Help if you can't pay your strata levies

Know your rights as an owner and explore your options if you can’t pay your strata levies on time.

Last updated: 27 February 2025

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Key information

Approach your strata committee or strata managing agent as soon as possible to discuss available options if you can’t pay your strata levies on time.
Overdue levies may attract interest charges or debt recovery action, so it's important to act early.
Contact the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 straight away if you receive court documents or letters of demand about unpaid strata levies.
If you have a dispute about your strata levies, it may be suitable for free Fair Trading mediation.

Act now if you have received letters of demand or court documents about your unpaid levies

If you have received court documents, you will only have limited time to act. Call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 as soon as you can for free, confidential and independent advice.

What if I’m struggling to pay my strata levies?

Financial hardship can happen to anyone. There is help available.

The video below gives a quick overview of steps you can take.

Why do I need to pay my strata levies?

If you own property in a strata scheme, you automatically become part of the owners corporation and must pay strata levies.

Your strata levies contribute to the costs to keep the strata scheme running. Examples include:

repairs and maintenance
insurances
strata managing agent fees (if you have one)
utilities – such as elevators and lighting in common areas.

Your normal strata levy bill is usually sent quarterly.

Owners must also pay any additional special levies that are introduced, such as for major repairs that need to be covered. You will also receive a levy notice for any special levies.

What happens if I don't pay my strata levies on time?

If you do not pay your levies in full and on time, you risk legal and debt recovery action against you to recover the unpaid levies. You will also become a ‘non-financial’ member and lose the right to vote at owners corporation meetings or to sit on the strata committee.

The owners corporation can charge you interest on levies not paid by the due date. Interest on overdue levies is charged at a rate of 10% annually, payable from one month after the due date.

The owners corporation can also charge you ‘reasonable costs’ they spent to recover your unpaid levies. You can only be charged those reasonable costs if there is a court order or an order from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal).

Remember to pay your levies on time, even if you have a dispute with your scheme

It is important to keep paying your strata levies, even if you have an unresolved issue or dispute with your strata scheme or the strata manager.

For example, an owner might withhold their normal strata levy payment because of their scheme’s failure to carry out significant repairs affecting their property. However, this would put them at risk of legal and debt recovery action because of their unpaid levies.

If you have a dispute about a strata matter, you should refer to our guidance on how to resolve the dispute.

Steps you can take if you are having difficulty paying your levies

It’s important to act early if you are having difficulty paying your levies on time. Make a start by following our steps below.

Take a closer look at your budget

Look at your budget to help you understand and prioritise your expenses.

If you haven’t made a budget, you can use this Moneysmart budget planner from the Australian Government.

As part of this process, work out how much you can pay towards your upcoming or overdue strata levies. Remember — you can pay money towards the levies you owe at any time.

Looking at your budget will also help you better understand your financial circumstances. This can assist you with accessing alternative payment options in conversation with your strata committee, which is the next step in this process.

If you can’t afford to pay anything towards your strata levies or need more help to prioritise your expenses, refer to step 3 – ‘Contact the National Debt Helpline’.

Contact your strata committee or strata manager early to discuss your options

Approach your strata manager or committee as early as you can to discuss your options. You can use the contact information that is usually included with your strata levy notice.
It’s important that the strata committee or manager is made aware of payment difficulties as soon as possible, so you can explore potential solutions with them that better suit your situation and reduce the chance of the issue being escalated.

It is your right as an owner to ask your strata scheme to consider alternative arrangements to pay your overdue levies, such as:

more time to pay
waiving interest charges on your overdue levies
an affordable payment plan. This can let you pay the strata levies you owe over an agreed period (up to 12 months) in instalments. See How to arrange a payment plan.
combining these and other options.

Be sure to keep a record of discussions in writing, by asking for a follow up email about what has been discussed.

Your strata committee or strata manager contact may ask for information to support your request for a payment plan due to financial difficulty.

For step-by-step guidance on setting up a payment plan, visit How to arrange a payment plan for overdue strata levies.

If your strata committee does not help with your situation

If your owners corporation rejects a payment plan or refuses to help, find out about applying for free mediation with NSW Fair Trading.

Contact the National Debt Helpline for free, confidential and independent financial counselling

Call or access the online chat with the National Debt Helpline for free, confidential and independent financial counselling.

The National Debt Helpline offers free advice to help you manage your expenses, including advice specific to strata levy payment difficulties.

Call 1800 007 007 (weekdays from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm).
Visit the Helpline website for guidance, and use their live chat function

Make sure to call the helpline right away if:

you have received court documents or letters of demand sent on behalf of your owners corporation
you will not be able to pay your strata levies in the foreseeable future – this service will help you look at other options in this case.

Speak to a First Nations financial counsellor

Mob Strong Debt Help is a free, confidential and independent nationwide legal advice and financial counselling service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

You can call Mob Strong Debt Help on 1800 808 488 (weekdays from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm).

Make payments at any time

Remember you can make payments at any time towards your levies debt.

