Levies are the contributions every lot owner pays to meet the scheme’s expected costs, and they go into funds the strata company administers: an administrative fund and, for many schemes, a reserve fund. Each owner’s share follows the lot’s unit entitlement, unless the scheme’s by-laws provide a different basis.
General informationThis page describes the Strata Titles Act 1985 (official version as at 26 June 2025) and Landgate’s guidance on strata finances. It is not financial or legal advice about any scheme. Landgate’s Strata Enquiry Line is (08) 9273 7047.
Two funds with different jobs
| Fund | What it pays for | Who must have one |
|---|---|---|
| Administrative fund | Administrative costs, including controlling and managing the common property, insurance premiums and the company’s other obligations. | Most strata companies, in Landgate’s words. |
| Reserve fund | Money set aside, mostly from levies, for maintaining, repairing, renewing or replacing common property or the company’s own personal property, as the 10-year plan sets out. | Every scheme with 10 or more lots, or a replacement value over $5 million; other companies may choose to have one. |
Shared costs are the point of strata. Owners jointly own the common property, such as gardens, outside walls, roofs, driveways and stairwells, and share what it costs to repair and insure.
The 10-year plan
A scheme that must keep a reserve fund must also have a 10-year plan, setting out the common property and company property expected to need maintenance, repair, renewal or replacement beyond the routine, and what that is estimated to cost. Owners approve the plan at an annual general meeting by ordinary resolution. It has to be revised at least once every five years, and each revision extends it to cover the following 10 years.
The budget and the annual general meeting
Each year the strata company prepares a budget that takes the 10-year plan into account, and puts it to the annual general meeting for approval. The meeting can approve it by ordinary resolution, with or without changes, and the company can later vary it the same way. Deciding the levies is one of the powers a strata manager can never be authorised to exercise, so it stays with the owners and their council.
The meeting itself has fixed rules:
- Every strata company except a two-lot scheme holds an AGM once every 12 months, no later than 15 months after the one before.
- Owners, and first mortgagees who have told the company of their mortgage in writing, get at least 14 days’ notice of every general meeting.
- The AGM agenda must include electing the council, considering the accounts, and presenting the current certificates and schedules for the required insurance.
- For schemes of more than two lots, the quorum is people entitled to cast the votes of half the lots; if it is not reached 30 minutes after the start time, those present become the quorum.
- A person may attend and vote by phone, video link or internet, subject to the by-laws and so long as providing the facilities is not an unreasonable burden on the company.
Spending outside the budget
When common property needs spending that the budget did not allow for, the company may spend up to $500 for each lot in a year without asking its members; beyond that, such spending can be approved through a special resolution, or by another route the Act allows. The $500 figure is the one the regulations fix unless the company has set a different amount by special resolution, and the limit runs per financial year (as at October 2026).
In a 12-lot scheme that has not set its own figure, the most the company could spend outside the approved budget in one financial year under this allowance is 12 × $500 = $6,000. A $9,000 repair outside the budget would need a special resolution, or another route the Act allows.
One such route is a notice to owners. The company gives the owners and first mortgagees of every lot notice of the purpose and amount, with quotes where the regulations require them, and may go ahead if, within 14 days, owners or mortgagees of 25% or more of the lots (or of lots holding 25% or more of the unit entitlement) have not objected in writing. This route is not available for improvements above the threshold the regulations set.
The insurance levies pay for
Every strata company must insure the common property, including its fixtures and building improvements, to replacement value against fire, storm and tempest (not damage by sea, flood or erosion), lightning, explosion and earthquake. A single tier scheme’s company is spared this duty in some set circumstances, for example where it resolves, with no member dissenting, that the duty will not apply. The Act also allows cover capped at a maximum the policy states for a specified kind of event, if that limit is reasonable, and the Tribunal can exempt a company. In a strata scheme it must also insure, against the same risks, the parts of the buildings that make up the lots, except in a single tier scheme, for which different rules apply. It must hold public liability cover of at least $10 million, though special rules may apply in single tier strata schemes. In a survey-strata scheme, each owner insures their own lot against those risks.
If the company fails to insure, a member can take out the cover in the company’s name, and the State Administrative Tribunal can order that the member be repaid.
When a levy goes unpaid
Landgate’s WA Strata Living Guide (November 2023) says a company can charge simple interest of 11% a year on an unpaid contribution. The rate comes from the regulations, and the company may decide, generally or in one case, to charge less or none. An unpaid levy, with its interest, can be recovered as a debt in a court, and the company may agree to settle for less. Landgate names recovering unpaid levies as the exception to the Tribunal’s role in strata disputes.
At 11% simple interest a year, a $1,200 levy left unpaid for six months would carry $1,200 × 0.11 × 0.5 = $66 in interest, if the company charges the full rate.
One more rule matters to buyers. A new owner is liable, together with the person who owed it, for any levy and interest still unpaid on the lot when they became the owner.
Where a scheme has a manager, what it is paid is a term of the management contract, which must state the pay or how it is worked out. For the rules owners live under day to day, see the guide to by-laws and SAT.