget and strike levies. Estimate the year's admin-fund costs and the capital-works contributions your 10-year plan calls for, then set levies by unit entitlement and have them approved at a general meeting.
6. Sort insurance. Confirm building insurance against a current valuation and public liability cover of at least $20 million, plus any other cover your scheme needs.
7. Set your compliance calendar. Diarise the AGM, the Strata Hub report, insurance renewal, the annual fire safety statement (if applicable) and the capital works plan review so nothing is missed.

The record-keeping reality

Here is the truth nobody tells new small to medium size strata scheme committees: the hard part is not any single task. It is keeping a complete, trustworthy record over years, as committee members come and go. The treasurer who "has it all in a spreadsheet" is one lost laptop — or one resignation — away from a crisis. And when an owner, a buyer's conveyancer, or an insurer asks to see where the money went, "trust me, it adds up" is not an answer.

This is the gap OneStrata was built to close. Instead of a private spreadsheet, the building's finances, levies, maintenance history, documents and decisions live in one place that every owner can see and the next treasurer inherits intact. Every change is written to an immutable audit trail — who did what, when — so the record holds up if a decision is ever questioned.

Your annual compliance rhythm

Self-management gets dramatically easier once you see it as a repeating calendar rather than a pile of one-off tasks. A typical year:

• Each quarter: issue levy notices, reconcile the books to the bank, pay bills, log maintenance.
• Annually: hold the AGM (adopt financial statements, set levies, confirm insurance, elect the committee); review the 10-year capital works fund plan; renew insurance against a current valuation; lodge the annual fire safety statement if your building requires one.
• Within three months of the AGM: lodge the annual report on the NSW Strata Hub (a small per-lot fee applies; late or inaccurate reporting can attract penalties).
• Ongoing: keep the strata roll current, distribute minutes within 14 days of meetings, and keep financial and insurance records for at least seven years.

When to bring in help

Self-managing does not mean going it entirely alone. It is smart to get professional input for: a major capital works program or special levy; building defects; a serious dispute heading toward NCAT (the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal); a complex insurance claim; or simply an annual review of your books by an accountant for peace of mind. Paying for targeted expertise occasionally is very different from paying a full management fee every month.

How OneStrata makes self-management workable

OneStrata is built specifically for small to medium size NSW strata schemes — not adapted from software designed for professional managing agents. It gives a volunteer committee the one thing a spreadsheet never can: a single, transparent, durable system.

• Fund accounting that ties out. Separate administrative and capital works funds, budget-versus-actual tracking, and reconciliation that compares your records to the declared bank balance and flags any drift automatically.
• Levies on autopilot. Contributions by unit entitlement, itemised notices, and at-a-glance tracking of who has paid and who is overdue.
• Every owner sees where the money goes. Owners open their own portal and view their quarterly levy broken down by category — no asking, no waiting, no black box.
• The whole building in one place. Maintenance requests, contractors, notices, documents, AGMs and voting — and much more.
• A clean handover. When the committee changes, the next treasurer inherits a complete, organised record instead of a shoebox.

And because owners do not pay — only the scheme does — OneStrata costs from $8 per lot per month, with a 7-day free trial, no credit card to start, and no lock-in.

This guide is general information for NSW strata committees, not legal, financial or tax advice. Strata law changes — the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, its Regulation and recent amendments are the authoritative source, alongside NSW Fair Trading (nsw.gov.au). Always confirm current requirements for your scheme, and seek professional advice on anything significant. OneStrata is record-keeping and management software for small to medium size strata schemes; it is not a licensed strata managing agent and never holds your funds.

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