Damage through neglect

The EC recently commissioned a building report of a block of 24 units that have extensive balconies circa 1972 construction. Building is very sound and however requires remedial waterproofing works such as brick point work.

One very surprising result in the report was that one unit has significant defects and spalling throughout the floor of their balcony. This unit is tenanted. The cost of remedial work in this particular unit is >$20k and in speaking with our Strata Manager they state that the managing agent mentioned to them that they had over years reported to the owner the balcony degradation after each tenant inspection report and claim that the owner said he wasn’t interested.

The OC has passed a motion to raise a special levy for the building remedial project, however several owners and EC members are quite annoyed that the above unit is in such a state that requires such a sum for repairs and believe the owner should be held to account for not raising this with the Strata Manager/EC and OC so that repairs could have been undertaken much earlier thus potentially at a much lower cost?

What recourse does an OC have in making a claim of negligence to this owner (bearing in mind that the owner has to contribute to the special levy) BTW at time of writing this Unit owner has not paid the 1st special levy instalment to date which was due 1st June)

Many thanks

Floyd0