On the 1st of April 2026, the last phase of reforms under the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (NSW) (‘The Amendment Act’) came into effect, completing a series of legislative changes redefining the strata landscape in NSW. These reforms have a significant impact on developers and builders in residential strata projects, with expanded obligations around planning, compliance and transparency aimed at strengthening the position of lot owners and improving the management of strata schemes.
Initial Stages
The first two stages of the reform process under the Amendment Act unfolded in 2025, introducing a number of changes directly impacting developers. Firstly, the Australian Consumer Law unfair contract terms regime has been extended to apply to agreements entered into by owners corporations, including arrangements with developers providing ongoing services. These agreements must be fair, reasonable and consistent with market standards, and must not operate to the disproportionate advantage of the developer or its related party. Any terms found to be unfair may be rendered void and may also expose the parties to civil penalty consequences. Moreover, the reforms place tighter restrictions on the length of utilities and service agreements, including those for embedded networks such as electricity, telecommunications and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In practice, this reform reduces the ability of developers to enter into long-term arrangements and confirms that the related delivery costs are the developers responsibility and cannot be passed on to owners corporations.
Recent Reform
The most recent changes, effective from 1 April 2026, introduce more prescriptive requirements. Developers must now use a standardised format for initial maintenance schedules, providing clearer guidance to owners corporations when planning inspections and managing ongoing maintenance obligations. Further, for multi-storey strata schemes, developers are required to engage an independent surveyor to verify that the initial maintenance schedule complies with the prescribed form and that the proposed contributions to both the administrative and capital works funds are sufficient to meet expected expenditure for the coming year. Additionally, the Amendment Act expands record-keeping obligations and establishes new disclosure requirements, including the need to identify embedded network arrangements.
Future Reform
Looking ahead, further amendments relevant to builders and developers are proposed under the Fair Trading and Building Legislation Amendment Act 2026 (NSW), which is currently under consideration. These foreshadow additional changes surrounding defect liability insurance and the establishment of a building administration fund to support the administration of building legislation.