Canberra’s strata sector has spent eighteen months waiting on two documents: a parliamentary inquiry report, and the government’s answer to it. Both have now landed. The gap between what the committee recommended and what the government accepted is where the next three years of ACT strata practice will be decided.

Quick answer: The ACT Government has agreed in principle to establish a Strata Commissioner, but with a staged rollout — education, information, guidance and templates first, with dispute-resolution powers to follow subject to consultation. That means an ACT owners corporation with a non-performing strata manager still has no commissioner or ombudsman to escalate to. Nothing from the response has been legislated; no Bill has been introduced.

Update on 24 September 2026: The ACT Government introduced the Housing and Consumer Affairs Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 on 17 September 2026. The Bill includes changes affecting owners corporation general meetings. The Bill has not yet become law, so the position outlined in this article should be read alongside the latest legislative developments.

The ACT Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Legal Affairs ran an inquiry into the management of strata properties, holding public hearings from 30 June to 3 July 2025 and adopting its report on 29 April 2026. (ACT Legislative Assembly, Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, Report 8, April 2026)

The committee’s recommendations were substantial: mandatory licensing for strata managers, standardised management contracts, a no-cause right for owners corporations to terminate a manager, mandatory committee training, and a Strata Commissioner for dispute resolution and education. (ABC News, April 2026)

The government agreed in principle to a Strata Commissioner — but proposed a staged approach in which education, information, guidance and templates come first, with dispute-resolution functions to follow subject to consultation. (ACT Government response to Report 8, August 2026)

For an owner or a committee, that distinction is everything. A commissioner who publishes templates and explains the rules is useful. A commissioner who can determine a dispute between an owners corporation and its manager is a different office entirely, and the government has not committed to when or whether the second version arrives.

If your expectation was that the ACT was about to get a strata ombudsman, adjust it. What has been agreed, in principle, is the education function.

Honorariums and levy discounts — agreed. The government will update guidance materials explaining how an owners corporation can transparently remunerate or reward committee members. (Vantage Strata, August 2026)

Renters attending AGMs as observers — agreed in principle. Tenants would be able to attend annual general meetings as observers. (Vantage Strata, August 2026)

Insurance commissions — agreed in principle to examine. The government will consider whether stronger disclosure, restrictions, or an outright prohibition is appropriate. (Vantage Strata, August 2026)

That last one is the live commercial question. Insurance commissions are under review in more than one jurisdiction, and “we will consider whether to ban it” is a materially different position from “we will require disclosure”. ACT owners corporations reviewing their insurance arrangements this year are doing so in a market where the remuneration model may not survive the review.

Mandatory five-year committee term limits — rejected. The recommendation would have forced members off a committee after five years, with a one-year break before being renominated. The government declined, reasoning that owners corporations already struggle to attract committee members, and will instead consider allowing each owners corporation to set its own rules on term limits.

Mandatory committee training — noted, not adopted. Rather than compelling completion, the government proposed free or low-cost voluntary training, potentially delivered through a Strata Commissioner, citing the risk that a mandatory requirement would deter people from volunteering. (Vantage Strata, August 2026)

Renters sitting on committees — rejected. The government did not agree, on the basis that committees make decisions with direct financial consequences for owners. (Vantage Strata, August 2026)

There is a consistent logic running through all three: the ACT Government is unwilling to add obligations that make committee service harder to fill. Whether that is pragmatism or a missed opportunity depends on whether you have tried to fill a committee lately.

Every item above is a government position, not a legal requirement. The response uses “agreed in principle” for its most significant elements. No Bill has been introduced. No commencement dates exist.

For anyone managing ACT buildings, that means:

• Nothing changes in your obligations today. The Unit Titles (Management) Act framework you operate under is unchanged.
• Nothing you read about the Strata Commissioner is enforceable. There is no office to complain to.
• The direction of travel is clear enough to prepare for. Licensing, standardised contracts and a commissioner are all on the table, and the government has not ruled out the substantive versions of any of them.

The honest framing for a committee briefing is: the ACT has signalled where it is going, has not committed to when, and has ruled out the two obligations that would have landed on committee members personally.

1. Re-read your management agreement. A no-cause termination right was recommended and is still being worked through. Knowing what your current contract actually permits is the prerequisite to having a view on whether reform helps you.
2. Get your insurance disclosure in order early. Whichever way the commissions review lands, the direction is more disclosure, not less. Committees that can already see what their broker earns will not be surprised.
3. Take the voluntary training seriously. If training is going to be free and voluntary rather than mandatory, uptake becomes a differentiator rather than a baseline.
4. Keep decisions documented. Every reform stream — licensing, standard contracts, dispute resolution — assumes a committee can demonstrate what it decided and why. Most disputes turn on records, not rules.
5. Watch for the Bill, not the announcement. The response is the starting gun, not the change.

Read the inquiry submissions, and the same complaint recurs: owners couldn’t find out what was decided, what was spent, or what the manager did. Licensing and commissioners are the structural answer. The operational answer is less exciting and available immediately: a building whose maintenance history, work orders, contractor records, spend, and resident communications sit in one place does not generate the kind of dispute a commissioner would have to resolve.

That is true regardless of what the ACT legislates, and it is true in every other jurisdiction MYBOS’s clients operate in. ACT reform is one of several strata and owners corporation reform streams currently moving in Australia, each on its own timetable. Managers with buildings in more than one state are managing several different sets of expectations about what has to be recorded and produced on request.

Whatever happens next with ACT strata reform, good record-keeping remains an important part of managing a building.

For strata managers and owners corporations, that means being able to quickly find maintenance history, work orders, contractor records, compliance information, communications and key building documents when they are needed.

This becomes even more important when managing multiple buildings, where each property has its own assets, maintenance requirements, contractors and history.

Keep your strata records organised with MYBOS

MYBOS brings building operations, maintenance, communications, documents, compliance records and work orders into one platform. Strata managers can manage multiple properties from a centralised system while keeping building-specific information accessible to the people who need it.

With MYBOS, strata teams can:

• Keep building records and documents in one place
• Track maintenance jobs and work orders from start to completion
• Manage contractor information and compliance
• Keep a record of communications with residents and committees
• Monitor recurring maintenance and compliance tasks
• Access records across multiple buildings from one platform

Want to see how MYBOS could support your strata management team?