The answer surprises people: there isn’t one. NSW has no default committee spending limit at all. But that doesn’t mean the strata committee can spend whatever it likes — the limits just come from different places, and every committee should know where.
Key facts at a glance
- NSW has NO default committee spending limit — no formula equivalent to Queensland’s $200 per lot
- Real limits come from: matters reserved to general meetings, restrictions the owners corporation imposes, the adopted budget, and the two-quote threshold
- Schemes can create their own committee spending limit by resolution at a general meeting — many well-run schemes do
- Large schemes (100+ lots) must itemise budgets and cannot exceed a budgeted item by more than 10% without owner authorisation
What the Act actually says
Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, the strata committee can make decisions on behalf of the owners corporation (the legal name for the collective of owners in a strata scheme), and a decision of the committee is generally taken to be a decision of the owners corporation. The Act does not attach a dollar figure to that authority. No formula, no default cap, no per-lot multiplier.
So where do the real limits come from? Four places.
1. Decisions the law reserves for a general meeting
Some decisions can never be made by the committee, whatever they cost — the Act reserves them for the owners in general meeting. Special resolutions (by-law changes, common property alterations), matters the legislation specifically assigns to a general meeting, and anything requiring a particular resolution type all sit outside committee authority regardless of budget.
2. Restrictions the owners corporation imposes
The owners corporation can decide at a general meeting that certain matters — or spending above a certain figure — must be decided only at a general meeting. This is how a NSW scheme creates its own committee spending limit: not by statutory default, but by resolution. Many well-run schemes do exactly that, and record the figure clearly so no future committee has to guess.
3. The budget
The committee spends the owners corporation’s money, and that money is raised against budgets adopted by the owners. Spending that has no home in the adopted budget — or that requires a special levy to fund — is, practically and legally, a matter for the owners, not a committee resolution between meetings.
4. The rules that arrive with size and scale
Two provisions do real work here:
- The two-quote rule. Section 102 requires at least two independent quotations before entering a contract above the regulated threshold (currently $30,000) — and since the 2023 amendments this applies to all schemes, not just large ones. A committee can have authority to decide, and still be required to have two independent, comparable quotes on the table first.
- Large-scheme spending discipline. Schemes with more than 100 lots must itemise expected spending in their budgets and must not exceed a budgeted estimate by more than 10 per cent without authorisation from a general meeting.
The practical answer for your committee
If your scheme has never set a committee spending limit by resolution, your committee’s authority is bounded by the reserved matters, the budget, and the two-quote threshold — which is a vaguer position than most committees are comfortable with once they think about it. The schemes that avoid disputes tend to do three things: set an explicit committee spending limit by general-meeting resolution, confirm it periodically so the figure is never in doubt, and keep the quotes and reasoning behind every significant decision where a future committee can find them.
Because when a committee decision is challenged — by an owner, at an AGM, or before the Tribunal — the questions are always the same: did the committee have authority, was it within budget, were the required quotes obtained, and where are they now? Committees that can answer from a complete record are in a strong position. Committees answering from memory and a forwarded email thread are not.
StrataTrade builds that record as a by-product of running the quote cycle — every job scoped, every quote received in comparable form, every recommendation and decision kept permanently against the building, whoever happens to be managing it that year.
This article is general information about NSW strata law, not legal advice. Requirements can change and individual schemes may have adopted their own restrictions — always confirm your own scheme’s current position.