NSW Strata Law: What's Changing Between Now and March 2027

The short version

• The next confirmed commencement date is 1 October 2026, not some vague "later in 2026." Mandatory strata committee training finally has a shape: a free one-hour online course, due within three months of appointment.
• Two-lot schemes (most duplexes) lose the annual Strata Hub reporting obligation from the same date.
• An adjacent reform, the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Regulation, also starts 1 October 2026 and reaches into how buildings dispose of batteries.
• Off-the-plan embedded network disclosure is confirmed but still has no commencement date. Treat it as "coming," not "here."
• Nothing else material is scheduled to commence in NSW strata law before March 2027. The heavy lifting was 1 April 2026; this stretch is about one committee-facing reform landing properly.

If your building got through the April 2026 changes (the standard-form capital works plan, the expanded Section 184 certificate, the developer handover rules), the next few months are lighter. But "lighter" is not "nothing," and the one item that does land, committee training, is the reform most schemes have been putting off because it never had a firm date. It has one now.

1. 01
   Now: prepare for 1 Oct
2. 02
   1 Oct 2026: committee training starts
3. 03
   1 Oct 2026: two-lot reporting relief
4. 04
   1 Oct 2026: battery stewardship rules
5. 05
   TBA: off-the-plan network disclosure

1 October 2026: mandatory committee training finally has a start date

For most of 2026, committee training has been the reform everyone knew was coming and nobody could plan around, because NSW Fair Trading hadn't released the operational detail. That changed. Training commences 1 October 2026: a free, one-hour online course, shorter and cheaper than the two-hour estimate committees were budgeting around earlier in the year. New and returning committee members get three months from the date they take office to complete it, not a fixed calendar deadline. A few groups are exempt: two-lot schemes, strata managing agents, members of the Australian College of Strata Lawyers, and anyone filling a vacancy for under three months.

What this means for your AGM. Any scheme holding its AGM on or after 1 October 2026 should assume every newly elected or re-elected committee member outside those exempt categories now has a three-month clock running. Build the training step into your post-AGM checklist the same way you'd handle a new secretary's contact details going onto Strata Hub.

What committees should do now:

• Identify who on the incoming committee is exempt (two-lot scheme, licensed managing agent, ACSL member) and who isn't.
• Add "complete committee training" to the standard onboarding pack for new members, alongside the by-laws, the last set of minutes, and the capital works plan.
• Start a simple completion register. Even a shared spreadsheet with names and completion dates is enough to show the scheme is on top of it if a member later disputes their standing.
• Brief owners at the AGM itself: a one-hour free course is a low bar, and framing it that way heads off the "this will scare volunteers away" objection before it takes hold.

Our mandatory committee training guide has more background on why the reform exists and how the debate played out; this is the update with the date attached.

1 October 2026: two-lot schemes lose the annual reporting requirement

Duplexes and other two-lot schemes have been subject to the same annual Strata Hub reporting obligation as a 200-lot tower, which never made much sense given how little there is to report. From 1 October 2026, that requirement is removed for two-lot schemes.

This doesn't touch the 28-day rule for updating contact details or the formation of a strata renewal committee. It's specifically the annual report that goes away. If your scheme is a two-lot duplex, drop it from the post-AGM checklist from this date; if you're not sure whether your scheme still needs to report, our Strata Hub annual reporting guide covers who is and isn't in scope.

1 October 2026: battery stewardship rules (adjacent reform)

Not part of the strata legislation itself, but landing on the same date and worth knowing about: the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Regulation takes effect on 1 October 2026. It requires brand owners supplying batteries, including the lithium-ion batteries used in e-bikes and e-scooters, to join a product stewardship scheme and publish compliance reporting.

For buildings, the practical effect is downstream rather than a new duty on the owners corporation: proper end-of-life disposal pathways for batteries should improve over time. It's worth keeping an eye on for its knock-on effects on bin rooms and waste contracts, but it doesn't require a committee resolution on its own. If your building is already dealing with e-bike and e-scooter charging and storage, our lithium battery rules guide covers the by-law side of that, which is a live issue independent of this date.

Still coming, no date yet: off-the-plan embedded network disclosure

One further change is confirmed in the legislation but has no prescribed commencement date as of this writing: developers selling off-the-plan will need to disclose in the sale contract whether the development includes, or is likely to include, an embedded network, and what service it supplies. This extends the embedded network transparency that already applies to the Section 184 certificate back to the point of sale, before a buyer has even exchanged.

There's nothing to do about this yet beyond keeping it in mind. If you're buying off-the-plan before this commences, ask the question directly rather than waiting for the disclosure to become mandatory. Our embedded network explainer covers what to ask and why it matters.

Quick reference

Date	Change	Affects
1 Oct 2026	Mandatory committee training: free 1-hour online course, due within 3 months of appointment	Committee members (exemptions apply)
1 Oct 2026	Annual Strata Hub reporting removed for two-lot schemes	Duplexes and other two-lot schemes
1 Oct 2026	Product Lifecycle Responsibility Regulation (battery stewardship)	Suppliers; downstream effect on building waste and disposal
TBA (2026)	Off-the-plan embedded network disclosure	Developers, off-the-plan buyers

What's not changing

Reform fatigue makes it easy to assume everything is still moving. It isn't. The duty to maintain common property, the two-fund structure, proxy caps, and the core Section 184 disclosure rules set in April 2026 are untouched by anything in this window. If your scheme sorted out its capital works plan and certificate templates earlier in the year, there's no new paperwork wave here, just the training requirement landing on schedule.

How UnitBuddy helps

UnitBuddy's committee dashboard tracks training completion against each member's appointment date, so the three-month window from 1 October 2026 doesn't rely on someone remembering to check. It also flags which schemes are exempt (two-lot, managing agent, ACSL member) so committees aren't chasing a requirement that doesn't apply to them, and keeps the annual reporting calendar current as obligations change.

Sources and further reading

• NSW Government: guide to strata law changes for strata committees and owners
• NSW Government: changes to strata laws
• NSW: New training requirement for strata committees, via LookUpStrata

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