Well, yes, it would be good to get some advice but there’s a limit to what that advice might be.
Basically, it comes down to whether there is enough spare cash in the kitty to carry non-payments and still pay all the block’s outgoings. Since most strata schemes run on having very little excess cash in hand, it might be difficult to give the whole owners corp a ‘levies holiday’.
However, theoretically, if your maintenance (sinking) fund was in good shape, with no imminent projects about to drain it, you could use that money to keep the building going once you had legitimised the levies holiday.
To do so would probably require an application to NCAT under a Section 87 (below) to vary the contributions that had been agreed at the last AGM. I would imagine an application by an owners corp with a clear majority of owners supporting it would be regarded sympathetically (although you never can tell).
But there are rules about borrowing from the maintenance fund to boost the admin fund, basically that it has to be paid back within three months (although creative accounting can find ways around that). See Section 76 (2) below.
Also, individual owners could apply to the committee for some leeway in paying their levies in cases of extreme hardship, for instance, allowing them to pay their quarterly levies in arrears without penalty interest being applied. That comes under Section 85 (3) and (5) of the Act.
What it really comes down to is whether there is spare cash lying around that could be used in the short-term. If there isn’t then the question is moot unless all your suplliers and contractors are prepared to go without pay too.
76 Use of administrative fund or capital works fund for purposes of other fund
(2) The owners corporation must, not later than 3 months after the transfer or use, determine the amount to be levied as a contribution to the fund from which the transfer or use was made to reimburse the amounts paid from the fund. Section 81 (3) and (5) apply to a contribution determined under this subsection.
87 Orders varying contributions or payment methods
(1) The Tribunal may, on application, make either or both of the following orders if the Tribunal considers that any amount levied or proposed to be levied by way of contributions is inadequate or excessive or that the manner of payment of contributions is unreasonable:
(a) an order for payment of contributions of a different amount,
(b) an order for payment of contributions in a different manner.
(2) An application for an order may be made by the lessor of a leasehold strata scheme, an owners corporation, an owner or a mortgagee in possession.