We Analysed 2,000 Strata Disputes in NSW — Here's What Goes Wrong Most

When you are buying into a strata scheme, the financial statements tell you about the building's health. But the tribunal records tell you about its character.

We scraped and analysed 1,986 published decisions from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) involving strata schemes — every publicly available case where a strata plan number appeared in the case name. This covers decisions from NCAT, the NCAT Appeal Panel, the Supreme Court, and other NSW courts and tribunals.

The results paint a clear picture of what actually causes conflict in NSW apartment buildings — and some of the findings are surprising.

The Top Five Dispute Types

We categorised each case by its primary dispute type based on the catchwords and case summary. Here is what NSW strata schemes fight about most:

The Biggest Surprise: It's Not the Developer

If you follow property news, you would be forgiven for thinking that building defects are the dominant source of strata conflict. The Mascot Towers saga, the Opal Tower evacuation, the ongoing cladding crisis — these stories dominate headlines.

But the data tells a different story. Renovations cause more than twice as many tribunal cases as building defects. The biggest source of conflict in NSW strata is not the developer who built the building — it is the neighbours who live in it.

This makes intuitive sense when you think about it. Building defect claims are significant but relatively contained: they involve the owners corporation versus a builder or developer, and they usually resolve (one way or another) within a few years. Renovation disputes, on the other hand, are an ongoing feature of strata life. Every time someone wants to update a bathroom, install timber floors, or enclose a balcony, there is potential for conflict over approvals, noise, common property boundaries, and waterproofing responsibilities.

Cases Are Accelerating — Fast

The volume of strata disputes reaching NCAT has grown dramatically over the past decade:

Several factors are driving this trend. The number of strata schemes in NSW is growing rapidly — particularly high-density developments in Western Sydney and the inner suburbs. The Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 expanded NCAT's jurisdiction and made it easier to bring claims. And owners are simply more aware of their rights than they were a decade ago.

Whatever the cause, the practical implication for buyers is clear: strata disputes are becoming more common, not less. Checking a building's tribunal history is no longer optional due diligence — it is essential.

Repeat Offenders: 36% of Buildings Come Back

Perhaps the most concerning finding is how many buildings appear in tribunal records more than once. Of the strata schemes in our dataset, 242 buildings — 36% — have been to NCAT multiple times.

Some buildings are serial litigants. We found schemes with eight or nine separate cases spanning years of ongoing conflict. These are not buildings with one-off problems — they are buildings with systemic governance issues, entrenched disagreements between owners, or fundamental structural problems that generate dispute after dispute.

What This Means for Property Buyers

Based on this analysis, here is how to use tribunal records as part of your due diligence:

How to Check a Building's Tribunal History

Checking NCAT records manually is possible but tedious. You need to know the strata plan number (which you can find on the Section 184 certificate or contract of sale), then search caselaw.nsw.gov.au for that plan number. Each case needs to be read individually to understand the substance of the dispute.

Or you can search the strata plan number on StrataChecks, which automatically surfaces any linked NCAT decisions alongside the building's other details — address, number of lots, managing agent, and location context. It takes about five seconds.

Methodology

This analysis is based on 1,986 published decisions from caselaw.nsw.gov.au where one or more strata plan numbers appeared in the case name. Cases were sourced from NCAT (Consumer and Commercial Division), the NCAT Appeal Panel, the NSW Supreme Court, and other NSW courts and tribunals that hear strata-related matters.

Dispute categories were assigned based on the catchwords field of each decision. Cases with multiple dispute types were categorised by their primary issue. The temporal analysis uses the decision date as published. "Repeat offender" buildings are identified by matching strata plan numbers across multiple cases.

Published decisions represent a subset of all NCAT matters — many cases are resolved at mediation, withdrawn, or decided without a published judgment. The actual number of strata disputes in NSW is significantly higher than what appears in this dataset.