Jimmy what you say is true: a lot owner who wins does not have to share in the cost of legal fees of the OC (s. 104)
But:
1. A lot owner, after winning, may, like I experienced may have > 2 years of fighting to get the SM to remove the unlawful charge to his lot for a share of the legal fees. Only when I threatened to return to NCAT for an order on the breach of s. 104 did the SM finally relent and removed the charge from my lot. The OC was cunning in those years. It added the unjust share of the legal fees to my a/c but never declared me “unfinancial” even though I never paid those unjust amounts;
2. A lot owner may be reluctant to take the OC to NCAT and say spend say $8,000 on a case when there is no certainty of winning (there never is); and
3. Depending on the nature of the case, an OC could claim its legal fees on its insurance to defend the matter and in such a case that would not result in a special levy. It instead would result in an email by the OC which could be construed by some as a threat by the OC along the lines of “the OC has been dragged into NCAT and will claim on its insurance policy for legal expenses. The policy’s ceiling on such an item is $20k”.