Strata shock! Why your levies are way too high
Why are your levies a lot higher than you expected? There's no mystery and you can reduce them – if you’re prepared to get stuck in.
Strata levies
Show me the missing strata money
You’d think that strata buildings would notice if money is missing, given how frugal they are. But, in NSW there’s more than half a million dollars of uncollected strata money…
Why unit owners can’t cut insurance to save
Fires in Hawaii, floods in Australia, earthquakes in Turkey and storms in New Zealand are likely to hit apartment owners in ways they can’t avoid. These natural disasters are driving…
Who’s minding your block’s big-bucks budgets?
As rising costs of living and mortgage interest rates both bite at our heels, it seems levy (or fee) payments are often among the first financial commitments to suffer when…
Forum: Early eviction landlord hung out to dry
There’s a fine mixed bag of questions and complaints in this week’s forum – from an early rental eviction attempt to a plan to scrap a laundry drying area. A…
Levies debts: Who suffers when you can’t pay?
As the financial screws start to tighten on individuals, it’s interesting to see what they are prepared to sacrifice just to stay afloat in the cost of living crunch. For…
Unbalanced: When owners stop paying levies
With inimitable timing SCA (Vic) President Julie McLean has posted about the dangers of letting individual owners’ levy debts pile up. As you’ll see from these posts to the Flat…
How to curb your levies but keep the quality
A few weeks ago we looked at the fancy additions to your apartment block that may be inflating your levies through running and maintenance costs. But there are many ways…
Lose the luxury and save loads on levies
Blame it on overseas holidays to posh hotels or trips to serviced apartments in Surfers and the Gold Coast, but there was a trend in apartment block design a few…
How to avoid paying other strata owners’ bad debts
Recent media reports about levies (or fees) debts and their consequences may have alarmed some apartment owners and puzzled others. A Sun-Herald story earlier this month about the “cruel” owners’…
Podcast – all you need to know about levy debt
Last week saw the publication of a confected scandal of an elderly couple who’d been given bad advice, blaming their owners corporation for a special levy of $18,000 that had…
‘Cruel levies’ debt story a cheap shot at strata
COMMENT by Jimmy Thomson: The Sun-Herald article this week about the elderly couple who supposedly may be forced to sell their apartment or face bankruptcy could be used as a…