Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa October 2016 | Page 40
INVESTMENT
The Right of
Common Use
Exclusive use areas in Sectional Title Schemes
BY MICHAEL BAUER
O
ne of many issues that causes problems in
sectional title schemes is the right to the
exclusive use of a common area in the scheme
and the rental charged for that use. Many feel that
they have the right to use the area but often are not
happy to pay any extra for it.
It makes sense to charge for the use of the area, as
this area is reserved for the exclusive use for an owner
and needs to be maintained in some way. If that
owner owned the extra portion, he would be paying
a higher levy anyway because his PQ factor would be
higher.
If it is a garden, for instance, the costs of the upkeep
of that garden, e.g. replanting of plants, composting,
weed removal, etc, would need to be paid for. If it is a
parking area and the road surface needs redoing or if
a balcony is leaking and needs to be repaired, the costs
of the maintenance need to be borne by someone. The
Sectional Titles Act is clear that the owner of the
exclusive use area is responsible for the maintenance
and repair of this area.
The Act says that an additional levy for exclusive use
areas must be charged, but usually in sectional title
schemes the ordinary and special levies are based on a
participation quota and should already be covering all
the running costs of the scheme.
There will be an over-recovery of money from the
collection of additional levies from the owners. This
surplus money collected for the exclusive use areas
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OCTOBER 2016 SA Real Estate Investor
should then be allocated to reducing the scheme’s
levies by a certain amount.
Problems usually arise when a repair is needed
in and is not being done timeously, for example,
a leaky enclosed balcony. This, said Bauer, is often
a tricky situation as the body corporate can compel
the owner to pay for the maintenance or repair of an
exclusive use area. If the owner does not comply, the
body corporate can give him 30 days’ notice and if