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Most committees are short of members, and most owners who consider joining talk themselves out of it — because they assume it means unpaid property management, evening meetings and being the person everybody complains to. It does not have to. The role is governance: deciding, on behalf of the owners, what the building does with its money. The admin around it is a tooling problem, and that part is solved.
A New South Wales strata committee has between one and nine members, elected at each AGM, with schemes over 100 lots required to have at least three. Owners can nominate themselves or somebody else, and eligibility rules — including the effect of unpaid levies — are set out in the Act. Since the 2025 reforms, committee members also complete mandatory training, which is a genuine improvement: new members arrive knowing what the role is.
Governed by the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, administered by NSW Fair Trading.
Ownership, and that your levies are up to date. This is the most common reason a nomination fails.
In Quarter: Your own levy ledger is visible to you as an owner — what has been invoiced, what has been paid and anything outstanding — so you can settle a balance before it costs you a nomination rather than finding out at the meeting.
Nominations close before the AGM notice is issued. Ask the secretary for the date rather than assuming.
In Quarter: Committee roles and who holds them are recorded against the building, so notices, voting rights and permissions follow the position rather than one person's inbox.
A few lines with the nomination. Owners vote for people they know something about.
Or arrange a proxy. Elections happen at the meeting.
Secretary and treasurer are the roles buildings struggle hardest to fill, and they are where the influence is.
It is now required, and it is genuinely the fastest way to understand the job.
It is before the notice, not before the meeting.
They can affect eligibility. Check the ledger before you nominate.
Ask for the last year's minutes first. It is the best half hour you will spend.
A strata committee makes decisions between general meetings, within the authority the owners corporation has given it. It is not a landlord, not a caretaker and not a manager. Understanding that boundary is most of what makes the job sustainable.
The reason people will not join a committee is almost never the decisions. It is the admin nobody else is doing. Quarter takes that away, which is the difference between a committee that turns over every year and one that keeps its people.
Finances, documents, maintenance, decisions and correspondence — so you can answer a question without a two-hour search.
Proposals, discussion and votes captured as they happen, so a decision made in March is still explicable in November.
Owners ask Quarter about balances, documents and decisions and get an answer immediately, instead of adding to the committee's inbox.
Insurance renewals, the AGM, the capital works fund review — visible in advance rather than remembered late.
When your term ends, the next person inherits a system, not a folder of email attachments.
General information about New South Wales, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with NSW Fair Trading or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in New South Wales and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
