Planning Major Works: Roof, Painting, and Structural Repairs

Most of what a committee does is small: a tap washer, a stairwell light, a blocked drain. Then, every so often, comes the job that isn't small — the roof that's finally failing, the render that's been flagged for a repaint for three years, the concrete cancer spreading across the car park soffit. These are major works, and they run by different rules. A routine repair the committee can approve on a Tuesday night; a major work needs a scope an expert wrote, a funding plan the owners can see, a general-meeting vote you might lose, and a project that plays out over months while people live in the building. Get one wrong and it's not a $200 mistake — it's a special levy the owners revolt against, a contractor dispute with no contract to fall back on, or a half-finished façade and an empty fund. This guide sets out how to plan a major work from the first sign of it to the final sign-off, so the size of the job doesn't turn into the size of the problem.

What counts as "major works"?

There's no single legal definition — it varies by state — but for planning purposes, treat a job as major works if it hits any of these:

• It's large enough that the funds don't obviously cover it. If the number makes you check the capital works fund balance before you say yes, it's major.
• It exceeds the committee's spending authority, so the owners have to approve it at a general meeting rather than the committee approving it alone.
• It's capital, not routine — replacing or substantially upgrading a building element (roof, membrane, façade, lift, common services) rather than maintaining one.
• It's structural, or safety-critical — anything load-bearing, waterproofing, fire, or façade, where getting the scope wrong has consequences beyond cost.

Typical examples in a self-managed scheme:

• Roof — replacement or major re-roofing, not a patched leak.
• Painting — a full exterior repaint cycle, often every 8–12 years, usually with substrate repairs underneath.
• Waterproofing — re-membraning balconies, planter boxes, podium decks, basement tanking.
• Concrete repairs — spalling ("concrete cancer"), where the steel reinforcement rusts and blows the concrete off.
• Façade and cladding — recladding, render repairs, and combustible-cladding remediation.
• Common services — lift replacement, switchboard upgrades, common plumbing or fire-system renewal.

The common thread isn't the trade — it's that the job is big enough, and consequential enough, that "get a bloke in" is negligent. It needs a plan.

Why major works are different

• The money isn't there by accident. Major works are what the capital works fund exists to pay for. Whether you can fund the job from the fund, or need a special levy or a loan, is the first question — and it shapes everything downstream.
• You can't approve it yourself. Above the committee's spending limit, only a general meeting can say yes. That means notice periods, quotes attached to the agenda, and a vote you have to win.
• The scope is technical. For structural, waterproofing, or façade work, the committee is not qualified to write the scope. Get it wrong and you buy the wrong fix, or you can't compare quotes because every contractor priced a different job.
• It's disruptive and it's visible. Owners live there. Scaffold goes up, access is restricted, noise happens, and every owner has an opinion. A major work is as much a communications project as a construction one.

The lifecycle of a major work

A major work moves through eight stages. Skipping or rushing one is where projects come off the rails.

1. Identify — the need is flagged, usually by a forecast, an inspection, or a failure.
2. Investigate and scope — get an expert to assess the problem and write a scope of works.
3. Fund — work out how you'll pay: capital works fund, special levy, loan, or a mix.
4. Approve — take the funded, scoped proposal to a general meeting and get the vote.
5. Procure — get comparable quotes against the same scope from licensed, insured contractors.
6. Contract — engage the winning contractor in a written contract, not a handshake.
7. Deliver — manage the works, access, variations, and progress payments.
8. Sign off — inspect, hold retention, close out defects, and file the record.

The first four are planning; the last four are delivery. Most committees are tempted to jump from "the roof's leaking" straight to "let's get a roofer" — stages 1 to 5, skipping the investigation, the funding plan, and the vote. That's exactly the leap this guide exists to slow down.

Stage 1–2: Identify the need and get it scoped

The best major works are the ones you saw coming. A capital works forecast (called a maintenance plan or sinking-fund forecast in some states) is the tool that turns a surprise into a schedule — it lists the big building elements, when each is due for renewal, and roughly what it'll cost, so the roof at year 8 isn't a shock. If you have one, it's your starting point. If you don't, a major work is your prompt to build one, because the next major work is already out there. See Do You Need a Capital Works Forecast, and How Do You Build One?.

