Apartment owners not paying their levies is an all-too-common occurrence in strata. But when one owner out of four his dragging the chain, that’s 25 percent of a block’s revenue; the money the other owners need for repairs and maintenance.
When the owner doesn’t pay for 10 years, that’s almost criminal behaviour – perhaps that’s why they live on the Cayman Islands.
But the whole thing has been made a lot worse by advice from the scheme’s strata manager that pursuing the debt would be a waste of time and money.
The fact is that if the owner of the apartment doesn’t pay their bills then court orders could be sought to “garnishee” their rent until the debts are paid.
And the cost of pursuing the debt can be added to the bills.
However, there’s a six-year time limit on debt recovery, so the lucky backslider has already effectively received a 40 per cent discount on their strata levies.
You can read all about it – including opinions from two top strata lawyers – HERE.
Also on the Forum …
- A new kid on the block unintentionally puts their neighbours offside by asking relevant questions – that’s HERE.
- How do you gee up a “do-nothing committee” – and old chestnut gets a revival HERE.
NB: This website suffered a fairly serious crash on Monday afternoon and readers may not have been able to log in and post questions and responses for a couple of hours. Apologies for that but it’s all working now if you want to try again.
How to ask and answer questions
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