Labor will ban owners corporation manager commissions it blames for higher strata fees if re-elected on 28 November.
Today, Labor announced they will outlaw commissions that shape what managers buy with strata fees, and set up a Consumer Affairs Victoria taskforce to enforce the ban, if elected.
The consumer affairs minister, Tim Richardson, announced the pledge on 24 October as part of Labor’s campaign under the premier, Ben Carroll. “If you’re paying strata fees, you deserve a manager who works for you – not one pocketing a kickback,” he said.
“We’re banning kickbacks and putting a cop on the beat, so dodgy managers get caught.”
It covers any commission or payment that sways what a manager buys for an owners corp, including building insurance and repairs paid for out of strata fees. Labor would also examine brokers’ commissions so managers can’t collect the same money through a broker. That part is a review, not a ban.
One in five Victorians own or live in a home run by an owners corporation, which the law called a body corporate until the end of 2007. Labor counts more than 500,000 strata-managed properties across the state, says that number is climbing quickly, and wants a dedicated Owners Corporations Taskforce inside Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) to police the new rules.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
How strata fees and commissions work now
A Victorian manager can legally take a commission today. On building insurance, that money typically comes from the insurer or broker. The law requires managers to disclose any commission, payment or other benefit they stand to receive from a supply contract in writing to the owners corporation’s chairperson. That’s disclosure to one person. Labor’s pledge swaps that model for an outright ban, and the ban is the part of this package that touches what owners pay. The AGM changes are process.
It also goes further than Labor’s own plan in June. When the then consumer affairs minister, Paul Edbrooke, introduced the first laws from the review of the Owners Corporations Act 2006, the government’s release named a licensing scheme for managers, stronger CAV enforcement powers and more transparency over strata money as next steps. A ban wasn’t among them.
The government set up that review in June 2025 to examine, among other things, inappropriate commissions and kickbacks. The former consumer affairs minister Marsha Thomson chaired the expert panel, which was due to report by 1 December 2025 and made 51 recommendations. When the government released the report in June, it backed 46 in full, in part or in principle, kept three under review and didn’t support two.
Mandatory education and ongoing professional development rules for registered managers came into force in May.
A dedicated owners corp taskforce, and more notice before the AGM
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CAV already runs a renting taskforce, which brought in intelligence analysts, investigators and lawyers, plus taskforces on auction underquoting and fuel prices. Since November 2025 its director has also had more grounds to weigh when deciding whether a rent increase is excessive. Labor’s release doesn’t say how many staff the strata taskforce would get, or what it would cost.
Body corp AGMs change too. Owners would get at least 21 days’ notice, up from the current minimum of 14. Anyone breaking the cap on proxy votes would face a penalty, and votes held outside meetings would stay open for two to four weeks. Managers already can’t demand an owner’s proxy, or vote on their own appointment or pay unless they own a lot.
Those changes build on the consumer bill Labor introduced in June, which passed in August. It gives owners in financial hardship the right to a payment plan, and lets an owners corporation start legal action over non-monetary matters at VCAT or the Magistrates’ Court with the support of 50% of owners.
Where the strata industry stands on commissions
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Strata Community Association Victoria, the Collingwood-based peak body for managers, told members in September 2025 it supports commissions as long as they’re fair and transparent. Its submission to the review, built on feedback from more than 200 members, argued commissions should stay an option for owners. It also warned that owners could face higher management fees without them, since commission income currently keeps those fees down, and wants a reasonable transition period if a ban comes.
The ACCC recommended a ban on conflicted remuneration for strata managers and insurance brokers during its northern Australia insurance inquiry, which ran for three years and wrapped up in December 2020. NSW has required managers to disclose links with suppliers and developers, and to itemise commissions and broker fees in insurance quotes, since February 2025, with penalties up to $110,000. In March, the NSW government said it would consider a Productivity and Equality Commission report on what banning commissions would do to the market there.
What the Liberals and Nationals said about the owners corporation laws
In a 28 July statement, the shadow consumer affairs minister, Jade Benham, said the Liberals and Nationals wouldn’t oppose the June bill in the Assembly and supported its consumer protections, but would move amendments in the upper house. Her objections centred on auctions, rent rises in manufactured home parks and car dealer licensing, not the owners corporation changes.
A ban won’t automatically cut strata fees, but it would move the cost of management onto the owners corp’s own invoices instead of routing it through suppliers. The expert panel’s final report and the government’s response are on Engage Victoria.
For more information, head here.