Once a need is real, resist the urge to price it before you understand it. For anything structural, waterproofing, façade, or safety-related, the committee is not competent to write the scope — and that's not a criticism, it's the point. Engage an independent expert to investigate and specify the work:

• A building consultant or engineer for structural, concrete, and façade work.
• A waterproofing consultant for membrane and leak remediation, where the cause is often hidden.
• A quantity surveyor for cost planning on a large job.
• A specialist (fire engineer, lift consultant, cladding assessor) for those systems.

The expert's job is to diagnose the actual cause, not the symptom, and to write a scope of works — a precise, technical description of what has to be done. This document is the single most valuable thing you'll produce, because it does two jobs at once: it makes sure you're buying the right fix, and it makes every contractor quote the same job, so their prices are actually comparable. A scope written by a contractor who then quotes it is a scope written to suit that contractor.

For a straightforward, well-understood job — a standard exterior repaint on a low-rise block — you may not need a consultant to write the scope; a detailed scope from an experienced painter, tested against a second one, can be enough. Use judgement: the more structural, hidden, or safety-critical the work, the more you need an independent scope before anyone prices it.

Stage 3: Work out how you'll pay for it

Funding is the question that decides whether the project is possible, and it has three levers.

1. The capital works fund. This is the fund built up precisely for large, non-recurring works — the sinking, maintenance, or reserve fund, depending on your state. If the balance covers the job, funding is simple: the general meeting approves drawing on the fund. Drawing from the right fund matters — routine maintenance comes from the administration fund, capital works from the capital works fund — and mixing them up distorts your budgeting and can breach the rules on what each fund is for. See Admin Fund vs Capital Works Fund: What Can You Legally Spend from Each?.

2. A special levy. If the fund can't cover the job — which is common, because self-managed schemes often under-fund the capital works fund for years — the shortfall comes from a special levy: a one-off levy raised on every lot in proportion to unit entitlement, specifically to fund this work. A special levy is itself a general-meeting decision, and it's the part owners feel most, so it needs the most care in how it's framed and staged (more on that below).

3. A loan. For very large jobs, some schemes borrow — via a strata-specific lender — and repay the loan through levies over several years, so owners aren't hit with one enormous bill. Whether your scheme can borrow, and what approval it needs, depends on your state and your by-laws; it's a general-meeting decision and worth advice before you pursue it.

In practice most major works are funded by a mix: draw down what the capital works fund holds, and raise a special levy for the rest. Whatever the mix, work it out before the meeting and present it as a plan, not a surprise — "here's the job, here's what the fund covers, here's the special levy per lot, here's when it's payable." Owners approve a number they can see and understand far more readily than one that lands on them cold.

Stage 4: Get the approval right

This is the stage committees most often get wrong, because they underestimate what the vote requires. A major work almost always needs a general meeting, not a committee decision — it's above the committee's spending limit, it draws on the fund or raises a levy, and often it needs a particular kind of resolution.

The mechanics that matter:

• The right meeting and notice. The spend goes on a general-meeting agenda (AGM or a specially convened extraordinary general meeting), circulated with the required notice period. You can't decide a major work "on the night" without it being on the agenda.
• The right resolution. An ordinary resolution (simple majority) covers many works, but some jurisdictions require a special resolution (a higher threshold) for large expenditure, for raising a significant special levy, or for works that change the common property. Know which one your job needs before the meeting, because falling short of a special-resolution threshold means the motion fails even if most owners voted yes.
• Quotes attached. In several states, once a spend crosses a prescribed limit you must obtain (and circulate with the notice) a minimum number of quotes — typically two. Attach them so owners are voting on real numbers.
• The motion is specific. "That the owners corporation approve major works" is too vague to act on. The motion should name the scope, the contractor or the quote, the total cost, the funding source (fund draw and/or special levy amount per lot), and who's authorised to sign the contract.

If you're not sure your AGM is soon enough, or you need this decided before the next one, you may need to call an extraordinary general meeting specifically for the works. Plan the timing backwards from when the work has to happen, including notice periods.

