Embracing the Digital Age: Mandatory Electronic Record-Keeping for Strata

In a move to increase efficiency and accessibility, all strata records must be kept electronically from June 11 2024.

The shift was part of a raft of amendments made to the Strata Schemes Management Act in December last year.

Previously the Act didn’t mandate that owners corporation must keep electronic records. The option was always available but it wasn’t prescribed. Now the Act stipulates that any record created must be stored electronically.

Hard copy records can still be kept if owners corporations find it useful to have the duplication.

There isn’t a requirement to retrospectively digitise records that only exist in hard copies.

As stated on the NSW Government website, the records that must be kept are:

• the strata roll
• financial records, including receipts, invoices, bank statements and a record of levies
• copies of communication sent and received by the owners corporation and strata committee, including:
• email and letters
• documents from meetings, such as notices and minutes, details of votes and motions
• signed contracts with strata agents or building managers, and the work they are to do.

It’s best practice to establish a logical digital filing system that suits your scheme either on a hard drive desktop computer or on a secure cloud system. Physical correspondence will need to scanned and saved electronically. If you reply using a physical mail, then you’ll need to scan and save the reply before mailing it.

Many email providers have an option to automatically save correspondence.

Correspondence can accumulate over time, so it is best to stay on top of the filing.

All records must be kept for seven years. After seven years, records can be securely disposed of.

Current owners and potential owners can request to see any record by contacting the secretary or the strata manager. When you receive a request, you must arrange to let the requestee see the stipulated record within 10 days in person, electronically or in any other agreed way.

Owners corporations are entitled to charge a fee to prepare the records for viewing. The fee is $31 for the first hour, and $16 for each extra half-hour that it takes to prepare the information. The owners corporation must put this fee into the administrative fund.

If you have any questions about record keeping and change to digital, please contact your Strata Manager at Netstrata.