How to read a strata report
A strata report — sometimes called a strata search or strata inspection report — is the compiled records of the owners corporation for the building you're buying into. It is routinely 150 to 300 pages, most of which is meeting minutes. The useful information is real, but it is scattered.
What a strata report actually contains
Most reports are assembled from the strata manager's files by a search company, and typically include the financial statements, the levy register, minutes of committee and general meetings going back several years, the insurance certificate, the by-laws, the capital works fund plan, and any correspondence about defects or disputes.
Two consequences follow from that, and they explain most of the confusion buyers have. First, the document is historical — it contains years of superseded figures, and a levy resolution from 2022 sits in the same document as this year's. Always check the date attached to a number. Second, nothing is summarised for you. There is no cover page saying "the fund is thin and there's a cladding issue". You have to assemble that picture yourself.
The eight things to find first
If you only had twenty minutes, these are the answers worth having.
| Find | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Capital works fund balance | The building's savings for major repairs. A thin fund means future costs land on owners as special levies. |
| Administration fund balance | Day-to-day running money. A deficit here means levies aren't covering ordinary costs. |
| Your quarterly levies | The recurring cost of ownership, on top of the mortgage. Check the current year's figure, not an old one. |
| Special levies | One-off charges. Note whether each was proposed, struck (approved and payable) or already paid — they mean very different things. |
| Defects and building issues | Water ingress, concrete spalling, cladding. These drive the largest unexpected costs. |
| The capital works plan | What major work is forecast, when, and for how much — the pipeline of future levies. |
| Insurance | That the building is insured, for a sum that plausibly reflects rebuilding it. |
| Litigation or disputes | NCAT proceedings or builder claims mean cost and governance risk you inherit. |
A sensible reading order
- The financial statements first. Usually near the front. Find the two fund balances and the date they're stated "as at".
- Then the levy schedule for the current period — what you'll actually pay each quarter.
- Then the capital works plan. Compare the next three years of forecast spending against the fund balance you just found. If the plan needs far more than the fund holds, the gap becomes a levy.
- Then search the minutes for the trigger words: defect, water, ingress, cladding, spalling, rectification, NCAT, special levy.
- Then the by-laws, if you have pets, plan to renovate, or intend to rent the property out.
Common mistakes
Reading an old figure as current. Comparative tables and years of minutes mean the same field appears many times. Always tie a number to its date.
Treating a big fund balance as automatically good. $80,000 is healthy for a small block and inadequate for a tower about to repaint and replace lifts. The balance only means something next to the plan.
Assuming silence is safety. If a report never mentions the annual fire safety statement, that isn't the same as compliance — it's a question to ask. The same goes for a defect inspection that says the inspector "could not determine" something: that's a blind spot in the inspection, not an all-clear.
Skipping the by-laws. They are dull and they are binding. Pets, short-term letting, flooring and renovations are all commonly restricted.
Getting a second read
NuData Strata does this pass automatically: it extracts the fund balances, levies, defects, works and red flags from your report and links each figure to the page it came from, so you can verify anything in a click. It's a faster first read — not a substitute for your conveyancer or solicitor.
Related: Strata report red flags · The capital works fund, explained · Strata glossary