The One-Hour Course Is Not the Point

A new requirement, and a larger purpose

From 1 October 2026, new and returning NSW strata committee members generally need to complete free online NSW Fair Trading training within three months of appointment, subject to the published exemptions. The introductory course takes about an hour. Fair Trading issues a Certificate of Completion, and the training requirement applies annually; members who have completed the introduction will not repeat that same course in later years. Fair Trading will provide details of additional training for 2027.

Those requirements matter. Schemes need to know who has completed training, retain evidence and respond when a deadline is missed. But treating the certificate as the finish line would miss the opportunity behind the reform.

Volunteers make consequential decisions

Committee members volunteer their time. They may be neighbours with different experience, competing commitments and a shared interest in looking after the building. Yet the matters before them are seldom small: repairs, budgets, insurance, building defects, contracts, disputes and governance.

A decision about a repair can affect whether someone can safely use part of their home. A funding decision can affect an owner already under financial pressure. An unclear instruction can commit the Owners Corporation to cost or leave a problem unresolved. The people behind these decisions may be trying to live, invest, sell, refinance or simply feel secure in their homes.

What would learning look like in the next meeting?

The most useful measure is not whether every committee member can recite a rule. It is whether the committee works differently when the next difficult item reaches its agenda.

• Do members understand their role and the limits of that role?
• Are they asking better questions before approving work or expenditure?
• Can they recognise when building, legal, insurance or financial advice is needed?
• Do they check who actually has authority to decide or give an instruction?
• Are decisions clearer, fairer, better informed and properly recorded?

Use the course as a starting point

Education becomes governance when it changes the next step. Before making a decision, identify what is known, what remains uncertain, whose approval is needed and what the Owners Corporation will have on record afterwards. Make space for different views, seek expert advice where the issue requires it, then explain the decision in terms owners can understand.

The NSW Fair Trading course establishes a common foundation. Ongoing learning and practice help a committee apply that foundation to its own building, documents and people. A certificate can record completion; it cannot replace sound judgement in a live matter.