The thresholds, resolution types, and quote requirements all differ by state. The callouts below cover the four largest jurisdictions — always confirm the current figures against your own legislation, as they're updated from time to time.

Stage 5–6: Procure and contract

With approval in hand, run the procurement properly. The quoting for a major work is the same discipline as any contractor engagement, just with higher stakes — get comparable quotes against the same scope, from contractors you've checked are licensed and insured for the work, and compare on more than headline price. A cheap quote that omits half the scope isn't cheap. The full method — writing a comparable scope, checking licences and insurance, comparing like-for-like, and putting it in a contract — is in Getting Quotes and Engaging Contractors as a Committee.

For a major work specifically, add these:

• Engage in a written contract, not an email and a handshake. For a large job, use a proper building contract (many committees use a standard form) that sets out scope, price, program, progress-payment stages, variations process, retention, defects liability, and insurance. The contract is what protects the scheme when something goes wrong mid-job — and on a big job, something usually does.
• Hold retention. Standard practice on larger works is to withhold a small percentage of each payment (retention) until the defects liability period passes, so there's money on the table to fix problems that show up after completion.
• Confirm the contractor's insurance, including public liability and, where required, works insurance and home-building/indemnity cover. On a large job, confirm whether the scheme also needs contract works insurance.
• Consider a superintendent or project manager. For a genuinely large or technical job, the same consultant who scoped the work can administer the contract — certifying progress claims, inspecting quality, and being the technical eyes the committee doesn't have. Their fee is small against the cost of a badly run project.

Stage 7–8: Deliver, then sign off

Delivery is where planning pays off or unravels. Run it deliberately:

• Manage access and disruption. Coordinate scaffold, parking, noise, and any restrictions on balconies or common areas, and tell owners the schedule before the trucks arrive.
• Control variations. A variation is a change to the agreed scope, and it's where budgets blow out. Every variation should be priced, approved in writing before the work is done, and checked against the committee's remaining authority — a big enough variation may need to go back to the owners.
• Pay against progress, not on request. On staged payments, pay each claim only once the work for that stage is actually done and (ideally) certified by your consultant. "Invoice received" is not "stage complete."
• Inspect before final payment, and hold the retention until the defects period ends. Walk the work against the scope; snag the defects; don't release the last payment or the retention until they're fixed.
• File the whole record — the consultant's report and scope, the quotes, the general-meeting resolution, the contract, variations, progress certificates, warranties, and before/after photos. This bundle protects the committee, feeds the next capital works forecast, and hands the next committee a scheme they can understand.

Staging a project owners will back

A major work is approved by the people who have to pay for it, and lost the same way. The technical plan can be perfect and the project still fails at the vote — or passes and then curdles into resentment — if owners feel it was sprung on them. Staging the communication is as much a part of the plan as staging the works:

• Warn early, in the forecast. Owners who've seen "roof — year 8 — ~$X" in the capital works forecast for years aren't surprised when year 8 arrives. The forecast is your best tool for making a big number feel expected rather than ambushing.
• Show the problem, not just the price. Photos of the spalling concrete or the failed membrane do more to carry a vote than any motion wording. Owners approve a fix to a problem they can see.
• Present the funding as a plan. "$X from the fund, $Y special levy per lot, payable over two quarters" is a proposal owners can weigh. A bare total with no funding plan reads as a demand.
• Give it air before the meeting. For a big or contentious job, circulate the proposal, hold an information session, and take questions before the formal vote — so the meeting ratifies a decision owners have already had time to digest, rather than being the first they've heard of it.
• Phase it if you can. A job that can be staged over two or three years — spreading the special levies and the disruption — is often far easier to get approved than one enormous hit, provided phasing doesn't cost materially more or leave the building exposed in between.

The committee that treats owners as people to be informed and persuaded, rather than told, gets its major works approved. The one that turns up at the AGM with a $180,000 motion and no warning gets voted down and starts again a year later, with the building a year worse.

Common mistakes

1. Pricing the job before understanding it

Getting three quotes off three contractors who each scoped it differently gives you three numbers you can't compare — and a real risk of buying the wrong fix. For structural, waterproofing, or façade work, get an independent scope first.

