If the cost and inconvenience of using a strata lawyer to go to NCAT (which I agree is what you should now do) is too much, a cheaper alternative is to use a different strata manager to the one your building is using. They can prepare the paperwork and appear for you, if you want, and they charge less than lawyers. They are great is straight-forward cases, which this appears to be – the building’s excuse of not wanting to spend money is not legally valid! You might need to shop around, because a lot of strata management companies appear to be independent, but are bought up by big strata conglomerates, and might even be owned by the same company that owns the building’s strata manager – so they wont want to get involved.
Strata managers can help individual owners deal with strata problems at other buildings, and they don’t charge as much as lawyers, and are a good option for simple matters.