A Perth strata report is the equivalent of a building inspection for a unit, townhouse or apartment, and skipping it is the most expensive shortcut available to a strata buyer.
The report pulls together the scheme’s records: financials, minutes, insurance, bylaws and any known defects. Read properly, it tells you whether you are buying into a well-run building or a future special levy.
What the Perth strata report actually contains
The financial statements show the administrative fund and the reserve or sinking fund. The administrative fund pays day-to-day running costs. The reserve fund is meant to cover long-term capital works, and its balance is the single best indicator of how well the scheme has been planned.
The minutes of meetings are more informative than the financials in many cases. Read the last two or three years and look for recurring issues: a leaking roof, a lift fault, a dispute between owners, a proposed special levy that was deferred rather than resolved.
The report will also include the current levies per lot, the insurance arrangements, any outstanding building orders and the registered bylaws. Each of those carries its own questions.
The red flags
- A reserve fund that is small relative to the age and size of the building.
- Repeated special levies, or a large one proposed in recent minutes.
- Unresolved building defects, particularly water ingress and structural cracking.
- Litigation, either against the builder or between the scheme and an owner.
- Bylaws that restrict pets, short-stay letting or renovations in ways that affect you.
- Insurance that excludes a risk relevant to the building, such as flood.
Also check the arrears position. A scheme where several owners are behind on levies has a cash flow problem that eventually becomes everyone’s problem, because the shortfall gets recovered through the budget.
Questions to ask the strata manager
Ask what capital works have been identified and whether they are funded. Ask whether there is a maintenance plan or a condition report, and when it was last updated. Ask about the last special levy, what it paid for and whether it was sufficient.
Ask how many lots are owner-occupied, because that shapes how the building is treated. Ask whether there are any pending disputes or insurance claims. And ask whether the levies have increased in each of the last few years and by how much.
The answers to those questions tell you more than the levy figure alone, which is what most buyers focus on because it is the number on the listing.
How it changes your decision
A well-run scheme with a healthy reserve fund is worth paying a little more for, because you are buying into a plan rather than a liability. A cheap-looking levy on an underfunded building is a deferred cost, not a saving.
It is also a negotiating tool. A report that identifies a known defect gives you a basis for adjusting your offer or asking the seller to contribute. Buyers who skip the report lose that lever entirely.
For the difference between title types, our guide to Perth strata versus survey strata explains what each structure means for maintenance, and our Perth apartment versus house comparison covers the wider trade-offs.
Order the report early rather than after your offer is accepted. In a competitive market the wait can cost you a property, and many strata managers take a few days to respond. If the seller can supply a recent report, read it, but treat a report commissioned by the seller with appropriate caution and consider getting your own for the sections that matter.
Look at the building’s maintenance history rather than only its current state. A scheme that repainted and replaced the roof in the last decade has already absorbed its major costs, while one that has deferred both is a scheme where those costs are still ahead of you. That timing difference is worth real money and rarely appears in the marketing.
Buying an apartment in Perth? Smart Realty can point you toward buildings with solid records and away from the ones that will cost you later. If you own a unit and are weighing a sale, request a free rental appraisal.