In our residential building of 6 units, one lot owner has been overseas for more than a year and hasn't made a levy payment for that duration. Strata have said they are in debt recovery and going through the courts.
Why hasn't strata acted much sooner and how long can this go on before its resolved? I would have thought after 3 months of no levy payments and strata would issue a debt recovery action letter to the owner.
I am the “Honorary Administrator” of a self-managing strata scheme of four townhouses.
We may need to take levy recovery action against one owner who is refusing to pay the 4 equal quarterly levy contributions discussed and agreed to as an agenda item at our AGM.
I have sent several friendly reminders and a formal letter of demand to pay by 4 equal quarterly instalments as required under the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act and the Owners Corporation, but he is refusing.
In a previous response you mentioned that when recovering late levy payments, the fourth letter of Demand should be “by lawyer/debt collector”. Who is preferred in the first instance, a lawyer or a debt collector, and why?
Can the Owners Corporation recover the costs of using a lawyer/debt collector from the recalcitrant owner?
If the services of a lawyer become necessary, do the lawyers charge their fees to the Owners Corporation or do they pass their fees on to the recalcitrant?
We recently bought a townhouse in NSW. We have since received a special levy notice of $7000 to repair balconies. We received the bill, but surely as this was agreed upon prior to settling on the property we should not be liable to pay? We were not informed by the strata management or consulted that these works were going ahead. Should this bill fall onto the previous owners?
After repeated requests from the Strata Manager, some of the long standing activities of strata are not completed so we've withheld the quarterly levies.
Over the last few years, special levies were collected for rectification works and these have not been completed. In addition, there have been issues with the internal exhaust fans that were not completed by the strata manager and I replaced them on my own account.
I think my strata manager is withholding some of my levy notices. They say I am unfinancial, therefore I could not vote at the last AGM. I’ve sent three emails asking for the levy notices that I’m missing.
How do I ensure these late notices are sent to me, as the strata manager is ignoring my emails?