“Let’s just divvy it up,” is the civilised way for friends to pay for a meal. But it doesn’t work so well when it comes to covering the running costs of an apartment block.

A Sydney owner has been told that in her self-managed 12-unit block everyone agrees to simply split the bills equally by paying the same levies.

However, although the flats are the same size, there are enough variations  – such as outlook and the level they are on – for the Unit Entitlements to be significantly different. And UEs are how you calculate levies.

As a result,…