Strata Building Management

State elective: Victoria

Goal: apply the core lessons in Victoria: owners corporation tiers, where your role ends and registered management begins, the breach notice process, maintenance plans, essential safety measures and the OHS Act.

The framework

The law:

• Owners Corporations Act 2006 and Owners Corporations Regulations 2018, substantially amended from 1 December 2021.
• The owners corporation’s name is “Owners Corporation [number], Plan No. PS[number]”. A subdivision can have several owners corporations (a limited one for the car park, say, and an unlimited one for everything else). Check which one engaged you.
• Information: Consumer Affairs Victoria. Tribunal: VCAT. Lot owners and residents with disputes can also use the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria.
• The scheme’s rules (not by-laws): the model rules apply unless the owners corporation has registered its own.

The five tiers

Since 2021, owners corporations are grouped into tiers by the number of occupiable lots. Duties grow with size:

Your role and manager registration

Victoria has no special law for building managers or caretakers. You work under your contract. But anyone paid to manage an owners corporation must be registered with the Business Licensing Authority and hold professional indemnity insurance of at least $1.5 million. Registration is cancelled automatically 30 days after that insurance lapses.

Practitioner tip: keep your contract to the building: maintenance, contractors, residents, security, compliance services. If it also asks you to issue fee notices, run meetings or keep the owners corporation’s records, you’re probably acting as a manager and need to be registered, or the owners corporation needs a registered manager to do those parts.

Maintenance plans and funds

Tier 1 and 2 owners corporations must have a maintenance plan (approved by special resolution) and a maintenance fund with fees adequate to pay for it. Smaller ones may choose to. Your asset register and condition reports (Lesson 6) feed directly into the plan.

Rules and the breach process

1. The owners corporation must have an internal dispute resolution process, and it must be followed before formal action.
2. The owners corporation decides whether to act on a complaint.
3. It gives a notice to rectify breach in the approved form, allowing 28 days.
4. If not rectified, it can give a final notice, allowing a further 28 days and warning of VCAT.
5. Then it can apply to VCAT.

Notices must be served in person or by post. Records of complaints and decisions must be kept for seven years.

Short stays: since 2025 owners corporations can make a rule, by special resolution, banning short-stay accommodation (stays under 28 days) in lots that aren’t the host’s principal place of residence. A 7.5% short-stay levy applies to most bookings from 1 January 2025.

Pets: owners corporations can’t use rules to ban pets outright; rules can set reasonable conditions.

OHS, not WHS

Victoria is the one state that hasn’t adopted the model WHS laws. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 places duties on employers, on people who manage or control workplaces, on self-employed people and on others. An owners corporation that employs staff, or that manages or controls a workplace (for example common property where contractors work), can have duties. Your own business has duties as an employer or self-employed person regardless. Regulator: WorkSafe Victoria.

Essential safety measures

The law: under Part 15 of the Building Regulations 2018, owners must maintain essential safety measures (fire safety systems, exits, emergency lighting, mechanical services and more, listed on the occupancy permit or maintenance determination) and prepare an annual essential safety measures report (AESMR) on the approved form. Keep it and the maintenance records on site for inspection by the council or fire brigade.

Regulators and registers

Victoria checklist

• Which owners corporation (or corporations) engaged you, and its tier
• Your contract checked so you aren’t acting as an unregistered manager
• Maintenance plan (tiers 1 and 2) current
• AESMR prepared and on site; essential safety measures maintenance records complete
• Internal dispute resolution process known; breach notice forms on hand
• Short-stay rule (if any) and the hosts known

On the job

Find your owners corporation’s tier and check whether it has the maintenance plan its tier requires. Then find the last AESMR and check every essential safety measure on the occupancy permit appears in it.

Sources

• Consumer Affairs Victoria, Tiers of owners corporations, Owners corporation maintenance plan
• Consumer Affairs Victoria, Complaint handling and resolving disputes and Making rules to ban short stay accommodation
• Consumer Affairs Victoria, Public register of owners corporation managers
• Owners Corporations Act 2006 (Vic), s 153
• WorkSafe Victoria, Summary of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
• Building and Plumbing Commission, bpc.vic.gov.au

General education, not legal advice. Strata law is different in every state and territory and it changes often (NSW and Victoria both changed theirs in 2025 and 2026), so check the current Act and your own agreement, and get advice before acting on anything here.