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Hi Ali,
Unfortunately the Strata Schemes Management Act (the Act) provides that delivery of a levy notice to a lot owner is not required for a quarterly levy contribution to become paysable:
“s.78(6)
Regular periodic contributions to the administrative fund and sinking fund of an owners corporation are taken to have been duly levied on an owner of a lot even though notice levying the contributions was not served on the owner.”
The logic behind this seems to be that lot owners are deemed to have notice of quarterly contributions when they are determined at general meeting.
In your situation it would seem that the strata manager has acted somewhat unreasonably in sending out a further levy notice in order to claim 11cents which could easily have waited on your account and been added to the next quarterly contribution when it becomes payable.
As you note section 80 of the Act gives the owners corporation the power to recover the costs which it incurs in collecting levies from lot owners. However the NSW Court of Appeal has provided guidance as to how this section should be interpreted in the 2009 case of Owners of Strata Plan 36131 v Dimitriou.
In that case the Court said that only those costs which are properly and reasonably incurred and which are reasonable in amount are recoverable.
It is arguable that the strata manager’s fees for sending out a further levy notice to you to collect 11cents are not a cost which has been reasonably incurred. However, in this situation legal action would simply not be financially realistic.
The best course of action will probably be to speak to your strata manager and try to get them to see your point of view and the error of their overzealous levy collection policy.
Kind regards
Daniel Dimock
TEYS Lawyers
https://www.teyslawyers.com.au