Apartment buildings in New South Wales may have as little as a year to prepare a ten-year sinking fund expenditure plan - or risk facing a Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal order instructing the owners' corporation to meet its obligations.

Under the terms of section 75A of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996, buildings constructed between 1985 and 1995 must start their sinking fund expenditure planning by the first owners? corporation AGM after 1 July 2007. They then have a year to have planning completed and in place by the next AGM.

The rules have been designed to encourage owners? corporations to plan for necessary future expenditure such as painting the building, replacing fencing, driveway refurbishment, replacing common property items such as carpets, roofing and guttering, and lift overhauls.

Bill Debney, managing director of Strata Finance, advises owners to talk to their strata manager or committee chairman to check that necessary preparations are under way.

?Do not assume that your building will automatically comply with the terms of the legislation and don?t wait until to the next AGM to ensure that it does,? he says.