2. No funding plan before the vote

Turning up with a total but no answer to "where's the money coming from?" almost guarantees the motion stalls. Work out the fund draw and special levy before the meeting and present them together.

3. Getting the resolution type wrong

Assuming an ordinary majority carries a job that legally needs a special resolution means the motion fails even with most owners in favour. Confirm the threshold your specific work requires before you write the agenda.

4. No written contract on a big job

A handshake and an email are fine for a $300 repair, not a $60,000 one. When the contractor walks off half-finished or the work's defective, the contract is the only thing that protects the scheme.

5. Springing it on owners

The perfect technical plan loses the vote if owners feel ambushed. Warn early, show the problem, present the funding, and give a contentious job time to breathe before the meeting.

Frequently asked questions

Can the committee just approve a major work if it's urgent?

For a genuine emergency — active safety risk or damage getting worse — most legislation lets the committee arrange immediate works to prevent further harm, and sort the approval afterwards. But "the roof needs replacing eventually" is not an emergency. A planned major work above the committee's spending limit goes to a general meeting. Don't use the emergency power to skip a vote you'd rather not have.

Do we have to use the capital works fund, or can we just raise a special levy?

Capital works come from the capital works (sinking/reserve/maintenance) fund by design — that's what it's for. If the fund holds enough, draw on it; owners have already contributed for exactly this. Raise a special levy for the shortfall the fund can't cover, not as a substitute for using the fund you've built up.

How many quotes do we need for a major work?

It depends on your state and the size of the spend, but for a major work, two or three comparable quotes on the same scope is the practical floor — and several states require a minimum (typically two) once the cost crosses a prescribed threshold, circulated with the meeting notice. Attach them to the agenda so owners vote on real numbers.

Do we need an engineer, or can we just get a builder?

For structural, concrete, façade, waterproofing, or fire work, get an independent expert to diagnose and scope it before any builder prices it — the committee isn't competent to specify these, and the wrong scope buys the wrong fix. For a straightforward, well-understood job like a standard repaint, a detailed scope tested against a second experienced contractor can be enough.

What if owners vote it down?

Then the work doesn't proceed on those terms — but the underlying problem doesn't disappear, and a duty to maintain the common property doesn't lift because a vote failed. Often a "no" is really a "not like this": revisit the funding (a smaller special levy, phasing, a longer payment window), improve how you've communicated the problem, and bring it back. If a scheme repeatedly refuses to fund works it's legally obliged to do, an owner affected by the disrepair can ultimately seek an order through the state tribunal.

Quick checklist

• [ ] The need is identified — ideally from the capital works forecast, not a failure
• [ ] An independent expert has diagnosed the cause and written a scope of works (for structural/waterproofing/façade/safety work)
• [ ] A funding plan is worked out: fund draw, special levy per lot, and/or loan
• [ ] The right resolution type is confirmed (ordinary vs special) for your state and spend
• [ ] The work is on a general-meeting agenda with the required notice and quotes attached
• [ ] Comparable quotes obtained against the same scope, from licensed and insured contractors
• [ ] The winning contractor is engaged in a written contract with scope, program, payments, variations, retention, and insurance
• [ ] A superintendent / project manager is engaged for a large or technical job
• [ ] Variations are priced and approved in writing before the work is done
• [ ] Payments are made against certified progress, with retention held to the end of the defects period
• [ ] Work is inspected against the scope and snagged before final payment
• [ ] The full record is filed: scope, quotes, resolution, contract, variations, warranties, before/after photos
• [ ] Owners were warned early and kept informed throughout

Related resources

• Do You Need a Capital Works Forecast, and How Do You Build One?
• Getting Quotes and Engaging Contractors as a Committee
• Admin Fund vs Capital Works Fund: What Can You Legally Spend from Each?

This guide is general information for self-managed strata schemes in Australia. It is not legal advice. Spending thresholds, resolution types, quote requirements, funding rules, and maintenance-plan obligations differ between states and change over time — always check the strata legislation and regulations that apply to your scheme, and seek professional advice where required.