Governance

Strata Committee Handover Checklist: Secretary, Treasurer and Chair

Just elected secretary or treasurer? This checklist covers what to collect from the outgoing member, role by role, what changes when you have a strata manager, the NSW, Victorian and Queensland rules on who holds each office, and what to do in your first 30 days.

19 October 2026 · 10 min read

On this pageThe short answer

The short answer

Ask for the handover in writing before the AGM, not after. Outgoing members are easiest to reach while they still hold the role.
Most of the work is access: bank signatories, online banking, email accounts, portals and keys. Paper files matter less than the logins.
If you have a strata manager, the manager holds most records. The handover is then about who can instruct the manager and what's still open.
If you're self-managed, the outgoing member may hold everything. Collect it all, and move it somewhere the building controls.
In NSW and Queensland, the committee can give a written notice requiring anyone holding the scheme's records to hand them over within 14 days. Victoria has no equivalent notice.

Who holds which role, state by state

	NSW	Victoria	Queensland
Officer roles in the Act	Chairperson, secretary, treasurer	Chairperson, secretary (no treasurer)	Chairperson, secretary, treasurer
Who chooses them	The strata committee, at its first meeting after the AGM	The committee appoints its chair and secretary	Owners elect them at the AGM, by ballot
One person in two roles?	Yes (s 41(3))	The Act doesn't say	Yes, even all three (Standard Module s 9(3))
Committee size	Up to 9, elected at each AGM	3 to 7 (up to 12 by resolution), required for 10 or more lots	At least 3 voting members, up to 7
Can the manager be an officer?	The manager can carry out officer functions if the appointment says so (s 54)	The secretary can be the manager (s 107)	A body corporate manager can be engaged to act for the committee
Notice to recover records	s 181: 14 days	None	Standard Module s 235: 14 days

NSW. The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 requires the committee to appoint a chairperson, secretary and treasurer "at the first meeting of the strata committee after they assume office" (s 41). Those people are also the officers of the owners corporation. A member's term ends at the meeting where a new committee is elected (s 35).

Victoria. The Owners Corporations Act 2006 has a chairperson and a secretary but no treasurer. An owners corporation with 10 or more lots must elect a committee at each AGM (s 100), and the committee appoints its chair (s 105) and secretary (s 107). Someone still has to look after the money. Many Victorian committees give that job to a member informally, or leave it with the manager.

Queensland. Under the Standard Module, "There must be a chairperson, secretary and treasurer" (s 9(2)), elected at each AGM. Small schemes of up to 6 lots that use the Small Schemes Module have only a secretary and a treasurer, and each general meeting elects its own chair.

With a strata manager vs self-managed

If you have a strata manager

The manager usually keeps the strata roll, the accounts, the minutes and the correspondence. In NSW, the manager only has the officer functions the instrument of appointment gives them (s 54), and the officers can still exercise those functions themselves. Read the agreement to see what's actually delegated.

The handover is short:

Tell the manager in writing who the new officers are and who can give instructions.
Get access to the manager's owner or committee portal.
Ask the outgoing officer for anything they kept outside the manager's system, such as emails, quotes, side agreements and notes on open issues.
Ask the manager for a list of open matters, approvals in progress and upcoming deadlines.

If you're self-managed

The outgoing secretary and treasurer may hold the entire record of the building on their own laptops and in their own email accounts. Treat this handover with more care. The checklist below is written for you.

The checklist

Send this to the outgoing members before the AGM. Go through it together in one sitting if you can.

Everyone

Item	Done
Building email account passwords, or the account moved to the new officer
Files saved on personal drives, laptops or personal email, copied to a shared location
Keys, fobs and remotes held because of the role
Contact list: contractors, insurer, broker, council, neighbours, the original builder
Open matters: what's in progress, who's waiting for what, and by when
Anything promised to an owner but not yet done

Outgoing secretary

Item	Done
Strata roll or owners register, with current service addresses and emails
Minutes of general and committee meetings, and the signed originals if kept on paper
Meeting notices, agendas, proxies and voting papers still within their keeping period
Correspondence files, sent and received
Register of notices and orders
Registered by-laws and any by-law changes in progress
Dates for the next committee meeting and the next AGM
Strata Hub login and the details last lodged (NSW)

