An owner can not legally withhold payment to ‘set-off’ a debt he believes is owed to him by the HOA.
It is not allowed to “set-off” one debt for another. That can only be permitted once a matter has been adjudicated by an arbitrator or ruled for by a judge. An owner cannot decide to set-off what he considers to be the amount of his claim against the body corporate by withholding his levy payments.
He is obliged to continue paying his levies and must attempt to recover the money owed to him by the HAO as a seperate matter. He is off course free to follow the legal channels of litigation or declaring a dispute under PMR 71 and take the HOA to arbitration.