Long term non-payment of levies

Hi all,

I’ve recently started to take a more active role in my strata, and am currently the “Secretary” on the EC. However, all day to day “management” is handled by the Strata Management company.

Recently, we received copies of the quarterly financial records (balance sheet, etc) which showed the list of lots and how much they owed or were in credit for strata levies. One lot has over $10k outstanding.

After some discussion (and investigative work) it would appear:

1) The lot owner has never paid any strata fees (it’s a reasonably new building)

2) The lot owner is a lives overseas

3) There is no resident in the lot (no tenant, etc) as reported by neighbours, and other “checks” to see that there has been no access for at least the last 2 weeks.

The strata management has commenced some legal actions, but it seems they are at a bit of a loss on how to proceed if they can’t “find” the owner.

My thoughts were:
a) Leave it alone, collect the outstanding debts + interest when the property is eventually sold

b) If it is ever rented, then contact the agent and start the process from there

c) Eventually, try to force the sale of the property to recover the costs

Hopefully you can provide some advice on the best way to proceed? I’m not really sure how else we should proceed here?

Thanks for any ideas!