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Topic
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My friend owns a townhouse in a 4 townhouse complex and as such all owners are on the Exec Committee.
At the April meeting it was minuted that no major works in the near future, however at the May meeting the other 3 owners had provided a proxy vote to the Strata Manager to approve a special levy to paint the building ($5k each). My friend got wind of this and requested prior to the May meeting, that the special levy be spread over the next 3 months as she did not have the funds to pay it.
This request was ignored, the special levy was approved by the other 3 owners and she was invoiced the very next day after the meeting, giving her 30 days to pay. She did not have the funds, had requested again to pay in installments, all requests ignored.
She was served with a notice by a collections agent on day 31, again she requested to pay in installments, which was declined.
Her work was then served a notice to garnish her salary for the entire amount, + costs + the next strata fees ($7500). She is a senior manager at her work with financial responsibilities and as such has been brought in front of the CEO, who will also need to notify the board of directors of her ‘financial problems’ and is now marked as a ‘risk’ for the organisation she works for.
We have since found out the neighbours driving the original painting were ‘personal friends of the painters’ and also have just erected a for sale sign.
What can be done to redress what appears to be an extremely unfair turn of events.
Any suggestions welcome.
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Replies
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That’s an extraordinary story. I’m curious about a couple of things, if your friend knew in April and offered to pay in instalments over 3 months, and it is now September, has she paid anything and if not, why not? She could have paid money off over time, there is nothing stopping her from doing that, it just means that the balance is owing.
If there is now a garnishee order there would have been a number of steps in the process including:
1. letter of demand
2. statement of claim – at this point the debtor has the opportunity to apply to the court to pay by instalments or file a defence
3. judgment debt
Did your friend respond to the letter of demand or apply to the court to pay by instalments or file a defence? In the circumstances she probably would have been successful, it was only $5000.
I don’t know how you could get a garnishee order covering the next strata levies, that’s beyond me.
As far as garnishee orders go, it is illegal for employers to penalise or victimise an employee because of them, but of course that is not how the real world works.
One more thing – why was there a meeting in April and then one in May? Were they both general meetings? Was the May meeting properly convened?
I wish there was more conversation about this.
@sealion said:
I wish there was more conversation about this.We’re waiting for Kezza to provide more information … but it does seem to be an extreme case although we do have to take into account that this is a report of a conversation rather than the injured party telling us herself.
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