What owners often do not realise is that all structural additions and extensions have to be approved, first by the body corporate (STSM Reg 30), and then by the municipality. Following construction, the alteration must then be verified by a land surveyor and approved by the Surveyor-General to make the amendments to the sectional plan official.
Some community schemes pride themselves in having ultra-low levies, while others struggle to garner the funding to keep themselves afloat. Both situations are undesirable from a financial viewpoint, and there is significant value in keeping a close eye on your sectional title scheme’s admin fund budget and 10-year maintenance plan at all times.
The cost of maintenance for a sectional title scheme is commonly determined by its size, the current state of repair and the extent of maintenance required. To gauge these costs, the body corporate needs to obtain quotes from the relevant contractors.
Creating a financial roadmap for your sectional title scheme starts with understanding how your levy is calculated and what it includes. To that end, we will focus on the three parts that make up the community scheme levy in this article, namely the contributions required for the reserve fund, the contributions to the admin fund and the CSOS fee.
Sectional title levies can be the source of a great deal of debate and conflict within a body corporate. The process of determining body corporate levies should be transparent, methodical and done without any bias.