When trustees, managing agents or homeowners hear about disputes over levies, it often stirs anxiety: “What can the Community Schemes Ombud Service actually do?”, “Can CSOS rewrite our levy schedule?”
To properly appreciate the difference, we must begin with the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA). Section 3(1) assigns the obligation to raise levies to the body corporate, comprising of owner, through the budget approval process.
Trustee Toolkit: Managing Work-From-Home and Business Activities in Sectional Title Schemes
In a world transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the boundaries between work and home have blurred beyond recognition. Today, more South Africans than ever before earn their living from within their private residences. Yet, many sectional title schemes continue to enforce rules that prohibit all forms of business activity without distinction.
Budgeting for major maintenance projects is one of the most important executive functions of the trustees. Trustees attempt to keep levies low, but this should never be at the expense of saving for future maintenance projects.
Historically bodies corporate did not budget for, or save for the maintenance, repair and replacement projects. So, for example, where the scheme’s lift needed an expensive service, the trustees would need to raise a special levy to fund the expense. T
Over the last ten plus years I have often been asked when and how special contributions (or “special levies”) can be legally raised. There are so many misconceptions and misunderstanding in regard to special levies. I have been told that:
Over the past decade we have seen various provinces in South Africa experience water shortages, with resultant regulations limiting non-essential water uses such as watering gardens, filling swimming pools and ponds and washing cars.
Managing a sectional title scheme requires making various decisions. Different decisions require different levels of consensus of the trustees and members of the body corporate in sectional title schemes
The community property element of sectional title schemes comes into play when we refer to common property. Common property includes all the land and those parts of the buildings that are not included in the sections. The body corporate must maintain the common property
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