Before moving in it is a good idea to try and determine if there are any by-laws that will restrict your removal or will impact you as soon as you move in. For example by-laws might cover any or all of the following:

• Parking restrictions: Parking is often the first problem that new residents in a strata building encounter. The removalist will want to park outside the front door but some cranky old lady from the executive committee will appear and scream “you cannot park here” at your removalist. If parking is not allowed there should be a by-law. Put simply the law works in favour of the removalist. It is highly unlikely that a Council Parking Inspector will book a removalist and executive committees cannot by law issue parking tickets. The Department of Fair Trading will take many months to follow-up on a complaint and every removalist in NSW knows that they can get away with it. Trust your judgement but try not to offend. If you are new to a building you need to make friends not enemies.
• Moving furniture: Many buildings will have a by-laws that relate to moving furniture. For example it might state that you “must have permission from the executive committee to move possessions through the common property” etc. If there is a bylaw you must comply. For example with minimal notice there are often “blankets” that can be erected to protect the insides of lifts so they do not get damaged by removalists.
• Type of furniture: Many new owners in new strata buildings are often surprised to find that there is a by-law that governs the type of furniture that you are allowed to put on your balcony. Sometimes there is even a brand of furniture and no variation is allowed. If you already had your own set of timber garden furniture it can be a nasty surprise to be told to remove your furniture from your balcony. These type of by-laws are fairly rare but they do exist - so it is clearly important to read the by-laws that apply to a building before you purchase. It is also common to have a by-law preventing the use of BBQ’s on the balcony.
• Washing, curtains and ornaments on the window sill: By-laws can even control where you dry your clothes. In many buildings you are not allowed to dry your clothes on the balcony, replace Venetian blinds with curtains or place large ornaments on window sills. Take a look at the building from the outside in order to get a “feel” for what is allowed and what is not.
• Getting connected: This can be complex and a horrible surprise for new owners. Some buildings have very restrictive bylaws that say in essence, you cannot connect to Foxtel, Optus, Telstra Bigpond Cable or any other wired cable or internet provider. This can be complex if you really want to use a particular provider but unfortunately the law appears to support these type of by-laws. All you can really do is wait until you are an owner, then petition to have the by-law changed. If you find yourself in this situation, then you have no option other than ADSL over the copper network or alternately a wireless ISP.
• Storing your possessions: Be careful of where you store your possessions? Some buildings will have a by-law that restricts the use of car spaces to the parking of cars. Some zealous executive committees have been known to have “clean-up” days where they call in a garbage contractor and remove everything from the car-park that is not a car. Expensive bicycles, wardrobes, surf-boards and other valuable possessions have been sent to the rubbish dump. Be warned. Strata Renovations is not sure if this is strictly legal but it is certainly fairly common practice.
• Hanging pictures: One of the first things that every new owner wants to do is to hang pictures on the wall. Strictly speaking it is forbidden to even put a nail in the wall without seeking permission from the owners corporation. The reason is that a vast range of services must be located in the walls of strata apartments, including TV, fire, gas, water, power, telephone, cable, security, emergency lights and even things like CBus control cables. Strata walls can be thin and it is possible to damage cables on your wall, or even the apartment next door. In practice, it is wise to be careful and exercise caution. If you do damage a pipe or cable you will be responsible for the repair cost and also any consequential damage caused to others, for example if you interrupt the water or power supply to the entire building and cause damage you might find yourself having to pay a substantial bill.

The excitement of home ownership is a wonderful thing. However many people have a horrible experience with strata. Many get in ‘trouble’ quite soon after buying a new strata apartment or subsequently, for example during the course of renovations. This site has been written to keep that happy feeling going for as long as possible and to help you avoid some of the pitfalls of strata ownership.

Owning a strata property is very different to owning a house. If you own a house you own the land, bricks and mortar and you can do pretty well whatever you want to it (Council permitting). But if you own a strata property you actually don’t own much at all. Essentially you own the air inside your strata apartment and often little else. In strata language this is called “cubic airspace”. If you have a garden apartment you might own the soil (to a depth) and you might also own the trees (to a height) but you probably do not even own the fence. Depending on the design of the strata building you might also own internal walls etc but there is actually very little that you can legally do without obtaining permission from the owners corporation, perhaps with the exception of repainting or replacing the carpet. In theory, you cannot even put a nail in the wall to hang a picture without first seeking permission from the owners corporation.

It is often considered to be forbidden to renovate, install a new kitchen or bathroom or remove walls (even in they are not structural) without the permission of the owners corporation. What type of permission is actually required can be very hard to determine. Unfortunately, the answer often depends on which solictor you ask!

This level of control takes a bit of getting used to. It is not prohibitively hard to navigate the system but it takes some effort. It is far more complex than owning your own house. People who move from a house to a strata apartment often have a hard time adjusting. Similarly some strata buildings are very low maintenance while other strata buildings require an enormous amount of maintenance. Other buildings are run well, they have regular meetings and everyone gets on famously – other buildings degenerate into a living hell! Your life will be governed by laws you have never heard of and the “owners corporation” is able to control much of what you can and cannot do!