What the certificate will not tell you, and where to look before your client settles

A scenario

Your client buys an apartment. The certificate shows no proceedings. Eight weeks after settlement a special levy lands to pay a contractor the owners corporation never took to court. The dispute had been running for two years. The law required the owners corporation to disclose a circumstance it was aware of that was likely to lead to proceedings; whether this one counted was a judgement made inside the owners corporation, and your client had no way to test it. In one documented case a first home buyer was handed a ninety thousand dollar cladding levy on a one-bedroom unit soon after buying.

The question your client asks is not "did the certificate cover it". It is "did you know about the dispute". A dated search of the register on the file answers that question before it is asked.

Why this register exists

The Owners Corporations Act 2006 and its regulations require a certificate to disclose liabilities, contingent liabilities, works about to be done that may add charges, and any circumstances the owners corporation is aware of that are likely to give rise to proceedings. That is a broad obligation. The practical gap is not what the law asks for; it is whether everything the owners corporation knew made it onto the certificate. The certificate is prepared inside the owners corporation, by the manager or the committee. Your client receives the result and cannot test the inputs. Committee members have duties under the Act to act honestly, in good faith and with due care, and are not personally liable for acts done in good faith; a judgement not to record something is theirs, and its cost is your client's.

The register exists so the other party to a dispute, a contractor, a lot owner, anyone directly involved, can put a sworn, dated notice on the public record themselves. A conveyancer who searches it is not second-guessing the certificate. They are checking whether the dispute record and the certificate tell the same story.

What you get

• Search any building by address, free. Each notice shows the kind of dispute, when it was lodged, its status as at a date, and the owners corporation's reply if there is one.
• A dated search result for the file: one more line that shows you looked.
• An email if a new notice is lodged on the building before your client's settlement date (watch a building, free).
• Strata Sales Watcher: when a building with a published notice is listed for sale, PNDR sends word to the selling agent, the solicitors and the owners that the notice exists, so the certificate in the contract can be brought up to date before anyone signs.
• A one-page guide to adding the check to your standard file.

What this register does not do

A notice is one party's sworn account of a dispute. It is not a ruling or a finding. It does not replace the certificate, the vendor statement or inspecting the owners corporation's records; those remain the main checks. If a search finds no notices, nobody has lodged one. It does not mean there are no disputes.

The certificate question

Victorian law requires an owners corporation certificate to disclose the owners corporation's liabilities and contingent liabilities (costs that might become debts if something happens), repairs or other work about to be done that may add charges, and any circumstances it is aware of that are likely to lead to proceedings. The certificate is prepared by the manager or the committee from what they judged relevant and chose to record. A buyer has no way to check whether everything the owners corporation knew made it onto the page. The register is where the other party to a dispute puts their sworn account on the public record, so a buyer can see whether the two tell the same story.

Three questions worth asking before settlement:

• Is this owners corporation in a dispute, or doing something that could draw it into one?
• Are there repairs, defects or maintenance problems in the building that have been discussed or argued over, even informally, that do not appear in the certificate?
• If a problem surfaced the week after you signed, would you have had any way to find out about it beforehand?

What has been reported

The costliest surprise is a legal matter. A dispute between an owners corporation and a builder, an insurer or a contractor can run for years, and its legal fees and the levies that follow can reach several hundred thousand dollars across a building, with the stress of it carried by the owners the whole time. The certificate must list proceedings the owners corporation is a party to and any circumstances it knows of that are likely to lead to them, and knowing whether a case has been filed, and whether one is being prepared, is worth finding out before you sign. The register shows any sworn account the other party to such a dispute has placed on the record, whether or not a case has been started; a search that finds nothing means no one has lodged, not that there is no dispute.

What goes wrong has been reported publicly. PNDR does not comment on the cases or the people involved; the reporting speaks for itself.

• nine.com.au, 7 September 2026: "An additional mortgage": a sinking Melbourne apartment complex could see owners pay a special levy of three hundred and seventy-four thousand dollars each
• The Age, 27 September 2026: "Ten years, 3500 complaints, zero prosecutions: Inside Victoria's strata enforcement vacuum"
• The Guardian, 21 April 2024: "Completely blindsided: new owners of strata properties shocked by special levies"
• The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 2025: "Maria thought her townhouse was 'perfect'. Then her bedroom ceiling began to drip"
• The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July 2019: "Years of jackhammers and arguments: how homeowners deal with faulty buildings"
• Yahoo Finance Australia, 3 August 2026: Apartment owners warned after a woman's repair bill of fifty-two thousand dollars, "more than my mortgage"

Why register your firm now

The register opens for notices in November. You get the one-page guide now and the search link the day it opens, so the check is built into your file before your first November settlement. During the Victorian launch period, lodging a notice is free. Searching is free. Replying is free. Removing or correcting your own notice is free. Any change to lodging fees will be announced on this page in advance.