Tasmanian Strata FAQs

Last updated October 2026

Frequently asked questions about strata in Tasmania

These are the questions we are asked most often by lot owners and committee members. They are general information about how strata works in Tasmania, not advice about your particular scheme. If something here applies to a decision you are about to make, call us on 03 6231 2540.

What is a body corporate in Tasmania?

When land is subdivided under a strata scheme in Tasmania, a body corporate is created automatically. Every lot owner is a member of it. The body corporate is responsible for the common property, for insuring the building, for keeping proper records, and for meeting the obligations set out in the Strata Titles Act 1998. It is the same concept that Victoria calls an owners corporation and New South Wales calls an owners corporation or strata scheme, but it operates under Tasmanian law and Tasmanian rules.

What does a strata manager actually do?

A strata manager is engaged by the body corporate to carry out its administrative and financial work. In practice that means convening and minuting meetings, issuing levy notices and chasing arrears, maintaining the strata roll, arranging and renewing insurance, coordinating repairs and maintenance on common property, keeping the financial records, and making sure statutory obligations are met on time. The body corporate still makes the decisions. The manager makes sure those decisions are properly made, properly recorded and properly carried out.

Does the strata manager handle emergency repairs and after-hours access?

It depends on the scheme, and it is one of the most common misunderstandings in strata. A strata manager is engaged by the body corporate to carry out its administrative and financial work: convening meetings, issuing levies, arranging insurance, keeping the records, meeting statutory obligations and arranging work on common property. That is a different job from a building manager or caretaker, who is on site or on call for the day-to-day running of the building, including access to secured areas such as switchboard, meter and plant rooms.

Larger buildings often have both. Most smaller Tasmanian schemes have neither an on-site manager nor a caretaker, and rely instead on a list of contractors the body corporate has approved. Switchboard, meter and plant rooms are commonly kept locked, for safety and insurance reasons as much as anything else, and who holds access to them is decided by the scheme rather than being the same in every building.

Whichever arrangement applies to your building, every owner should know what it is before there is an emergency rather than during one: who to call out of hours, for what, and who holds keys to secured areas. If you are not certain what applies to your scheme, ask us and we will tell you. It is a much better conversation to have on a Tuesday than at nine o'clock on a Saturday night.

What do strata levies cover, and how are they set?

Levies fund everything the body corporate is responsible for: building insurance, common property maintenance and repairs, utilities for common areas, administration, and contributions to a fund for future major works. They are set by the body corporate at a general meeting, based on a budget, and are usually apportioned between lots according to unit entitlement. Levies are a body corporate expense shared between all owners, and for an investment property they are generally tax deductible. If a scheme needs more service, it will pay more; there is no standard figure.

Can you have a strata title with no body corporate in Tasmania?

No. If the land is under a strata scheme, a body corporate exists whether or not it is active. What people usually mean by this question is that their body corporate has never met, has no funds and has no records, which is common in small two-lot and three-lot schemes. That is not the same as not having one. The obligations still apply, the building still needs to be insured, and an inactive body corporate can become a serious problem at the point of sale, when a purchaser or their lender asks for records that do not exist. A dormant scheme can be brought back into order.

Who is responsible for insuring a strata property?

The body corporate is responsible for insuring the building and common property, and that insurance is funded through levies. Individual owners are responsible for insuring the contents of their own lot and their own liability, and landlords generally need their own landlord policy. A frequent and expensive misunderstanding is an owner assuming the body corporate policy covers the contents of their unit, or a body corporate assuming an owner has arranged cover for something that is actually common property.

What is the Strata Titles Act 1998 and who administers it?

The Strata Titles Act 1998 is the Tasmanian legislation governing strata schemes: how they are created, how a body corporate operates, what by-laws can do, how meetings and voting work, and how disputes are resolved. Strata plans and title dealings are handled by the Recorder of Titles through the Land Titles Office. The current text of the Act is on the Tasmanian legislation website, and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania publishes plain-language guidance on strata titles and bodies corporate.

How is Tasmania different from Victoria and New South Wales?

The terminology and the rules both differ. Tasmania uses body corporate under the Strata Titles Act 1998; Victoria uses owners corporation under its own Act; New South Wales has separate strata schemes legislation again. Meeting and voting requirements, by-law making, insurance obligations and dispute pathways are not the same across the three. This matters more than it sounds: a great deal of the strata advice available online is written for the mainland, and following Victorian or New South Wales guidance in Tasmania can put a body corporate in the wrong.

How does a body corporate change strata manager?

The decision is made by the body corporate, normally at a general meeting, and the existing management agreement will set out the notice required to end it. A well-run handover involves the outgoing manager transferring the strata roll, the financial records, the insurance details, the minute books, plans and any keys or access devices. The two practical questions worth asking any prospective manager are what the handover will involve and what will actually be included in the fee. Committees often find the second question harder to get a straight answer to than the first.

Who can attend and vote at a general meeting?

All lot owners are entitled to attend. Voting entitlements and what counts as a valid resolution depend on the type of decision being made and on the scheme itself, and an owner who cannot attend can usually appoint a proxy. Some decisions need only a simple majority, while others need a higher threshold. Getting this wrong is one of the more common reasons a body corporate decision is later challenged, so it is worth confirming the requirement before the meeting rather than after it.

What happens if an owner does not pay their levies?

Unpaid levies do not go away, and the shortfall is carried by the other owners in the meantime. A body corporate can generally charge interest on overdue amounts and recover the debt, and unpaid levies routinely surface at the point of sale because they attach to the lot. In practice the earlier a manager raises arrears with an owner, the more likely it is resolved without formal recovery action.

Where to check the law yourself

The Strata Titles Act 1998 is published on the Tasmanian legislation website. Strata title and body corporate guidance is published by the Land Titles Office. We are a founding member of the Tasmanian chapter of the Strata Community Association.