This article discusses special levy balcony repairs strata and why all owners may have to contribute, even without a balcony.
Question: The balconies of 5 of our 7 units require work. Costs have been divided equally although my apartment does not have a balcony. Am I required to pay the special levy?
I own a ground floor apartment in the ACT in a complex of 7. Five apartments need balcony work done at a cost of $110,000. One of the balconies alone will cost approx $60K as it is larger and needs a new balustrade.
My apartment does not have a balcony. Do I have to contribute to this special levy, which is approx $10,000 each? Also, shouldn’t the owner of the larger unit contribute more as they are gaining greater value to their property?
Answer: As the Owners Corporation consists of all units, and the balconies are a defined part, they are Common Property.
It seems there are much needed maintenance repairs happening at your scheme.
It can be a slight misconception that balconies form part of the common property due to the Maintenance responsibility of the balcony falling to the Owners Corporation, However, I can confirm that whilst the responsibility of maintenance falls with the Owners Corporation, they are a unit subsidiary as specified on the Units Site Plan and are considered a part of the unit itself.
It would be similar to repairs happening to the roof of your scheme. Although you’re on the ground floor, all units would need to contribute towards the maintenance or repairs of the roof.
The Owners Corporation can decide at a General Meeting how a Special Levy might be calculated and charged. It sounds as your Owners Corporation decided to equally divide the costs. An alternative would have been using the Unit of Entitlements registered against the Scheme for each unit; typically this does make cost sharing more equal.
This post appears in Strata News #541.
Mark Zezulka ACT Division Manager Civium Communities E: mark.zezulka@civium.com.au