If by a “payment plan” you mean spreading the load over several months or years for people who can’t afford to stump up the money in one hit, then you have closed the door to the easiest and most efficient option for this – a strata loan.
Bearing in mind that most construction jobs require a series of payments – up front, during and after completion, who is going to carry the can when the less well off owners can’t meet their special levy payments?
Given that your OC has, it would seem, rashly dismissed strata loans despite the problems a minority of owners would have in paying, there are only two options left open to individual owners – they can extend their mortgages by $25K (the cheapest leans you will ever get anywhere) or default on their levies (penalty interest 10 percent p.a.).
The latter would, of course, leave the OC short of funds for the building work, as well as disenfranchising the late payers. However, the Owners Corp can, by special resolution (75 percent of owners voting at a General Meeting), agree not to charge the late payers penalty interest so as not to add to their additional financial burdens.
Strata loan companies such as Lannocks are very experienced in this area and would be able to devise a system such as a line of credit whereby only the people who couldn’t afford to pay up front were being charged interest.
For instance, the law allows OCs to discount levies by 10 percent for early payment. That way you may be able to work this so that you get a loan but only those who couldn’t afford to pay up front were paying interest.
Failing that, your committee should do whatever it can to assist owners who need to extend their mortgages or get a loan. Don’t forget that mortgage providers actually have a priority vote in strata so they should be taking a bit of responsibility in these matters.