Fee limits in Victoria strata law changes
Amendments to Victoria’s Owners Corporation Regulations 2007, affecting the provision of certificates and copies of registers and records, come into effect on 1 October.
These changes introduce a new fee structure, thatsets out the maximum fees that an owners corporation can charge for providing owners corporation certificates, and copies of its register and records.
From 1 October, there will be:
• a new maximum fee for providing an owners corporation certificate
• maximum fees for urgent requests (between two and five days)
• a lower fee for additional certificates from the same owners corporation manager
• maximum fees for copies of the owners corporation register and records.
An owners corporation must provide a certificate within 10 business days of receiving the fee and request in writing. If a person asks for the certificate within a shorter time, and the owners corporation agrees to this, the fee cannot exceed the maximum amounts set by the regulations for that service. For example, a fee for providing a certificate within 24 hours cannot exceed the fee for providing a certificate within two days.
The existing regulations set a maximum flat fee of $150 for the provision of an owners corporation certificate.
The following issues led to a review of the fee structure:
• owners corporations charging excessive fees to meet urgent requests, such as providing an owners corporation certificate within a short timeframe
• the fee for additional certificates by the same owners corporation manager is the same even though some information is duplicated when part of the same sale of land
• the owners corporation register and records can be inspected for free but the owners corporation is entitled to charge a reasonable cost when providing copies of the register and records. A ‘reasonable cost’ is not defined.