Strata title is a form of ownership and housing tenure devised for multi-level apartment blocks and horizontal subdivisions with shared areas.
Strata title was first introduced in 1961 in the state of New South Wales, Australia, to better cope with the legal ownership of apartment blocks.
Previously, the only adequate method of dividing ownership was company title, which had a number of defects, such as the difficulty of instituting mortgages.
Other countries that have adopted the Australian system (or a similar variant) of apartment ownership include: Canada (Alberta, British Columbia), Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines,[1] Singapore, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
[15] The body corporate can set rules governing the use of the common property (for example, an owner who causes damage must repair it) and the units (for example, limiting pets, or noise levels depending on the time of day), and for the regulation of the body corporate.
[19] The owners in the unit title development must meet yearly to approve the levies,[17] the financial statements,[20] long term maintenance plan and fund (if any),[21][22] approve changes to the body corporate rules (if any),[23] and the appointment of the body corporate chairman and committee (if any).