Short answer
Replacing carpet with timber or tile flooring in an NSW strata apartment is treated as a minor renovation, so it needs owners corporation approval by ordinary resolution — often delegated to the committee — not the free pass that cosmetic work gets. Approval almost always comes with a condition to install certified acoustic underlay meeting the building’s noise standard, because hard floors are the leading source of footstep-noise disputes. Skipping approval risks an order to remove the floor.
Why hard floors sit above cosmetic work
Ripping out old carpet for sleek timber boards or modern tiles is one of the most common apartment renovations — and the number one source of long-running acoustic noise disputes in strata blocks. Under the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW), changing hard floor finishes does not fall under cosmetic work, because of the way it changes sound transmission to the lot below. It is classified as a minor renovation (around section 110), which carries a real approval process.
The approval, step by step
- Written request. You can’t just do it over a weekend — you submit a formal written request with plans and any certificates.
- Ordinary resolution. The owners corporation approves by ordinary resolution (a simple majority of votes cast) at a general meeting, unless a by-law delegates that approval to the strata committee, in which case the committee decides.
- Acoustic condition. Approval will almost always be conditioned on installing a high-quality, certified acoustic underlayment that meets or exceeds the building’s by-law noise rating, backed by an acoustic certificate.
The section number is given as a guide; the settled point is the tier — hard flooring is a minor renovation that needs approval and usually an acoustic condition.
What happens if you bypass approval
If an owner installs hard flooring without written approval and the downstairs neighbour complains about excessive footstep noise, the owners corporation can take the owner to NCAT. NCAT has the power to order the owner to rip up the new floor and reinstate carpet at their own expense. Getting the approval — and meeting the acoustic condition — before the floor goes down is far cheaper than tearing out a finished job.
Keeping the approval and acoustic certificate on record
A self-managed committee assesses these flooring requests itself. A system such as Straita tracks the request against the scheme’s by-laws and any committee delegation, and records the decision and its acoustic conditions — including the certificate — so if a noise complaint surfaces later, the approval and the terms it was granted on are documented rather than disputed from memory.
Primary sources
- Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) — minor renovations and the approval required.
- NSW Government — Strata renovation rules (Fair Trading) — flooring as a minor renovation and the acoustic certificate requirement.
- NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) — strata disputes, including orders to reinstate flooring.