#25594
Jimmy-T
Keymaster

    The only legal case study I could find was from Victoria where the Supreme Court ruled that notifying someone overseas that they were behind in their levies was not the same as a legal claim (or something like that). Suffice it to say that while you can claim the reasonable costs of debt recovery in unpaid levies, it could be a gamble if you send someone to Shanghai when they can’t do anything when they get there.

    There is a clear disconnect between having  to register the name of an agent who may pass on communications and making that communications stick in a legal sense.  There are certainly plenty of “agents” who are filling shoeboxes with letters and demands from strata managers because they have no idea where to send them.

    This property has not been forgotten – it has been “parked”.  The owner clearly wanted to get money out of their country and invest it somewhere that it’s not going to lose value. They don’t particularly want people living in it or maybe they just don’t want the hassle of managing rentals. They may even plan for kids who are still at primary school to one day occupy it when they come here to study at university.

    In the meantime the other owners are subsidising the investment and many will have moved on before the owner turns up and is slammed with a bill for unpaid levies and compound interest.  

    There needs to be a mechanism in the law for abandonded  units – let’s say those that haven’t paid levies for two years and where the owners can’t (or won’t) be contacted –  whereby the Owners Corp can get a court order allowing them to take control of the unit, rent it out and give it back to the owner when they eventually show up (provided their debt has been cleared).

    Maybe we should just give them to airbnb to run – because they are such nice, community conscious people.  There are areas of London where they have been talking about punitive taxes for people who deliberately leave their investment units empty. It would be better for everyone if “parked” units were put back on the rental market until they were claimed.

    The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.