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[Anonymous]

I realise this may not be quite the forum for this question, but it's worth a try.

By way of background, I am a resident in a greenfield site in Sydney consisting of free-standing blocks of land as well as new and repurposed apartment blocks. The site was set up by the developer to consist of a number of neighbourhood assocations that fall under the auspices of a community association. Initially (2006) a deal was done with a particular strata agent to manage the whole kit and kaboodle, but due to dissatisfaction over subsequent years on the part of just about everyone but him, he has since been shown the door. In the case of my particular neighbourhood association, the residents have since opted to look after the running of the association ourselves to save costs and hassles, which essentially boils down to collecting the levies that are owing to the community association and holding an annual general meeting.

And therein lies the rub; a small number of residents in our neighbourhood association are delinquent in their levy payments. Whilst most of the residents who are living here are up-to-date with their levy payments, many of the offenders have yet to finish (or even commence) building on their blocks, and in some cases, are resident overseas and largely uncontactable. The community association is not holding back in charging our neighbourhood association interest on late payments, and there is now the suggestion of members of the executive committee (of whom I am one) paying their levies in advance to forestall further penalties from the community association.

Clearly this is a band-aid solution that will cease to be practical as time goes on and the offenders continue to not pay their levies, so what are our options? Is it a case of calling in the debt collectors, or are their legal or other avenues available to us?

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