Body corporate

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Buza_junior

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I leave in a complex around Midrand and i need to find out how do body corporate charge for water? Our electricity is postpaid but each unit was installed with a prepaid meter, meaning if i use and finish my electricity, the electricity will simply turn off until i purchase a new token but with water the trustees are charge us for the usage of water based on the meter readings, they say they take the opening readings at the beginning of the month and closing readings month end and they bill us at a rate of R 20. And their explanation of this rate is that the municipality of Johannesburg charge them the same rate for the bulk usage at the complex and they simply divide it as per the number of units.

Is their method justified?

Who are the people that quality for free water?

The rate they charge us is clearly shown of the water account on the picture below and they include the fixed costs accept the sewer availability charge which they say the owner of the unit or property is responsible to pay not the tenants
IMG_20220220_100111.jpg
 
Buza_junior said:
I leave in a complex around Midrand and i need to find out how do body corporate charge for water? Our electricity is postpaid but each unit was installed with a prepaid meter, meaning if i use and finish my electricity, the electricity will simply turn off until i purchase a new token but with water the trustees are charge us for the usage of water based on the meter readings, they say they take the opening readings at the beginning of the month and closing readings month end and they bill us at a rate of R 20. And their explanation of this rate is that the municipality of Johannesburg charge them the same rate for the bulk usage at the complex and they simply divide it as per the number of units.

Is their method justified?

Who are the people that quality for free water?

The rate they charge us is clearly shown of the water account on the picture below and they include the fixed costs accept the sewer availability charge which they say the owner of the unit or property is responsible to pay not the tenants
View attachment 1248958
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If you're an owner you're the body corporate. It depends on how the managing agents will sort out the water. Most have a water meter on the property, unless they divide water by how many units
Also Johannesburg hasn't offered free water for years unless you're classified as indigent which living in a complex you're not.
 
Lupus said:
If you're an owner you're the body corporate. It depends on how the managing agents will sort out the water. Most have a water meter on the property, unless they divide water by how many units
Also Johannesburg hasn't offered free water for years unless you're classified as indigent which living in a complex you're not.
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Thank you for the response and your comment is noted. Another question to ask, can an owner living in the city most specially in a complex be classified as an indigent individual since the fixed expenses for the complex is shared by the owners?

Your comments are very helpful.
 
Buza_junior said:
Thank you for the response and your comment is noted. Another question to ask, can an owner living in the city most specially in a complex be classified as an indigent individual since the fixed expenses for the complex is shared by the owners?

Your comments are very helpful.
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I don't think so, are you trying to get lower rates?
 
Kosmik said:
I don't think so, are you trying to get lower rates?
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No that's not my intention, where i stay i have owners who will try everything to ensure they don't pay up for what is due to them and the BC ends up suffering because of them
 
Thor said:
Show up at the AGM and ask for water meters to be considered
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Water meters are installed, since introducting the fixed charges to the BC everyone is selling, in the past owners where paying R1200 per month for levies and we see that the BC is suffering because other owners are not paying their levies and the BC was paying the fixed municipal cost on their behalf and now the trustees decided that everyone must share the cost as per the municipal cost and i have sinces seen owners listing their units for sale
 
A block where I have some units never charges water to owners. It is of course included in the levy.

When I bought the first 2 flats in 1990, the levy was R190. Today it is R2480. Plus they had a special levy where each owner had to pay R13000 since the outdoor renovation cost R1.8m

I also pay Cape Town City R425,00 approx for municipal fees

The managing agents are properly run and they issue a balance sheet before each AGM. The trustees are as usual pretty useless and concern themselves with items like painting parking lines, flowers for the verges, nitpicking about noise

In the Dec 2021 financial statement, only 2 of the 64 owners were in arrear, and not by much

I was chairman in 2011 and 2012 and rapidly found myself doing 99% of the work. One of the tenants frequently brought in some dodgy ladies in the early hours and tried to tell us it was bible study. None of the trustees would do anything, so I got an ADT fellow to interview them upon arrival and shoo them off. He had a substantial night-stick. It worked 100%
 
chrisc said:
A block where I have some units never charges water to owners. It is of course included in the levy.

When I bought the first 2 flats in 1990, the levy was R190. Today it is R2480. Plus they had a special levy where each owner had to pay R13000 since the outdoor renovation cost R1.8m

The managing agents are properly run and they issue a balance sheet before each AGM. The trustees are as usual pretty useless and concern themselves with items like painting parking lines, flowers for the verges, nitpicking about noise

I was chairman in 2011 and 2012 and rapidly found myself doing 99% of the work. One of the tenants frequently brought in some dodgy ladies in the early hours and tried to tell us it was bible study. None of the trustees would do anything, so I got an ADT fellow to interview them upon arrival and shoo them off. He had a substantial night-stick. It worked 100%
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I recently resigned as a trustee because of the same reason where i would be doing everything my self and now this other urgent is suing me because i removed the signage outside the complex, with reasons that the csos doesn't allow it it and i also know the law around this but i said i will deal with it
 
Ignorance about BC rules is a pain. One idiot hung a huge "Jesus Saves" flag from his balcony and played church music loudly on Sundays
 
chrisc said:
Ignorance about BC rules is a pain. One idiot hung a huge "Jesus Saves" flag from his balcony and played church music loudly on Sundays
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This is an experience i wish not to involve my self in, now am considering selling so i can get a standard alone house for me and my family and i will deal with those problems my self not to get to deals with many owners problems and where some of them they complain and read about the law later
 
The body corp has to be capable and effective. Regarding the water charges some complexes charge it as part of their levies. Its once again dependent on the body corp. Ours have got separate electricity meters and water meters but their is a charge to cover the communal areas like the pool etc
 
Since I don't live in the block, it does not worry me about the trustees shenanigans. I have really good tenants who seldom complain, pay the rent on time

Last AGM only 8 people turned up. The quorum is 10. I had to phone my wife to come and fetch one fellow who was watching rubbish on TV
 
Sanzer said:
The body corp has to be capable and effective. Regarding the water charges some complexes charge it as part of their levies. Its once again dependent on the body corp. Ours have got separate electricity meters and water meters but their is a charge to cover the communal areas like the pool etc
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That's what the current trustees have done where i stay, we now have electricity meters and our water is charged on the electricity meter as a debit, meaning is calculated from 1 month and the end of each month and the total of that is debited on the electricity bill
 
chrisc said:
Since I don't live in the block, it does not worry me about the trustees shenanigans. I have really good tenants who seldom complain, pay the rent on time

Last AGM only 8 people turned up. The quorum is 10. I had to phone my wife to come and fetch one fellow who was watching rubbish on TV
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eish owners need to be responsible
 
Sanzer said:
The body corp has to be capable and effective. Regarding the water charges some complexes charge it as part of their levies. Its once again dependent on the body corp. Ours have got separate electricity meters and water meters but their is a charge to cover the communal areas like the pool etc
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You are part of the body Corp. A body corporate is every owner of a unit. People for some reason keep associating the managing agent with a body Corp.
 
Lupus said:
You are part of the body Corp. A body corporate is every owner of a unit. People for some reason keep associating the managing agent with a body Corp.
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I can separate the two and our current managing agent is failing us, come AGM it will be fired, it doesn't have the owners best interest
 
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