00:00 For the past year, Mark Pitt's been living off-grid with his partner Sharon and his 91-year-old
00:07 mother Jan in their island resort home.
00:10 Yet it's far from paradise.
00:12 Difficult, expensive, as you can imagine how much the fuel costs, sorry.
00:17 It's very stressful.
00:20 But you learn to adapt to what you're dealing with.
00:25 We're among hundreds of property owners caught in the middle of a long-running legal dispute
00:30 that's plagued Cooran Cove for years.
00:33 Homes had power, water and sewage cut because the resort's service providers claimed the
00:38 body's corporate owed $24 million in unpaid debt.
00:43 Instead, locals have had to install spear pumps, desalinators, power packs and solar
00:48 panels.
00:49 It took us months to learn, oh, the generator, you've got to do this, you've got to do that.
00:54 It's just hard work.
00:56 About 40 residents remain on the island because they can't afford to live anywhere else.
01:01 But they fear they could be left homeless because they're still required to pay thousands
01:06 of dollars in levies.
01:08 We can't pay for what the extras and still pay them in our body corporate fees.
01:13 We won't survive.
01:14 Can't afford to live here.
01:15 Property owners say they're being charged about $2,000 per year in council rates for
01:20 services they don't receive here, such as waste collection, public transport and community
01:25 facilities.
01:27 The local council has agreed to review their rates from next month.
01:31 That sounds wonderful if they do.
01:33 That would be tremendous.
01:34 Yeah, let's hope they do.
01:36 A glimmer of hope in a drawn out dispute.
01:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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