Strata Access Control • NSW • 2026
Strata Fob By-Laws in NSW — Access Control on Common Property, Special Resolutions and Replacement Fobs
A strata fob by-law in NSW sits at the join between two groups who rarely talk to each other. Strata lawyers explain the by-law and never mention the reader on the gate; installers describe the reader and never mention the by-law. A committee member or strata manager checking what the scheme is actually allowed to do needs both. This guide covers when a fob system on common property is a repair-and-maintenance decision under section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 and when it is an improvement that needs a special resolution under section 108, what a security fob by-law should contain, the limits on deactivating a resident’s fob, how replacement fob costs are recovered, and who should hold the credential database. It does not walk through the practical rollout of a new system; that is covered on our strata service page linked below.
The Short Answer: Repair Under Section 106 or Improvement Under Section 108?
Whether a fob decision needs a general meeting comes down to one question: is the owners corporation keeping an existing thing working, or adding something the common property did not have before? The first is a maintenance duty the committee can usually act on. The second is a change to common property, and the ordinary position is that it needs a special resolution at a general meeting. Confirm the position for your own scheme with your strata manager or a strata lawyer before relying on it.
| Decision | Repair / maintenance (s106) | Improvement (s108) |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | Strata committee (or owners corporation by ordinary resolution) | Owners corporation by special resolution at a general meeting |
| Replacing a failed reader on a door that already has one, like for like | Yes | — |
| Replacing a worn gate controller or power supply with the current equivalent | Yes | — |
| Re-issuing fobs on the existing system after a batch fails | Yes | — |
| Putting a fob reader on a door that was previously keyed only | — | Ordinary position: yes |
| Installing a new fob system across the building for the first time | — | Ordinary position: yes |
| Replacing an old key-switch or coded system with a networked fob platform (SALTO, Inner Range Inception) | Arguable if the old system is beyond economic repair; often treated as an improvement | Safer to resolve it here |
| Adding readers to the lifts, car park or bin room where none existed | — | Ordinary position: yes |
Section 106: When a Fob System Is Repair and Maintenance
The owners corporation has a duty, not an option, to maintain common property. Section 106 requires the owners corporation to properly maintain and keep in good and serviceable repair the common property, and to renew or replace fixtures and fittings that form part of it. A fob reader screwed to a common-property door, the controller in the meter room, the gate motor and the cabling between them are all common property. If they stop working, fixing them is not a discretionary spend the scheme can defer indefinitely.
This is the part the committee can normally act on. The strata committee exercises most of the owners corporation’s functions between general meetings, and ordinary maintenance is squarely inside that. A committee can approve the replacement of a dead reader, a failed gate controller or a batch of faulty fobs, provided the spend fits within the budget and any expenditure limits the scheme has set.
The test is like-for-like function, not identical model numbers. Nobody expects a committee to source a discontinued reader. Replacing it with the current version of the same thing, on the same door, doing the same job, is maintenance. The moment the replacement starts doing something the common property never did before, whether that is controlling a door that was never controlled or logging events the old system could not, section 106 stops being the whole answer.
Section 108: When a Fob System Is an Improvement That Needs a Special Resolution
Section 108 covers additions, alterations and new structures on common property. Where the owners corporation wants to add to or alter common property for the purpose of improving or enhancing it, the ordinary position is that the change must be approved by special resolution at a general meeting. A special resolution passes if not more than 25 per cent of the votes cast, counted by unit entitlement, are against it. It cannot be passed by the committee alone.
A new fob system on a previously keyed building is the textbook example. The building had keyed doors; it will now have controlled doors, readers, a controller, a credential register and an event log. That is an enhancement to common property in the plain sense of the words, regardless of how sensible it is. The same applies to extending an existing system into areas it never covered: lifts, car park roller doors, the pool gate, bin rooms.
The resolution can also settle who maintains the improvement. Section 108 lets the owners corporation decide, as part of the same special resolution, whether the owners corporation or a particular owner is responsible for ongoing maintenance of the change. For a building-wide fob system that will normally stay with the owners corporation, but where a single owner has asked for a reader on a door serving only their lot, the resolution is the place to record that they carry it.
