What I am seeking is a reasonable body corporate company that can be a bit merciful and consider my situation and reduce my fees or advise me of where to get help even to waive the fees in total. I have asked my current Body Corporate Company for help but they send me no response except penalising me with a late payment fee once and extra penalty on late fee penalty if I can’t pay on time. They never accepted to extend the time of payment due date. Can you please help? – Mahmoud, VIC

Q: Around 6 years ago I owned a 3BR house in a remote Victorian suburb, I had the house for 3 years, but I was forced to sell due to continuous burglary and moved temporarily with a friend until I found a new property to buy, so I waited for few more years until I was convinced to buy off the plan, which it took few more years for the apartments building to finish and I settle in my apartment in late 2018. I managed to purchase my apartment by selling my house in the remote suburb, but the price I received out of this sale wasn’t even close to buying a studio apartment in Metropolitan Melbourne. I had to avoid borrowing from banks because of my previous bad experience with them when I borrowed some money to purchase my house, and I was virtually paying for the monthly interest and not the capital of the loan, therefore this time for the apartment I borrow a huge amount of money from friends on the bases of interest-free till I can stand up on my feed as my income is only from a Centrelink disability Pension due to a multi-system disorder that caused by an auto-immune Syndrome.

I have never thought that the corporate levies would be that difficult to pay every quarter especially the levies just increase and don’t decline. Since I am struggling to save to pay off my home loan, rates, utility invoices and the body corporate fee, I found myself compromise purchasing food, and ran out of ideas in how to save to be able to meet all of these responsibilities.

What I am seeking is a reasonable body corporate company that can be a bit merciful and consider my situation and reduce my fees or advise me of where to get help even to waive the fees in total. I have asked my current Body Corporate Company for help but they send me no response except penalising me with a late payment fee once and extra penalty on late fee penalty if I can’t pay on time. They never accepted to extend the time of payment due date.

Can you please help?

A: In most cases, fees cannot be waived as they go towards the management and maintenance of the owners corporation property. It may be worth looking at the budget that has been adopted as there may be places that savings can be made. Do be aware that the budget and collection of fees is not determined by the manager but by the owners corporation and legislation.