Nitsa and Spiro Tzavellas, an elderly Greek Australian couple from Sydney are facing an impossible situation and even homelessness after their body corporate voted for an upgrade to their building windows they could not afford to pay for.
The elderly couple have lived in their apartment in Earlwood for the past 50 years, according to the article published in The Sydney Morning Herald, on Monday. They are both pensioners aged 78 and 81, and currently under extreme pressure as they are desperately trying to sell their three bedroom flat before a deadline expires in mid August and bankruptcy hearings resume in court.
It all started in 2019 when the owners’ corporation (otherwise known as body corporate, strata committee etc) voted in favour of upgrading the old aluminium windows of the building. The cost for Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas’ apartment came to $18,234.17, an impossible amount for them to pay.
Nitsa at the time begged her neighbours to reconsider the upgrade or come to a special agreement as they could not afford to pay for it. A full pension for a couple is only $1,488.80 a fortnight. From their pension, they paid $660 a fortnight, in instalments for most of 2020 and 2021, but stopped paying when they received legal advice from a lawyer acting pro bono, who promised to fix it. Though the lawyer started proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal he abandoned the case, which simply added to legal costs they now have to pay to the other side.
The owners corporation took the couple to the Local Court in October 2021 seeking $24,004.06 for strata levies, administrative charges and expenses, 10 per cent interest, and legal costs. The court found the couple had to pay $23,066.77, inclusive of legal costs!
In 2022 Bonded Strata, acting on behalf of the owners’ corporation moved to collect the debt by forcing the couple into bankruptcy.
Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas won a six-week reprieve before bankruptcy proceedings begin again in mid August.
Mission Australia financial counsellor Isis Khalil, who is now advising the couple, says that if they can’t find a buyer within that time, they will face bankruptcy and become homeless. “The trustees will go in and they will just sell it for peanuts,” Khalil told SMH. “They just have to sell it for more than the debt and the solicitor’s fees, which is growing daily and is at about $44,000 now. Plus there would be tens of thousands of the trustee’s charges. That’s not a good outcome.”
The Tzavellases bought their unit in Earlwood for $22,200 in 1972. These days, the median price for a unit in this suburb is $777,000, but the couple is struggling to sell. The property already passed in at auction in June with no registered bidders.
Fundraiser organised to “save Nitsa & Spiro!”
Their nephew, Anthony, has started a fundraiser on Gofundme to help his theia and theio save their home of 50 years.
He told Neos Kosmos that he is hoping that enough funds will be raised so that the couple can pay off their debts and keep their home.
Anthony states that ironically, despite the debt they are asked to pay, their apartment windows are the only ones in the building that have not been upgraded!
Apart from the financial distress his relatives are facing, Anthony adds that they are dealing with serious health issues too. Spiros Tzavellas has suffered three strokes recently and is completely reliant on his wife Nitsa for his needs.
He is hopeful though, as there has been enormous support from the community, with even Coles rallying to support them with a raffle in the neighbourhood.
To donate visit this link.
Owners’ corporation “cruel indifference” to pensioners’ circumstances
“This story shows the cruel indifference of an owners’ corporation and the lack of hardship-informed regulations despite government reviews.
“How did they expect 80-year-old aged pensioners to raise $20,000? Are they expected to rob a bank or not eat for the year?” says Lauren Levin, Financial Counselling Australia director of policy and campaigns, to The SMH.
Unfortunately this is not the first time that a body corporate has initiated bankruptcies. Levin, explains that 12 per cent of all bankruptcy applications in the 2018-2019 financial year were by owners’ corporations.
“I’m sure most people don’t realise how common body corporate-initiated bankruptcies are and would be shocked that such a sledgehammer approach to debt collection is being used, when there are other much better options.”
Jane Foley, a senior lawyer at Financial Rights Legal Centre, told The SMH that the number of applications was probably even higher.
In cases of financial hardship. she stressed that owners’ corporations and strata companies had other ways they can deal with debt.
They could make a payment plan affordable to the owner, for example, or they could borrow to cover the owner’s share, putting a caveat over the property, to be recouped when the property is eventually sold.
Khalil said the law should change to protect elderly pensioners from strata-initiated bankruptcies. The bankruptcy threshold is currently $10,000, but consumer advocates want to increase it to $50,000.