What a Strata Fob By-Law in NSW Should Contain
A resolution to install the system is not the same as a by-law to run it. The special resolution answers whether the owners corporation may make the change. It says nothing about how many fobs each lot gets, what happens when one is lost, whether the owners corporation can charge for a replacement, or whether it can ever switch one off. Without a by-law, those questions get answered by whoever is on the committee that year, which is how residents end up with different treatment and the same dispute at every AGM. Strata-law commentary on an NCAT decision approving a security fob by-law treated a properly drafted by-law of this kind as a legitimate way for a scheme to manage its access credentials, provided it stays within the Act.
A workable security fob by-law for a strata scheme usually covers six things:
- Issue and register. How many fobs each lot is issued at no charge (commonly tied to the number of bedrooms or car spaces), that each fob is recorded against the lot in a register, and that the owners corporation keeps that register current.
- Replacement and cost recovery. That a lost, stolen or damaged fob is replaced at the lot owner's reasonable cost — phrased as "reasonable cost", not a fixed figure; covered in full below.
- Deactivation limits. When the owners corporation may — and may not — deactivate a fob; covered in full below.
- Contractor and visitor fobs. Whether temporary credentials may be issued to cleaners, building managers, tradespeople and the strata manager, who authorises them, and that they expire or are returned at the end of the engagement.
- Database ownership and handover. That the register and administrator access are the owners corporation's, and are handed over when a managing agent's appointment ends; covered in full below.
- Privacy of the register. That the register and any event log are held for building security and administration only, who may inspect them, and that they are not disclosed beyond that. The wider question of how access records are treated as personal information is covered in a separate guide.
Deactivation: What an Owners Corporation Can and Cannot Do
A fob is an owner’s or occupier’s means of getting into their own home. That is what sets the limit. The general principle in the NCAT decisions and strata-law commentary on fob by-laws is that an owners corporation should not deactivate a subsisting owner’s or occupier’s fob except in an emergency, or where the fob has been reported lost or stolen and the holder wants it cancelled. A by-law that tried to go further would be at real risk of being found harsh, unconscionable or oppressive, which the Act does not permit, and of being inconsistent with the owner’s basic right of access to their lot.
Unpaid levies are the usual test case. A lot owner who is behind on levies loses the right to vote on ordinary matters and can be pursued for the debt, with interest, through the normal recovery process. Cutting off their fob is not one of the remedies the Act gives an owners corporation, and using access control as leverage over a levy dispute is the fastest way to turn a debt-recovery matter into an NCAT application against the scheme.
Replacement Fobs and Cost Recovery
An owners corporation can charge for replacement fobs if the by-law says so. The issue is not whether a scheme is permitted to recover the cost of a fob that a resident has lost; it is whether it has a by-law that authorises the charge and sets out the basis for it. Without one, a committee that invoices an owner for a replacement is on thin ground, and the owner can reasonably ask on what authority the charge was raised.
Tie the charge to the owners corporation’s actual cost. The safest drafting recovers the reasonable cost to the owners corporation of the replacement credential and the administrative work of registering it, rather than a set fee written into the by-law. A fixed figure looks like a penalty, ages badly, and invites the argument that it is unconscionable when the real cost is lower. A cost-based charge is easier to defend and does not require a by-law amendment when the hardware changes.
Whether a lost fob can be copied changes how much a scheme is exposed to unregistered credentials in circulation — the differences between fob types, and which ones can be cloned, are in our guide to fob, card and mobile credentials; what matters for this by-law is that every fob issued, of whatever type, is cancelled and replaced through the scheme once it’s lost.
Who Holds the Credential Database
In our view, the database is a record of the owners corporation. The list of who holds which fob, which doors it opens and when it was used is created in the course of managing common property, and the reasoned position is that it belongs to the scheme in the same way the strata roll and the financial records do — though this hasn’t been tested as a discrete question the way the s106/s108 split has. The strata managing agent, the building manager and the installer may all hold copies or logins in day-to-day use, but none of them owns it.
