Strata Building Management

State elective: Australian Capital Territory

Goal: apply the core lessons in the ACT, where Canberra’s apartment boom has made unit titles a busy and changing area of law.

The framework

The law:

Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 (and the Unit Titles Act 2001 for creating schemes). The owners form an owners corporation, run by an executive committee. Schemes have rules (default rules apply unless the owners corporation has registered its own).
Tribunal: the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT).
Regulator for managers: Access Canberra.
The Legislative Assembly began an inquiry into the unit titles laws in 2025, looking at manager qualifications, licensing and conflicts of interest. Check for changes.

Managers and building managers

The law: in the ACT, an owners corporation’s manager (the strata manager role) must hold a licence under the Agents Act 2003: either a full real estate agent licence or a conditional licence limited to managing owners corporations, with some exceptions (such as an owner managing their own scheme).

A building manager or caretaker who only looks after the building works under their contract. As in other states, if your contract hands you manager functions (levies, meetings, records), check the licensing rules first.

Money

Owners corporations keep an administrative fund and a sinking fund, and larger schemes must have a sinking fund plan for long-term works. Your asset register and condition reports feed into it.

Licences, WHS and fire safety

Construction occupations (builders, plumbers, electricians, gas fitters) are licensed by Access Canberra, with an online register.
WHS: the ACT has the model Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Regulator: WorkSafe ACT.
Fire safety: there’s no annual fire safety statement in the ACT, but systems must be maintained. ACT Fire and Rescue publishes a guideline on maintaining fire protection systems (FSG-05). Maintain to AS 1851 and keep records.

ACT checklist

The owners corporation’s rules on file (default or registered)
The manager’s licence checked on Access Canberra’s register
Sinking fund plan current
Fire systems maintained with records
Contractors’ Access Canberra licences checked

On the job

Check whether your building’s strata manager is licensed on the Access Canberra register, and agree in writing which tasks are theirs and which are yours.

Sources

Access Canberra, Owners corporation managing agent licensing
ACT Government, Owning a unit
Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 (ACT), legislation.act.gov.au
Wormald, Differing fire safety compliance requirements across Australia

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.