› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Levies and Unit Entitlements › Punitive costs of unpaid levies › Current Page
Whilst I sympathise with adeze, we have a similar situation in our building with a number of owners in arrears, 2 in particular. We have commenced legal action against one (and had a successful judgement, we are waiting for the sheriff to obtain property to clear the debt) and will be reviewing the situation next week to determine whether to commence an additional action (and therefore bankruptcy proceedings) against the same owner, as well as some action against the second owner, who seems happy to pay to renovate their unit but not pay their levies…
This is not a decision that we (the EC) take lightly but I fail to understand why owners think that they should be able to rack up thousands of dollars of debt without any action from their co-owners. The bills still need to be paid and the services don’t stop just because someone has fallen on hard times. Why didn’t adeze speak to his strata manager or EC prior to things getting so out of hand and why didn’t he extend his mortgage earlier and pay his debts? Did he think that it would just go away or he shouldn’t have to pay because he was out of work?
I also don’t understand why the additional costs from the strata manager should be worn by his co-owners, when they are a direct result of his non-payment of levies. To be honest, I had not thought of these charges prior to his post, so I will be contacting our strata manager to ensure that our owners who are in arrears in my building are charged for any and all additional costs (not just the legal fees). The charges mentioned do seem excessive but if he had paid on time, there would be no problem…
I am not unsympathetic with his situation and I have also had difficulty paying levies in the past, as I am sure that most owners have. The difference is that I sold some personal items to ensure that my levies were paid by the due date.
Hopefully the strata review will create clear legislation that makes payments of levies a priority and heavier interest rates will apply for late payments. Changes like this may hopefully reduce the number of cases that need to be sorted out through legal measures.