What a Strata Report Tells You Before You Buy a Unit in NSW

You have found the apartment. North facing, a balcony big enough for two chairs and an optimistic herb garden. The agent has emailed the contract. Somewhere in that email is a line about strata, and most buyers skim it.

Do not skim it. When you buy a unit, you buy your four walls and a share of everything else. The roof, the lift, the driveway, the money in the bank and the arguments in the minutes. The strata report tells you what that share is worth before you sign.

What is a strata report, and who prepares it?

In NSW the owners of all the lots in a scheme together form the owners corporation. It keeps the records: accounts, minutes, insurance, correspondence and by-laws.

A strata report (also called a strata search) is what you get when someone reads those records and writes up what they found. It is a private report commissioned by the buyer, not a document the government or the scheme issues. You need the seller’s permission to inspect the records, which usually comes through the agent, and a fee is payable to the owners corporation for the inspection.

Most buyers hire a professional strata inspector to do it, and we can recommend one. You can inspect the records yourself if you have a free afternoon and a high tolerance for minutes. Either way, the report belongs next to the contract. We read it alongside the contract we are reviewing for you, but we do not give advice on the report itself. If something in it raises a question, the strata inspector who wrote it is the person to ask.

What does a strata report show?

A strata purchase adds a second set of documents to every purchase: the strata records, the levies, the capital works fund, the by-laws and any defects or special levies the owners corporation has been discussing.

NSW strata schemes generally report key details each year to the Strata Hub, including the capital works fund balance and the insured value of the building. Two-lot schemes have been exempt from annual reporting since 1 October 2026. A good strata inspector checks the records against it.

What does a strata report not show?

It does not tell you about the inside of the unit. That is a building inspection, and the two are different jobs: a standard building report usually covers the inside of the unit and its immediate exterior, and common property needs a separate special-purpose report if you want it checked. The strata report is the other half of the picture, because it covers the building’s records, finances and known defects. Our guide to building and pest inspections before you buy covers the physical half.

It also only shows what was written down. If the committee talked about the leaking car park ceiling at the barbecue and nobody minuted it, the report has no idea.

What is in the contract for a strata lot, and what is the section 184 certificate?

The attachments are called the prescribed documents, and in NSW they are the seller’s disclosure. For a lot in a strata scheme they include a property certificate for the lot and the common property, the strata plan that shows the lot, and the by-laws in force. Our guide to the contract for sale of land in NSW walks through the rest. Those documents tell you what you are buying. The strata report tells you what you are buying into.

The section 184 certificate is different again. The Act calls it a strata information certificate, and it is an official statement the owners corporation gives on request, for a fee, about one lot: the levies set for the administrative and capital works funds, any special contribution, what is unpaid and the interest on it, the insurance held, the by-laws and more. It is not one of the prescribed documents. Under the standard NSW contract the seller usually serves it at least 7 days before the date for completion, and the buyer does not have to complete earlier than 7 days after receiving it. The printed contract also makes the buyer pay the prescribed fee for it on completion.

Why it matters: the certificate is conclusive evidence of what it states, as at its date, in favour of a buyer who pays for the lot. If a levy was outstanding before the certificate was given and it is not shown on the certificate, the buyer is not responsible for paying it.

You want both. The report to decide, the certificate to settle.

What do levies and special levies mean for you?

Levies are what owners pay into the scheme’s two funds: an administrative fund for the day to day (gardens, cleaning, the strata manager) and a capital works fund for the big jobs (the roof, the lift, the fence).

Low levies look wonderful on the listing. They can also mean the capital works fund is being starved and a steep rise is coming.

If the scheme is hit with a cost it cannot meet from either fund, it has to raise a special contribution, decided at a general meeting. That is a special levy. Who has to pay the owners corporation, and who bears the cost as between seller and buyer under the contract, are two separate questions. Under the printed contract, a special levy disclosed in the contract is adjusted between you. One that was not disclosed goes by when it was determined: on or before the contract date it is the seller’s, afterwards it is the buyer’s. Special conditions can change this. A special levy discussed in June and determined in September, a fortnight after you exchanged, is yours. The minutes are where June shows up.

