Residential Strata schemes are effectively small communities.
The key features of living in a strata scheme are:
- sharing ownership and responsibility for ‘common property’
- you contribute to the cost of running the building through paying quarterly levies
- you also have to pay money into a capital works fund, for future long term expenses such as painting the building or replacing guttering
- compared to living in a freestanding house, there will be lifestyle restrictions in a strata scheme. For example, there are rules (by-laws) that may affect you doing renovations to your unit, that state where you can and cannot park your car, where you can dry washing or whether or not you can keep pets.
Strata Living is a go to guide about strata in NSW and provides simple and easy to read information such as how a strata scheme operates, what a strata managing agent does, what a building manager does, owners corporation responsibilities and more.
There is also a section about living in a strata scheme which looks closely at by-laws as well as the many other aspects of strata living.
Download the pdf from www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au here