Paid Your Owners Corporation Fees but Still Getting Bills? Reconcile First

When I managed a small block of units in Melbourne's northern suburbs, I'd get the occasional owners corporation fee notice that didn't match my own records. It happened maybe once a year. My first move was never the Dispute Settlement Centre or VCAT. It was a simple reconciliation request.

An owners corporation (OC), sometimes called a body corporate, manages the common property in a strata scheme. The fees you pay are called levies. They cover building insurance and common area maintenance. They also build a sinking fund for future capital works. When you've paid your levy notice and the OC still sends you a bill, it feels like a dispute. But in my experience it's usually an unresolved query: a payment that got allocated to the wrong lot, a bank transfer that didn't clear on the date they expected, or a fee that was raised after you made your payment.

Send a written reconciliation request

Don't call. Email. You want a paper trail. Write to your OC manager and ask for a full account reconciliation from the date of the first disputed charge to today. A reconciliation is just a side-by-side list of every charge they've raised and every payment they've received. Request itemized entries with the date, description, amount, and any interest or late fees. Ask them to show exactly how they matched your payments to each levy invoice.

In Victoria, OC managers are used to these requests. It's normal bookkeeping. Keep the email polite but specific: tell them which payments you made, on what dates, and from which bank account. Give them a reasonable timeframe to respond. I'd usually ask for a reply within 14 days, but check your OC's rules because they sometimes set their own internal timeframes.

Check the online portal before paying anything else

Many OCs now have an online portal where you can download your own ledger. If yours does, log in and pull the full transaction history. Print it or save it as a PDF. Then sit down with your bank statement and tick off every payment you made. Look for a few common problems: a payment posted to the wrong lot number, a levy invoice that was raised after your payment date, or a transfer that took three business days to appear on their end.

I used to keep a simple spreadsheet with two columns: their charge and my payment. Then I added a third column for the date difference. That showed the gap quickly. If you find a payment they missed, highlight it in your email and attach the bank confirmation.

Do not pay any additional amount until they give you clear documentation of what is actually owed. If the reconciliation shows a genuine shortfall, you'll know. But paying under protest without a written ledger just muddies the file. If the error was on their side and a payment was allocated late, ask them to reverse any interest or late fees. I've had OCs do that without argument when I showed the bank timestamp.

When DSC or VCAT becomes the next step

The Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSC) offers mediation for strata disputes, and VCAT can make binding orders about owners corporation matters. But both are steps after you've tried to resolve the query yourself. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't tell you when you're legally required to escalate. What I can say is that in the years I managed properties, I never saw a billing error that couldn't be fixed by a clean reconciliation letter. Most OC managers respond faster when you ask for an itemized ledger than when you threaten a tribunal.

Check your OC's internal complaints process first. Some have a grievance procedure in their rules. That might involve sending a formal letter to the committee before going to an external body. In Victoria, DSC mediation is generally free or low-cost, and VCAT has application fees. But you'll save both time and money if you can show you tried to resolve the discrepancy in writing and waited a reasonable time for their response.

Keep every email, every downloaded ledger, and every bank confirmation. That folder is your evidence if it does end up at mediation.