Mandatory Strata Committee Training in NSW: What's Required, When It Starts, and What Happens If You Don't Do It

Mandatory Strata Committee Training in NSW: What's Required, When It Starts, and What Happens If You Don't Do It

For the first time in Australian strata history, sitting on a committee will require more than a willingness to volunteer. Under amendments to the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 introduced by the Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (NSW), every strata committee member in New South Wales will need to complete prescribed training — and failure to do so will automatically remove them from the committee.

The reform is among the most significant governance changes in decades. It reflects an uncomfortable truth that has driven much of the 2025–2026 reform agenda: many committee members are making consequential decisions about multimillion-dollar buildings with no formal understanding of their legal duties, and the consequences — neglected maintenance, financial mismanagement, owner disputes — are now visible enough that the government has decided to act.

This article explains exactly what's coming, when it starts, who is affected, what the training will involve, and what your scheme should be doing now to prepare.

When Does It Start?

The mandatory training requirement is part of the broader Strata Schemes Legislation Amendment Act 2025, which is being rolled out in stages. The first stage commenced on 3 February 2025, the second on 1 July 2025, the third on 27 October 2025, and the fourth on 1 April 2026.

The training requirement itself is in the final tranche, scheduled to commence in late 2026 — the exact date will be set by proclamation. NSW Fair Trading is currently developing the curriculum, accrediting training providers, and finalising the regulations that will govern how the requirement is enforced.

What this means in practice is that committees elected at AGMs from late 2026 onwards will be subject to the new rules from the moment they take their position. Committees that are already in place at the commencement date will need to complete the training within whatever transition window the regulations specify.

What Will the Training Cover?

The full curriculum has not yet been released, but the structure is now confirmed. There will be two components.

The first is a free one-hour online module hosted on the nsw.gov.au/strata website. Committee members will need to complete this within three months of being appointed at their AGM. It will cover the fundamentals — the role of the committee, the legal framework under the SSMA, the obligations that come with being elected, and the basic mechanics of meetings, decisions and records.

The second is a one-hour training session delivered by approved private training providers, to be completed before the next AGM. This second module is where the meaningful capability-building happens: financial oversight, the duty to maintain common property under section 106, conflicts of interest, dealing with strata managers, by-law enforcement, and the new statutory duties of honesty, fairness, due care and diligence introduced by the 2025 reforms.

Together, the two modules give committee members what the government considers the minimum essential knowledge to meet their legal obligations and run a scheme without breaching duty.

Who Has to Complete It?

Every member of a strata committee — including the chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and ordinary members — is required to complete the training. The same requirement extends to association committee members in community schemes governed by the Community Land Management Act 2021.

The legislation does not currently exempt small schemes, two-lot schemes, or schemes self-managed without a strata manager. If you are an elected member of any committee in NSW, the training applies to you.

There has been significant debate during the consultation period about whether the requirement will deter people from nominating — particularly in smaller schemes where the same handful of owners have been carrying the load for years. The government's position is that the training is short enough (two hours total) that it should not represent a meaningful barrier, and that the long-term benefits of better-informed committees outweigh the short-term friction.

What Happens If a Member Doesn't Complete the Training?

This is where the reform has real teeth. Under the amended section 37 of the SSMA, a committee member who fails to complete the training within the prescribed period automatically ceases to be a member of the strata committee.

The legislation provides a notification process before this triggers. A member who has not completed the training will be issued a formal notice giving them a specified period to complete the requirement. Only if they fail to complete it within that period does the automatic removal take effect.

There is no NCAT application required, no special resolution at a general meeting, and no mechanism to override the requirement. The removal happens by operation of law.

For schemes that lose members through this process, the consequences depend on whether the committee can still meet quorum. If enough members are removed that the committee can no longer function, the scheme may need to call a general meeting to elect replacements, or risk falling into administrative paralysis until the next AGM.

What Will It Cost?

The first module — the one-hour NSW Fair Trading online course — will be free.

The second module, delivered by private training providers, will have a cost. The exact pricing has not been finalised, but the regulations are expected to require providers to publish their fees transparently. Industry estimates from accredited training organisations suggest the cost will likely fall between $50 and $150 per member per session.

