different body corporate levies for different owners

[coolbananas]

My body corporate is small, only 12 units, so the owners try to manage the BC themselves.

There's been talk of increasing the BC levy for overseas owners since they don't contribute to the running of the BC.

Does anyone know if this is legal - to charge 2 different levies to different owners? I'm not sure exactly how we could quantify the fee increase when those who do help out are volunteering their time so there's no cost involved.

[eri]

lots of BC charge different by size + location

not sure of legality of postal address differences...

[brendan]

My body corporate is small, only 12 units, so the owners try to manage the BC themselves.

There's been talk of increasing the BC levy for overseas owners since they don't contribute to the running of the BC.

Does anyone know if this is legal - to charge 2 different levies to different owners? I'm not sure exactly how we could quantify the fee increase when those who do help out are volunteering their time so there's no cost involved.

Do all the NZ based owners contribute to the running of the body corp? It sounds to me like you want to make sure your 'volunteers' get some recognition for the effort the are putting in, not necessarily overseas vs nz based.

Perhaps your body corp could budget to pay a meeting gratuity to all members of the body corp committee that is paid as credit against their levies. (You'd still have to declare it as income on your tax return).

A large body corp (250 units) that I own some units in pay $150 per meeting ($300 for chairperson) and they have 7 meetings a year.

[Anthonyacat]

Perhaps your body corp could budget to pay a meeting gratuity to all members of the body corp committee that is paid as credit against their levies. (You'd still have to declare it as income on your tax return).

This would be my suggestion, too. Reduces the body corp of the volunteers in proportion to those who don't contribute. You could then raise the BC fees by the same amount, and there's no issue.

[Nick G]

I guess the BC could pay a small fee to the owners who do certain roles, like treasurer or someone who manages repairs and does all the checks for everybody.

Like has been suggested you'd want this to be as a payment (rather than a discount), which they can then say they want to credit against their fees. It would be taxable as a financial benefit for work they are doing.