[adeze]

So, after many months, and a lot of stress, I can announce that I have had somewhat of a pyrrhic victory in this matter, and had the costs refunded back to the strata management from the law firm engaged to recover the debt (effectively eliminating my outstanding levies)

The issue that still stands is that SSMA s80 is a cash cow for debt collectors: There is no incentive by the client (strata management) to AVOID excess costs, whilst there is an incentive for law firms to incur costs, and a disincentive for a lot owner to dispute them.

I am quite lucky, and this may be an exceptional case, but it was the result of reasoning and deduction on the internal processes and workflows conducted by the debt collection agency / law firm that, after investigation by the appropriate investigation body, turned out to be accurate.

What does frustrate me is the apparently unwillingness of the strata manager to even help or provide information that may have been favourable to me, beyond the absolute minimum, or to even pursue the questions on my behalf.

Fortunately, there are ways to allow an owner who is in arrears to challenge s.80 costs, without the fear that the penalty for doing could outweigh the amount in dispute.

 

 

[adeze]

Hello,

wow, thanks for the interest (I didn’t think this would become an article in the smh)

so, this is what has occurred…and there’s a twist.

I contacted the strata and debt collector/solicitor, whilst in the 7 day deadline, to negotiate and requested more details of these ‘charges’.

1 week after the deadline, I finally received contact from both of them, and they are willing to negotiate.

however, upon inspection of my account, i’ve noticed a bunch of odd discrepancies which i am now querying.

The statements show that

1. the allocation/distribution of payments was first directed to all the “costs”, whether they were claimed/awarded (non-disputed) or unclaimed/not awarded. Several ‘charges’ were never fully detailed or came several months after ‘settlement’ with no opportunity to challenge them in a timely manner.

I am contentious on the allocation of payments because:

2. the rest of my payments were now scattered amongst the outstanding levy notices.. racking up interest against all overdue levys –and never actually paying off any single one,because the monies were never allocated in any significant amount. I have only been accumulating and paying off the interest !!

there must be some aspect of the law (which I cannot seem to find) that suggests that this is wrong . Shouldn’t be allocated cumulatively, not in parallel, and at the distribution as directed of the lot owner?

How can a strata manager simply decide to pay arbitrary charges from my account without any justification?

If these disputed charges are reallocated, and interest recalculated, it now shows that i’m actually not so much in arrears as what has been claimed.

i am still awaiting on further details and i have some legal advice coming my way next week, so i shouldn’t say much more at this stage… but any suggestions on where i’m protected, or misconduct is appreciated!

 

 

without prejudice (just in case) 

[Author]

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