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.
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.
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.
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
When I first started practicing as a community scheme attorney I realised that there were three topics that came up as common “problems” in sectional title living. I categorised these issues as the “3 ‘P’s’ of sectional title living”, namely pets, parking and people. These “P problems” are the cause of most of the issues and disputes in sectional title schemes. In this article I will deal with parking issues.
There are a multitude of tasks that trustees need to undertake in order to manage all the legislated responsibilities for running a successful sectional title scheme. There are financial, legal, administrative and physical tasks that need to be planned out and executed
In terms of prescribed management rule 10 a document (including contracts) is only valid and binding on the body corporate if it is signed by two trustees or by one trustee and the managing agent.
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