When you make payments, you will need to:

Email or write to your strata manager or committee to specify that the money is specifically to pay down the levies you owe – instead of any interest that could apply
Keep track of payments. Make sure you receive payment statements to help with this.

Helpful scenarios

How Ana dealt with her unpaid strata levies

Ana pays $900 a quarter in strata levies on her apartment.

After she was made redundant, it took time for Ana to find other work. This left her struggling to pay her bills – not just her quarterly strata levies but a large mortgage, council rates and monthly power bills.

Ana was overwhelmed and didn’t know which costs to pay first. Helpfully, Ana's close friend told her about Fair Trading’s information on managing unpaid levies, which included a link to steps she could follow.

Ana's next steps

First, Ana sought financial counselling, using the National Debt Helpline website. They provided free and confidential guidance to help her with which expenses to deal with first.

Soon afterwards, Ana contacted her strata manager to ask about the option to enter into a 12-month payment plan – to let her pay the strata levies she owed in instalments.

Ana followed up with an email to her strata manager, confirming what they had discussed.

The strata manager arranged a meeting of the owners corporation so the owners could decide on whether to approve Ana's payment plan.

The owners corporation agreed to the plan, which allowed the strata manager to send Ana a statement of the payment plan.

Ana also prioritised contacting her bank, since her mortgage repayments were her biggest recurring expense.

In these ways, Ana was able to manage her temporary debt.

Omar's dispute about strata levies

Due to unforeseen expenses, Omar missed paying his strata levies. After the due date for payment, he received a first reminder to pay them promptly.

Given his current financial position, Omar wanted to enter into a payment plan with the owners corporation of his strata scheme. This would give him more time to pay back the strata levies he owed in manageable instalments.

Omar contacted his strata manager to discuss his request.

Following email and phone exchanges to work out the details of his payment plan proposal, Omar emailed the strata manager to progress his payment plan to the next stage – asking for it to be approved.

In Omar’s email, he asked his strata manager to add a motion to the agenda for the next general meeting of the owners corporation. This requested the owners’ approval for him to enter into the proposed payment plan.

The strata manager added the following motion to the meeting agenda: ‘That the owners corporation resolves by general resolution whether to approve a 12-month payment plan for the owner of lot 7’.

The owners at the meeting voted against the payment plan proposed.

Omar's next steps

Omar believed the owners corporation’s decision was unreasonable.

After reviewing his options, Omar applied online for Fair Trading’s free mediation service. He did this to seek support with renegotiating an arrangement that would suit his temporary financial difficulty.

Other support if you are experiencing financial hardship

Consider the following additional avenues for support:

Contact your mortgage provider. They may be able to help by paying your strata levies and adding those payments to your mortgage at the current interest rate or ‘interest free’. To explore this and other options, you can arrange to speak with a home loan specialist in your financial institution or their hardship team (search ‘hardship’ on their website).
Contact your local council about options around paying your rates notice. For example, having more time to pay.
Contact your utility companies (for example, your electricity provider) to ask what options they can provide.
Use the Debt Problem Solver from the Financial Rights Legal Centre.
Visit the NSW Cost of Living hub to explore savings you can claim.

Legal advice

For free and independent legal advice, contact the Marrickville Legal Centre. Their Strata Service NSW can assist owner-occupiers aged 64 and under. If you are 65 and over, you can contact the Seniors Rights Service.

Problems with paying strata levies due to a relationship separation

A relationship separation can make it difficult to pay your strata levies. Depending on your situation, you may need consider the following actions.

Consider the need for a family lawyer or family law advice

A family lawyer can give you advice and help you seek interim orders about how the strata levies and other debts will be paid until you have finalised a property settlement with your ex-partner.

You can also get family law advice from Legal Aid NSW, a community legal centre, or a private law firm. You can ask private law firms about litigation funding to pay your legal fees, and some firms offer more affordable ‘low-bono’ options. 

Keep your mortgage provider or strata committee updated on your situation

Your mortgage provider and/or strata scheme should be kept informed about the progress of your property settlement and expected timeframes – both when you are negotiating a hardship arrangement and while that arrangement is in place.

For example, you may need to seek approval to extend the timeframe of a payment plan entered into with your owners corporation, based on your circumstances.

If you are experiencing domestic violence or have concerns about your safety

For support services and guidance, refer to the NSW Government’s Domestic and family violence support information.

You can also consider giving the strata manager or secretary of the owners corporation a new email address, which your ex-partner doesn't have access to, as a safe and secure way to contact you. This means you'll continue to receive your strata correspondence, including strata levies.

Translated resources

For help over the phone in your language, you can contact the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 and ask the interpreter to call:

NSW Fair Trading on 13 32 20 (Monday-Friday, 8:30am to 5pm)
the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007.

Contact Fair Trading

If you have any further questions about strata, you can contact Fair Trading via phone or in-person at a Service NSW centre.

Phone:13 32 208:30am to 5pm, Monday-Friday

In person:Find your nearest Service NSW Centre

Related information

Your strata levies, finances and insurance