› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Levies and Unit Entitlements › Long term non-payment of levies › Current Page
Hmm. Tricky. Tempting as it may be to look forward to a tidy bonus of interest when the unit eventually is sold, I would be inclined to try to track down the owner. I would worry that plan A might come unstuck somehow if there was no paper trail showing how the managing agent was directed by EC resolution to commence debt recovery action.
In the ACT and possibly elsewhere, the Act requires notice to be given to the OC if a unit is to unoccupied for more than a month. There might be insurance consequences if a unit is unoccupied but notice was not given. Contact details for the owner should be listed on the unit/lot roll. In the first instance, I would be asking the managing agent to work a little harder to determine if levy notices sent to that address are just being ignored or are the contact details wrong? Can the owner be easily tracked down?
I have no idea how you would do plan C. Whatever you do, you would need to have shown that you exhausted all avenues to find the owner and recover the levies. From the ACT Act, so I suspect it could be similar elsewhere, it is possible to recover as a debt from an owner reasonable costs associated with levy recovery. After the managing agent has done what they can, I suspect that could include a professional debt recovery service or action at the state Tribunal. Perhaps you can get an order that would seize other assets in Australia?