Capital Works Fund Check

There is no legal minimum in NSW. The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 sets adequacy through your own 10-year capital works fund plan: the balance and levies should track what the plan says the building needs, when it needs it. As industry rules of thumb only, advisers often treat under about $5,000 a lot in a 10+ year old building as worth scrutiny and under about $2,000 a lot as a red flag. Those are yardsticks, not law.

Yes, for almost every scheme. Section 80 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 requires a 10-year plan of anticipated major expenditure, prepared for the first AGM and replaced each decade, reviewed at least once every 5 years, and implemented so far as practicable. Levy estimates at each AGM must take the plan into account. Only some two-lot schemes with detached buildings can opt out of the capital works fund itself, by unanimous resolution.

Two changes matter for the fund. From 1 July 2025, a scheme preparing its first 10-year plan must consider the initial maintenance schedule handed over by the developer. From 1 April 2026, every new or revised plan must be in the government’s standard form, gazetted in August 2025. An existing plan is not instantly non-compliant: the standard form applies when your plan is next prepared, reviewed or replaced.

Anyone the owners corporation chooses. The treasurer or committee can prepare it, and the NSW Government provides a free Capital Works Fund Planner inside the Strata Hub that produces a plan in the required form. Many schemes engage a quantity surveyor instead: in Sydney a professional forecast typically costs $1,800 to $5,500 as an indicative market range, depending on the size of the scheme.

The gap has to come from somewhere: stepped levy increases, borrowing, staging the works, or a special levy. The NSW numbers show how often it ends up being the last one. In the 2025 NSW strata defects survey, 46% of apartment buildings with confirmed serious-defect costs raised special levies, and affected buildings spent an average of $215,400 on rectification.

Yes. Since 30 June 2022 every NSW strata scheme must report key information annually on the Strata Hub, within 3 months of its AGM, and the capital works fund balance is a required field. Late reporting risks fines of up to $5,500.

Yes. There is no sign-up and no form. Your answers are processed in your browser and are never sent to our server; we count anonymous usage events, including the traffic-light colour but never your figures, in our site analytics. The verdict is scored against the Act’s requirements and published NSW data, and the sources are listed with the result.

Replace guesses with quotes for the items that dominate strata plans: waterproofing, facade and concrete repair, roofing and painting. The Act requires the plan to show the proposed work, its timing, anticipated costs and how they will be funded, and a plan built on real pricing collects the right levies from day one. A licensed remedial builder can scope and price the big items, and the printable summary from the check above is written to start exactly that conversation at your AGM.