Financial ombudsman look after companies offering financial advice and/or products – banks, financial planners etc. It is an external dispute resoluation service for members and their clients.

strata is not a financial product and they would not be a member of FOS so they could not assist. What we have here is just a plain old civil dispute.

You would think they would have tied to contact you.

I have a woman call me a few years ago who was actually bankrupted because she didn’t pay the strata fees for a couple of years. She was actually solvent but had some sort of dispute with the building management and refused to pay. She was served legal documents and ignored them. Next thing she knew she was bankrupt and her apartment was being sold. She quickly changed her mind and decided to pay the $9k or so owning. Except now the costs where up to around $50k because a trustee had been appointed. She was asking for help, but nothing could be done at that stage. She had to somehow pay out and come out of bankruptcy or lose her apartment.

Hari Yellina wrote:

Terryw,
The trust is my own company. We are small size businees with 100 or more employees. The profit gets distributed end of the year.
Thank you.

That doesn’t make grammatical sense!

The company is either acting as trustee or the shares of the company are owned by a trustee of a trust?

Either way you would have to supply the finnacials to a lender

THe law is clear. You contracted to pay a certain amount and you didn’t – you breached the contract. The other side incurred a loss due to your actions and they incurred additional costs which you should be liable for. They shouldn’t be liable for your actions.

What is there to change?

You cannot pay yourself a wage, only another entity can. If you set up a company but you own the properties how do you get the income into the company? Even if you do start a company you will be self employed so the lender will want to see the company financials.

The lender will assume the salary sacrifice is not happening as long as it could be stopped.

Is the trust a related party? The lender will likely want to see the financials for the trust and will take it into account.

Thanks Ethan, but I don’t practice property law. I am a structuralist!

You probably won’t be able to borrow without an income other than rent because of the minimum living expenses the lenders will assume.

CR wrote:

Thank you Terry for your reply.
To understand a little clearer, you said “Short answer is ‘no’, Well you could do it, but no tax advantage.”Do you mean that you can do it as long as there is no tax advantage, or you can do it but there is no tax advantage?

You can borrow to do as you propose but the interest won’t be deductible.

Seek legal advice about the possibility of terminating the contracts