Administrator access should sit with the owners corporation, not the contractor. The most common problem we see in Sydney buildings is not a legal one; it is that nobody on the current committee has the administrator login, because the system was set up by an installer who has since moved on, or by a building manager whose contract ended. At that point the scheme cannot cancel a fob, add a new owner or produce the register, and the only fix is to have a technician regain control of the controller.
Change of strata manager is the moment it goes wrong. The Act requires an outgoing strata managing agent to hand over the owners corporation’s records at the end of their appointment. The fob register and system access should be treated as part of those records and listed in the handover, along with the by-law that governs them. How the handover is actually run, and what a committee should ask an installer for at commissioning, is covered on our page on fob systems for apartment buildings and strata common property.
Registering the By-Law: Sections 136 and 141
By-laws are made under section 136. An owners corporation may make by-laws for the management, administration, control, use or enjoyment of the lots and the common property, which is where a fob by-law sits. A by-law has no force to the extent that it is inconsistent with the Act or any other law, which is why the deactivation limits above matter to the drafting and not just to the practice.
Making or amending a by-law needs a special resolution and registration. Under section 141 the owners corporation makes, amends or repeals a by-law by special resolution, and the change must then be lodged for registration with NSW Land Registry Services within six months. The by-law has no effect until it is registered. A fob by-law that was passed at a general meeting three years ago and never lodged is not enforceable, and a resident who has been charged for a replacement fob under it has a fair point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the owners corporation need a special resolution to install a fob system?
For a new fob system on a building that was keyed only, or for extending a system into areas it never covered, the ordinary position under section 108 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 is yes: it is an addition to common property for the purpose of improving it and needs a special resolution at a general meeting. Like-for-like replacement of an existing system's parts is maintenance under section 106 and does not. Confirm with your strata manager or a strata lawyer for your own scheme.
Can the committee approve a fob upgrade without a general meeting?
The committee can approve repair and renewal of an existing system within its spending authority. It cannot approve an improvement to common property, because that requires a special resolution, and a special resolution can only be passed at a general meeting. A committee's spending limit does not turn an improvement into maintenance.
Can the owners corporation charge for replacement fobs?
Yes, if a registered by-law authorises the charge. The safest drafting recovers the reasonable cost to the owners corporation of the replacement and its registration rather than a fixed fee, and makes clear that failures caused by the system itself are the owners corporation's cost, not the resident's.
Can strata deactivate a resident's fob for unpaid levies?
The general principle from the NCAT decisions and strata-law commentary is no. An owners corporation should not deactivate a subsisting owner's or occupier's fob except in an emergency or where the fob is reported lost or stolen. Levy arrears are recovered through the debt process and the loss of voting rights, not by locking someone out of their home. A by-law that authorised it would be at risk of being found harsh, unconscionable or oppressive.
Does a fob by-law need to be registered to be enforceable?
Yes. Under section 141 a by-law is made or amended by special resolution and must be lodged for registration within six months; it has no effect until it is registered. A by-law that was voted on but never lodged cannot be relied on to charge for replacement fobs or to set the terms of issue.
Who owns the fob database — the strata manager or the installer?
Neither, on the reasoned view. The credential register and the system's administrator access are best treated as records of the owners corporation, on the same basis as the strata roll and financial records. The strata manager and the installer may hold working copies or logins, but the by-law should say the database belongs to the scheme, the owners corporation should hold administrator credentials in its own name, and the register should be listed in the records handed over when a strata managing agent's appointment ends.
Related Reading
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A fob system on strata common property is two decisions, not one. Repairing or renewing what is already there is a section 106 maintenance matter the committee can usually deal with. Installing a system for the first time, or extending one into new areas, is a section 108 improvement that ordinarily needs a special resolution, and it should be paired with a fob by-law under section 141 that settles issue, replacement cost, deactivation limits, contractor credentials, database ownership and privacy before the first fob is handed out. Get both right and the system runs for years without a dispute; get either wrong and the reader on the door becomes the subject of the next AGM.