Slightly different situation, but similar result

There are 4 flats and a swimming pool in grounds locally. Three of the flats, no one uses them much at all, but the last is rented out from time to time. There's no community group, and the water got cut off because no one paid. The person who owns the fourth flat has ended up paying the water bill to get the pool kept full, and has to pay someone to clean the pool and try and keep the grounds in decent condition. People from the other three flats arrive from time to time and take advantage of the pool and grounds ... but never pay anything.

The flats are impossible to sell (three are up for sale) because of this, and legal action is, it seems, almost impossible even though there are only 4 parties. Unless they all sit down together and make a formal agreement they are stuffed.

I hope this situation had no effect on the saleability of your property ... but it IS a possibility.

ALternatively you threaten to stop all the cleaning, gardening etc and notify the absentee owners that is what will happen. They might be more inclined to pay if they let out their properties and have problems with their 'customers'.

Surely to get a ruling for non payment wouldnt be that difficult, and then I assume the debt (even if not paid) would stay with the property involved. It might actually spur the non paying owners into action!

No its not difficult and its what we've done here. That alone doesn't spur people on that much though as the debt just sits with the property and only 'costs' them when they sell. Lots of houses around here are for sale but not moving, their owners weren't that bothered.
However, when the electrician was sacked and the street lights went out, the roads stopped being repaired and no gardening was done, people took a bit more notice.

Surely this would also be punishing the decent owners who stick by the rules and pay their dues, as well as unecessarily turning the place into a tip.

I presume most of the walkways and gardens are public areas for everyone to utilise and enjoy.

There was a block of apartments near where we lived, and only one apartment had ever been sold, and this to a Premier League footballer (allegedly), the developer/owner of the rest of the apartments just decided he wasn't going to bother about selling any more, so they would just be left empty until such time as the economy improved, this meant that the property was, in effect, unusable as there was no electricity, water, no pool or gardens being looked after. He couldn't sell it, no-one would buy it in that state. OK he probably had money, but there were several other blocks, owned by the same man and in the same situation, some had been sold, but were now unsellable, a risk that anyone buying off plan could well have encountered.

Well in fairness there are no public gardens where we live, only pavements and grass verges. It was a choice for us of paying more or keeping things tidy in front of our own houses for a while. We chose the latter. I went out and cleaned the street several times after storms. One of our neighbours strimmed the verges and the small roundabout at the end of our street. So between us we kept our bit of the Urbo. presentable.
This year more people paid up so we got the gardeners back, the street lights fixed and some of the pot holes repaired.
I think if we had raised the payments instead even less people would have paid and we would not be in the position we are in now.