There is one safety valve. The standard NSW contract usually lets a buyer rescind if the scheme’s special expenses, worked out the way the contract sets out, come to more than 1 per cent of the price. Have the clause read before you rely on it.

Unpaid levies the seller is liable for are paid or allowed to you on completion. Two strata problems can still follow a new owner: unpaid strata levies, including special levies, that become yours as the new owner, and changes made to the unit without council or owners corporation approval, which a new owner can be ordered to undo. Some title insurance policies cover those kinds of unknown strata liabilities or unauthorised alterations. Check the policy’s exclusions before relying on that cover. Our title insurance guide explains what that cover does and does not do.

What should you check in the by-laws?

By-laws are the scheme’s rules, and they bind every owner and occupier. A copy of the by-laws in force must be attached to the contract, so you will have them before you sign. Nobody has ever regretted reading the by-laws. Plenty of people have regretted the by-law.

Read them against how you plan to live:

• Pets. What the by-law says about keeping one, and whether approval is needed first.
• Renovations. What needs the owners corporation’s approval before you start.
• Parking and storage. Whether the car space is part of your lot, common property, or yours under an exclusive use by-law shown in the contract.
• Noise, floors and smoking. The everyday rules that decide whether the place suits you.

By-laws cannot be harsh, excessive or oppressive, or conflict with the law. If you are new to strata ownership, our guide to strata, Torrens and off the plan title starts from the beginning. And if you are buying off the plan, there is usually no scheme yet and few or no records to search (a staged development or an existing parent scheme may have some), so the contract’s disclosure has to do most of that job.

When do you order the report, and what if it turns up a problem?

Before you sign. Make your offer first and sign nothing; once it is accepted, send us the contract. Order the strata report the same day, so the two land together. At auction it is the other way round: at auction the contract is exchanged on the day with no cooling off, so the review, the finance and the inspections all have to happen before you bid. In Sydney, where a large share of what sells is an apartment or townhouse in a strata scheme, that means ordering the report the week you get serious, not the night before. Our page on conveyancing in Sydney has the local timing.

Before exchange, a problem in the report is leverage. You can negotiate the price, ask for a special condition in the contract (for example, the seller paying a special levy already on the table), or walk away, because before exchange there is no deal. Our guide to exchange of contracts in NSW explains where that line sits.

If you have already exchanged by private treaty, you may still be inside the cooling-off period. In NSW, most established residential purchases by private treaty come with a five-business-day cooling-off period, ending at 5pm on the fifth business day after the day contracts are exchanged. If you use it, you forfeit 0.25 per cent of the purchase price at the time of writing, and there is no cooling-off if you buy at auction. A section 66W certificate can be used to waive cooling off or to support an agreed shorter period. The detail is in our guide to the cooling-off period in NSW. The rest of what to do before exchange is in our pre-contract inspection checklist.

What does this mean for your purchase?

A unit is a share in a building and in the people who run it. The strata report is your one proper look at both before you are bound. So the order matters:

1. Make your offer and sign nothing.
2. Send us the contract for review and order the strata report from a strata inspector the same day.
3. Read the funds, the 10-year plan, the minutes and the by-laws, not just the summary page.
4. Take any questions about what the report found to the strata inspector who wrote it.
5. Check any special levy against the contract date.
6. Negotiate, add a condition or walk away before exchange.
7. Make sure the section 184 certificate arrives before settlement.

Do that and the strata report stops being the scary envelope. It becomes the reason you can sign without wondering what the committee knows that you do not. NSW Fair Trading publishes the official guide to buying a strata property.

We review the contract, read the strata report alongside it and can recommend a strata inspector. Titlespace is a conveyancing law firm based in Sydney acting for buyers, sellers and transfers in NSW, VIC, QLD and the ACT. See our conveyancing for buyers, or for the local rules start with conveyancing in NSW.

Reviewed by Marc Ryckmans, Legal Practitioner Director, November 2026. Last updated November 2026. This article is general information about strata reports and buying a unit in NSW. It is not legal advice about your transaction.

The content of this blog post is intended as general information and should be considered broad guidance only. It does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice and should not be relied upon as such. Every property transaction is different, and we recommend seeking personalised advice from a qualified professional before making any investment or legal decisions.