The Extend­ed 6 Year Lim­i­ta­tion Peri­od For SSMA Sec­tion 106 Stra­ta Claims Is Not Retrospective

In the recent deci­sion of John Goubran & Asso­ciates Pty Ltd ACN 070 974 819 v The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan 57150 [2026] NSWDC 9 (Goubran) it was held that the lim­i­ta­tion peri­od which was amend­ed from 2 years to 6 years from 1 July 2025 under s106(6), is not ret­ro­spec­tive and does not extend the lim­i­ta­tion peri­od beyond 2 years where this for­mer lim­i­ta­tion peri­od was ‘extin­guished’ pri­or to the changes com­ing in.

The Dis­trict Court stat­ed that the change of the lim­i­ta­tion peri­od to 6 years was sub­ject to the pre­sump­tion against ret­ro­spec­tiv­i­ty ref­er­enced in Rod­way v R [1990] HCA 19. Note that ret­ro­spec­tiv­i­ty in this con­text, if it applied, would have the effect of re-enliven­ing a pre­vi­ous­ly extin­guished claim. Nev­er­the­less, this con­cept does not apply as the deci­sion was not a pro­ce­dur­al change.