Phil Gallagher is selling his one-bedroom Darwin apartment for $80,000 less than he bought it 15 years ago.
Located in an apartment complex in the inner-city, waterfront suburb of Cullen Bay, Mr Gallagher paid $360,000 for the property, but is now selling for $280,000.
The apartment's value has tumbled after structural defects were identified in the complex's main lap pool area.
Those defects led to the body corporate earlier this year deciding to raise a $3 million reconstruction special levy to cover the costs, based on a majority vote of owners.
Mr Gallagher has paid his $52,000 share of the levy, which he said had to be paid within a three-month timeframe.
But he has still chosen to subsequently sell for a loss.
"It's cost me a fortune," he said.
"I took [the $52,000] out of my super fund, it was the only way I was going to pay it."
David Ling is another owner who has forked out more than $50,000 for the special levy.
Both he and Mr Gallagher believe the main pool area reconstruction did not have to be so elaborate and expensive, considering the complex still has a smaller pool currently in use.
They said a more moderate approach would have eased the financial burden.
"There [were repairs] that needed to be done urgently to make the place compliant, but they've gone from one extreme to the other, from making the place compliant to turning it into the Taj Mahal," Mr Ling said.
"I had to go and find a loan to go and pay the levy. It really is stressful and has taken up a heap of time trying to fight the battle just to try and make it reasonable.
"I know there's other people in a lot worse situations than I am [in the complex] and they're moving out or stressed to the max."
Competing priorities
The Cullen Bay "holiday" apartment complex is made up of owner-occupiers and investors, with properties leased as either long-term rentals, short-term serviced apartments or Airbnbs.
The competing priorities within the complex's strata scheme have fractured relationships, owners said, leading to legal disputes at the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT).
Mr Ling said disputes had become personal.
"There's been a lot of arrows thrown at me," he said.
"I walk around here feeling like a bit of a target."
The strata committee's secretary, Bibe Best, has led the successful push for the new main pool area, which she said had won support from a majority of owners.
Ms Best owns multiple properties in the complex, and said her contribution to the special levy totalled $220,000.
She said navigating the situation was difficult and acknowledged some people had been left in financial difficulty.
"We just had to do it because we had building compliance notices, we had insurance renewal issues, we had NTCAT admin claims put in. We didn't have a lot of options as to how to solve these problems, but we knew we had to solve them fast," Ms Best said.
"You're always going to have different agendas, different priorities, different concerns and voices.
"There's a range of circumstances and situations that people are contending [with] ... with 71 different unit owners.
"It's a terrible situation for a lot of people to be in."
Over the past few years, several strata management companies have stopped managing the complex, having quit or been sacked by the committee, owners said.
Ms Best said she had repeatedly asked for help from the NT government, particularly regarding the NT Titles Act, but was not provided with any.
"They sent me to government bodies federally," she said.
"I was sent to the ombudsman in New South Wales.
"I got no answers and had to come back and spend money on legal advice."
Calls for NT government to step up
Chris Irons is Queensland's former body corporate commissioner and is currently the managing director of national organisation the Owners Corporation Network (OCN).
OCN represents and helps educate owners of strata properties, but it does not have a presence in the NT.
Mr Irons said OCN planned to establish an NT chapter, due to a current lack of support for owners of strata properties in the jurisdiction.
"[The NT] would be the state or territory with the least amount of strata resources," he said.
"There's a little bit there but nowhere near enough, and if we are going as a nation to expect to be living in high density into the future, we've got to support them."
Mr Irons said the NT needed to establish a part of government responsible for information and dispute resolution services, like in other jurisdictions.
"It might be that the NT starts off with ... a dedicated part of a department and then maybe consider a [body corporate] commissioner after that," he said.
A spokesperson for the NT's Country Liberal Party government said "similar to other jurisdictions", the territory had a "scheme supervisor who can offer a general overview on options".
"Parties can seek dispute resolution assistance through the Community Justice Centre, or, consistent with other jurisdictions where a dispute cannot be resolved, the matter must be referred to the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) for resolution," they said.
The spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about the establishment of an NT government dispute resolution service or a body corporate commissioner.
