Which decisions can the committee make itself, and which need an owners' vote?
Quick answer
Routine, lower-cost and administrative matters can generally be decided by the committee, while significant, structural or rights-affecting decisions — major capital works, by-law changes, spending above set thresholds — usually require a resolution of all owners at a general meeting. Check your state's legislation and your scheme's by-laws for the exact line.
Key takeaways
- Routine, budgeted and administrative matters generally sit within committee authority
- Major works, by-law changes and spending above threshold usually need an owners' resolution
- The exact threshold and dividing line depend on state legislation and your scheme's by-laws
Working out which bucket a decision falls into is one of the most consequential judgment calls a committee makes, because getting it wrong can leave a decision open to challenge.
Decisions the committee can usually make itself
- Approving routine and lower-value maintenance and repairs
- Engaging contractors for approved, budgeted work
- Responding to day-to-day correspondence and requests from owners
- Managing the compliance register and scheduling required inspections
- Enforcing existing by-laws through the standard process
- Preparing agendas and administrative matters for upcoming meetings
Decisions that usually need a general meeting resolution
- Approving significant capital works or major building upgrades
- Changing, adding or repealing by-laws
- Spending above the threshold set for the scheme or by legislation
- Matters affecting owners' legal rights, such as changes to common property use or exclusive use arrangements
- Decisions the scheme's by-laws or state legislation specifically reserve to owners
The threshold question
Many states or schemes set a specific dollar threshold above which committee approval isn't enough and a general meeting resolution is required. That figure, and how it's calculated (per job, per year, per contractor), varies by state and scheme, so this isn't something to guess — check your scheme's by-laws and your state's legislation, and see our related item on spend approval thresholds for how to track it in practice.
When it's genuinely unclear
Some matters sit in a grey area — a repair that's arguably urgent but also substantial in cost, for instance. When it's unclear, the safer path is usually to treat it as needing owners' approval, or to seek advice, rather than assuming committee authority covers it and risking the decision being challenged later.
State differences
Because the actual dividing line comes from each state's Strata Schemes Management Act (or equivalent) and the scheme's own by-laws, check your state's current position — [NSW](/strata-committee/nsw), [VIC](/strata-committee/vic), [QLD](/strata-committee/qld) and others — before treating any of the above as a fixed rule for your building.
How this plays out in the tools you use day to day
In practice, this is why committees track spend approval thresholds and route bigger items to a proper agenda and resolution, while smaller maintenance work orders and correspondence move straight through the committee's own workflow — keeping that distinction clear in the record protects the validity of both kinds of decision.
Strata committees can generally decide routine matters — budgeted maintenance, contractor engagement, correspondence and compliance scheduling — themselves, while significant decisions such as major capital works, by-law changes and spending above a set threshold usually require a resolution of all owners at a general meeting. The exact dividing line and any dollar thresholds are set by state legislation and each scheme's by-laws, so committees should confirm the current rules for their state.
Related questions
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