Short answer
If someone breaches a by-law, the owners corporation follows a set process: it usually issues a formal notice to comply first, giving the person a chance to fix the breach; and if the breach continues, it applies to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), which can impose a monetary penalty. Going straight to a penalty without a notice to comply generally will not succeed, and any action relies on the by-law itself being valid and registered.
Step one: the notice to comply
The starting point is a notice to comply with the by-law. It is a formal notice from the owners corporation (typically decided by the committee) that identifies the by-law breached and requires the person to stop. This step is not optional box-ticking — it gives the resident a genuine opportunity to fix things, and it is what makes any later Tribunal application stand up. Keep a record of the breach and of the notice being sent.
Step two: applying to NCAT
If the breach continues after the notice, the owners corporation can apply to NCAT for a penalty. NCAT can order a monetary penalty against the person for breaching the by-law. Penalties escalate for repeat breaches and for failing to obey an existing order; the exact amounts are set by the Act and are updated from time to time, so confirm the current figures with a licensed strata manager or NSW Fair Trading rather than relying on a remembered number.
Evidence is what wins
Whether a by-law is enforced successfully usually comes down to the record, not the argument. Dates, times, photos, correspondence, the notice to comply and proof it was served — that is what NCAT looks at. A committee that acts on a hunch without a paper trail tends to lose; a committee that has documented the breach and followed the steps tends to be upheld. This is true even for a plainly valid by-law.
Enforcing without dropping a step
The enforcement process is simple to describe and easy to get wrong — the missing notice, the by-law that turns out not to be registered, the breach nobody wrote down. A system such as Straita gives a self-managed committee the sequence and the record: confirm the by-law is valid, issue the notice to comply, log the evidence, and keep it together if it has to go to NCAT — so enforcement rests on a file that holds up, not on memory.
Primary sources
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) — notice to comply with a by-law and application to the Tribunal for a penalty.
- NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) — applying for a by-law breach order.
- NSW Government — Strata by-laws (Fair Trading) — the by-law enforcement process.