Outgoing treasurer

Item	Done
Bank signatories changed, and the outgoing treasurer removed
Online banking access set up for the new treasurer
Levy register: amounts levied, paid and owing for each lot
Arrears and any payment plans or recovery action
Unpaid invoices and upcoming bills, especially the insurance renewal
Approved budget and the last financial statements, plus the auditor's report if there is one
Receipts, deposit records and the most recent bank reconciliation
GST registration, BAS lodgements and tax records, if registered
Access to the accounting file or spreadsheet, not just a printout

Outgoing chair

Item	Done
Motions carried but not yet acted on
Disputes, by-law breaches and tribunal matters, with their status
Contractor relationships and any informal arrangements
Items the last meeting carried over to the next agenda

If an outgoing member won't hand over records

Most handovers stall because people are busy, not because anyone is hiding something. Start with a friendly reminder and a date.

If that doesn't work:

NSW. The strata committee can give a written notice under s 181 to "any person" holding the owners corporation's property, including records. They must deliver it within 14 days to the committee member named in the notice. The maximum penalty is 20 penalty units.
Queensland. A committee resolution served under Standard Module s 235 requires anyone who took body corporate records or property while on the committee to hand them over within 14 days. They "may not claim a lien" on records. Small schemes have the same rule in s 150.
Victoria. The Act has no notice like this for committee members. Ask in writing, record the request in the minutes, and get advice if they still refuse. The owners corporation is the one required to keep the records (s 144), so the records belong to the building, not to the member.

We cover the strata manager version in detail in our strata manager handover guide.

Your first 30 days

New treasurer

Week 1. Get added as a bank signatory and get online banking access. Until that's done, you can't pay anything.

Week 2. Reconcile the bank account against the levy register. Check that the opening balance matches the last financial statements.

Week 3. List every bill due in the next 90 days, including the insurance renewal, and every lot in arrears.

Week 4. Report to the committee: balances in each fund, arrears, upcoming bills and anything that didn't reconcile.

In NSW, the treasurer's functions include notifying owners of levies, banking and accounting for money, and keeping the accounting records (s 44). With committee approval, the treasurer can delegate some of these to another committee member.

New secretary

Week 1. Get the email account, the strata roll and the minutes. Send owners a short note introducing the new committee and how to contact it.

Week 2. Check the strata roll. Missing or old service addresses cause trouble when the next notice goes out.

Week 3. In NSW, update the owners corporation's details on Strata Hub. Changes to the secretary's and chairperson's contact details must be lodged within 28 days of the secretary becoming aware of them (Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 cl 43B).

Week 4. Set the year's meeting calendar, including the latest date for the next AGM, and prepare the next committee meeting's notice.

In NSW, the secretary's functions include preparing and distributing minutes, giving notices and maintaining the strata roll (s 43).

New chair

Read the last year of minutes. List every carried motion that hasn't been acted on, and put the list on the next agenda.

Common questions

Can one person be both secretary and treasurer?

In NSW, yes: "A person may be appointed to one or more of the offices" (s 41(3)). In Queensland one person can hold any two of the roles, or all three (Standard Module s 9(3)). Victoria's Act doesn't address it. Holding two roles is legal but concentrates control, so it's worth having a second committee member review the bank statements.

When does the new committee take over?

In NSW, at the AGM where the new committee is elected. The officers are then appointed at the committee's first meeting. In Queensland, the executive members are elected at the AGM itself and hold their positions until someone else is chosen.

What if nobody wants the job?

In NSW, if the committee doesn't appoint a chair, secretary and treasurer, the Tribunal can order a meeting to fill the roles (s 48). In Queensland, if an executive position is left empty, the elected members must call an extraordinary general meeting within a month (Standard Module ss 40–43). A smaller job is easier to fill, so a clean handover helps the next election too.

Where UnitBuddy fits

UnitBuddy was built for committee turnover. The building's minutes, documents, levies and decisions live in a workspace the building owns, not in one person's inbox. When a role changes, the new person gets a login, not a hunt through last year's files. The record is also exportable at any time as CSV, JSON or PDF, with no fee or support ticket.