Thanks Jimmy for shining a light on this very concerning issue and the prospect of the introduction of legislation that will harm many innocent people. Such a pity also that the ABC have been very biased and chosen to only show one side of the story.
My situation, a family member is a unit owner in a block of five. The other owners consist of an investor, an age pensioner, a person with a disability and an owner occupier.
My family member has an intellectual disability and has recently been diagnosed with a life threatening disease. In spite of the personal challenges my family member faces, (and the majority of owners being pensioners on fixed incomes), all but one have continued to ensure their levies are up to date, that one person is the owner occupier.
This owner has been given many opportunities over the last few years to make arrangements for payment which have been ignored resulting in the debt now being many thousand of dollars. Understandably in a small complex this non payment is significant and very frustrating as this owner continues to enjoy the benefits of essential major work currently being carried out. Extremely disappointing also that this owner is aware of the hardships that others are facing.
If it is felt there is a need to make changes to the legislation maybe what would be fairest would be to move to a model where the bankruptcy trigger amount would vary depending on the number of units. In our situation the $10,000 threshold for bankruptcy is already too high. If this is introduced the government will effectively be giving the green light for owners to have a $50,000 line of credit resulting in a devasting impact on the lives of many, in particular vulnerable people who are making huge sacrifices to meet their commitments.