Battle with SM & OC on special levy . . . CLO or Non CLO

New living in strata world. On my first few months unable to attend meetings due to work and later learned from a neighbour of a possible strata remediation to come followed by AGM meeting to raise a special levy .
I immediately emailed the SM to inquire about it, my share of the cost and due date as I would like to pay the full amount.

No response to my first email. I followed up with a number of emails, literally not a word from neither the SM nor any staff.
months later the remediation started and progressing, I received an email from one of the assistants and said, it’s too late to be a CLO since all monies were received and the OC voted for those who are now Non CLO will be subject to a special levy/loan regardless whether a lot owner attended the meeting or not.

Then later, the SM confirmed to me on the phone and followed by email with attached documents also previously sent to other lot owners but me that I do not have a choice but pay the levies plus interest every quarter for 5 years.

I felt like not only I was not treated well, I was also penalised to pay my share plus interest for 5 yrs that I could have contributed when I inquired.

I reached out to the FTB for mediation but the request sent was rejected by the OC. FTB suggested my next step is the tribunal.

I know there’s something wrong on how things are being run.

All I want is to make it right to pay my share of the remediation cost in full, but I was disregarded and later told I have to make quarterly payments plus interest for 5 yrs. On top of that I do not even know the principal amount of the loan.

Is this normal with strata and the OC? I wonder if there are others lock-in on this similar situation