The legislation does not specify who pays. The default position is that the committee member is personally responsible for the cost of completing their own training. However, an owners corporation can resolve at a general meeting to fund training for its committee members from administrative fund contributions, and many schemes are likely to do this. Without that funding, smaller schemes in particular may struggle to find members willing to pay out of pocket for the privilege of volunteering.

What Schemes Should Be Doing Now

The training requirement is several months away from commencing, but there are practical steps that responsible committees should be taking before then.

The first is updating succession planning. If your committee has members who are ageing, planning to sell, or have indicated they don't want to continue, now is the time to identify and recruit replacements who will be willing to complete the training. The worst outcome is reaching the commencement date with no one prepared to step up.

The second is budgeting. If your scheme intends to fund training for committee members, the cost needs to be reflected in the next administrative fund budget. A scheme with a nine-member committee that funds two rounds of training per member per year is looking at potentially $1,000 to $2,500 in additional annual cost.

The third is reviewing your existing committee composition for vulnerabilities. Members who are not engaged, who don't read minutes, who don't attend meetings, or who have been on the committee for years without contributing meaningfully are exactly the members most likely to skip or fail to complete training. The training requirement may quietly prune the committee of its most passive members — which is arguably part of the point.

The fourth is communicating with owners. Many lot owners are unaware of the upcoming change. AGMs in late 2025 and early 2026 are a good opportunity to put the requirement on the agenda, explain what's coming, and signal that committee membership will require more engagement going forward.

How Other States Compare

NSW is the first Australian jurisdiction to mandate committee training, but it is unlikely to be the last.

The pattern across jurisdictions is consistent: NSW is moving first, Victoria is likely to follow within twelve to eighteen months, and the other states are watching to see how the NSW reform plays out before committing.

The Underlying Argument for the Reform

The case for mandatory training rests on a single, awkward observation: strata committees in Australia are responsible for governing buildings that frequently exceed $50 million in replacement value, with budgets running into hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, while the people doing the governing have on average no formal training in property management, finance, contract law, or building maintenance.

Compare this to virtually any other context involving comparable assets. A board of directors of a $50 million company is required to comply with extensive corporate governance regulation. A trustee of a self-managed superannuation fund must meet specific competency standards. A real estate agent handling a single rental property must hold a licence. Yet a committee member overseeing a strata scheme worth tens of millions of dollars has, until now, required nothing.

The 2025 reforms attempt to close part of that gap. Whether two hours of training is enough is a separate question — many in the sector argue it is far too little. But it represents the floor, not the ceiling, and the expectation is that the requirement will expand over time.

What If Your Committee Doesn't Want to Comply?

Some committees — particularly in smaller schemes that have operated informally for years — will reach the commencement date and simply not engage with the training requirement. The legislation has been designed with this in mind.

If members do not complete the training, they cease to be members. If enough members cease to be members that the committee cannot meet quorum, the owners corporation can no longer make committee-level decisions, and matters that would normally be handled by the committee must instead go to a general meeting of all owners. This is administratively cumbersome and will, in most cases, drive the scheme to either replace its committee or appoint a strata manager who can absorb some of the day-to-day decisions that the committee would otherwise handle.

There is no path that allows non-compliant committees to simply continue. The mechanism is automatic, and it will reshape the way smaller schemes operate.

How UnitBuddy Helps

UnitBuddy's committee dashboard tracks training completion status alongside other governance indicators, giving committees clear visibility over which members have completed the required modules and which are at risk of automatic removal. The platform also surfaces upcoming compliance dates, training deadlines for new members, and historical records of completed training so schemes can demonstrate compliance during audits or when responding to NSW Fair Trading enquiries.

For owners, the platform makes it easy to see whether the committee governing their building has met its training obligations — a question that, from late 2026, becomes a meaningful indicator of whether a scheme is being run by a committee whose members are legally entitled to be there.

Mandatory training is the floor, not the ceiling, of the new governance regime. The committees that will thrive under the 2026 framework are those that treat the requirement not as a bureaucratic hurdle but as the start of a more professional approach to running their building.