Special Levies

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^^vampire^^

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So the sectional title I have a unit in has passed a special levy. I understand that a special levy can be passed by trustees without body corporate consent if it has a) been deemed at necessary to do now and can't wait and b) there was no budget assigned for such things (eg maintenance).

The issue I'm having is that the managing agent sent out an email in July detailing new items they added to the bill such as common property water/elec (which I think should be covered by levies), CSOS, etc etc and then they added the special levy in labelled "Capital Expenditure Projects" with no mention of what it is for and that it would be added to the levy statement. I have been chasing them for 2-3 months now to give me the resolution of the trustees, detail what the levy is for and how long it is to be paid but they haven't given me any information.

What can I do going forward? I have told the managing agent that I will contact the trustees on Wed if they don't help me and if they trustees don't help by the end of the week I will have to take it further. At this stage I have no idea what they are doing with the funds and no justification.

Also, can the managing agent just add new charges to the statements. They have added the below:
* G Elec - Common lights, gate motor & Elec fen
* DSM COJ - Elec fee: street lights & robots

On top of this there has been the addition of CSOS and a Water Demand Levy that will " will cover the additional water tariffs that will be imposed by the Department of Water and Sanitation in case the City of Johannesburg exceeds their water demand allocation"

This seems absolutely crazy to me. In addition to paying my levy that should cover all the above I must now pay for it over and above my current levy.
 
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Problem with trustee boards is that they're volunteers...with mixed skillsets and limited time. Not conducive to sound financial planning, so you end up with crisis situations like these & the associate levies.

They should be explaining it better though
 
The expenditure one might me in relation to the new rules complexes have to conform to. It basically boils down to that you must have x cash available for maintenance and if you don't you must pay y levy.
 
This is what happens when you take very little interest in the affairs of the Body Corporate.
 
As far as I know there was a new law or laws passed. You need to have a maintenance plan in place for 10yrs. Normally an assessment is done by a qualified company or there seems to be some average proposed figures based on your current expenditure.

In short, your levies should have been at a level to take this into account anyways. I am running the numbers now as I am a chairmen of a body corporate. With our levies being quite high, I am proposing the general levies to be lowered by the maintenance levies amount. We will only increase the total levies by 8-10% depending on the decision of the trustees.

There is also a new law for the amount of people required at the AGM. See below from the managing agent:
According to the new Sectional Title Scheme Management Act, we required 33% of the PQ present to form a quorum. In other words if the trustees attends, the working is as follows:

Z's PQ is 11.6995 (incl garage), plus
X unit 13.6700(incl garage), plus
Y Unit 12.3153

Total PQ present will be 37.6848, a quorum will be present as you only require 33%.
 
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Murlin said:
As far as I know there was a new law or laws passed. You need to have a maintenance plan in place for 10yrs. Normally an assessment is done by a qualified company or there seems to be some average proposed figures based on your current expenditure.

In short, your levies should have been at a level to take this into account anyways. I am running the numbers now as I am a chairmen of a body corporate. With our levies being quite high, I am proposing the general levies to be lowered by the maintenance levies amount. We will only increase the total levies by 8-10% depending on the decision of the trustees.

There is also a new law for the amount of people required at the AGM. See below from the managing agent:
According to the new Sectional Title Scheme Management Act, we required 33% of the PQ present to form a quorum. In other words if the trustees attends, the working is as follows:

Z's PQ is 11.6995 (incl garage), plus
X unit 13.6700(incl garage), plus
Y Unit 12.3153

Total PQ present will be 37.6848, a quorum will be present as you only require 33%.
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Also at our AGM was announced that we need to have 25% of our annual total levies in reserve for unforeseen circumstances, by law - perhaps that is what the OP has a problem with as it will no doubt affect your levy.
 
My levies increased by more than 20%, even though the complex books are in the black.

From what I remember from our body corporate meeting, there needs to be some reserve fund, and there needs to be a maintenance plan for 10 years as Murlin said. Our BC got a company that specializes in this sort of thing, so they will inspect the complex, and create a maintenance plan for us to set up the budget.
Ours are called Reserve Fund and Maintenance, and comes to about R160.

It was also explained to us that some things are now split out of the general "levy" line into separate items like Sewerage and whatnot. Can't remember the exact reason, but it had something to do with CoJ.
 
One of the reasons I want to get out of a complex, then again for a free-hold house you've got all the other things you have to pay.
 
In short, new laws are out. If the complex doesnt have certain funds (20% of the overall levies per year in a seperate account), they need to source the funds asap.

Alot of complex's dont care, and things go backwards.

I would suggest contact the trustees, see them on the next monthly meeting face to face, and let them explain to you in simple words what is going on.

I know someone who works for me, because of the new laws, they need to pay R3000 a month special levy to meet the requirements.
 
Yep, big shake up with the new maintenance plan. We have done ours but fortunately already had the funds to meet the reserve requirements. Adding all the new line items to the statement should be something explained at the AGM before it happens.
 
Cius said:
Yep, big shake up with the new maintenance plan. We have done ours but fortunately already had the funds to meet the reserve requirements. Adding all the new line items to the statement should be something explained at the AGM before it happens.
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True ! Its a wake up for estate not being well managed and planned for ! I personally think it is a good thing !
 
Trustees cannot pass special levies on their own. It needs to be voted at an AGM or SGM ,
Trustees can however use funds that has been budgeted for a certain purpose for another purpose. E.g Budget for maintenance of pool funds can be used to repair roofs for instance , this is usually done in an emergency type situation.
 
Count yourself lucky. Our levies increased by more than double in 1.5 years, and since we didn't have money to pay up fully every month, we fell into arrears and they had the nerve to threaten us with legal action.
 
mercurial said:
Count yourself lucky. Our levies increased by more than double in 1.5 years, and since we didn't have money to pay up fully every month, we fell into arrears and they had the nerve to threaten us with legal action.
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yeah sadly that is the case, those who fall in arrears end up with legal action

by us our levies just cover water and insurance and the necessary stuff. yet some people still miss payments or short pay

special levies is bad though, some get threatened with debt collectors when they dont pay special levies

another friend has to cough up around R30k in special levies for painting. It will cost way cheaper to paint on your own but the body corps want "professionals"
 
@vampire

I suspect the new CSOS regulations (that fee is to stay, new laws etc) has a lot to do with the extra charges.

CSOS demands that each complex has to have a ten year maintenance plan, a set % of levies funds in a seperate account to cover that at any given time. And that if the complex does not curently have the funds to start that account they must use special levies to raise such. If not done before your next agm (from late last year), or if trustees cannot show that it is a work in active progress then any such AGMs are deemed illegal. Yes, that sucks.

However while sewer should be levied to you rates and such should be billed directly by COJ to you. IE neither agents nor trustees see it.

What is the robot fee for?

This has now forced us to have a 3rd bank account. As a complex we exceeded their requirements for money. So we have our day to day account. The investment account holding the "complex nest egg" and then the account CSOS demands. We skim the interest received on that and place that in the investment account.

If your managing agents were worth their salt...
They would have arranged a seminaar at their offices or another venue and then invited all trustees and also at least a few intrested owners(we were limited on that due to space limitations), to attend. Then to provide info/inform/educated the attending interested parties of all the changes, rules etc that CSOS demands.
Trust me many of them suck.

IMO it is a bad implementation of good intentions. It is suppose to ensure that complexes are looked after to ensure that all the homeowners interests are cared for and secure. But it has more that a few glitshes.

Further I suspect the rest of the charges are there to cover those fees as CSOS demands. Perhaps spread under different names with the hopes that few would complain. Potentially meaning your complex finances are/were not as stable as would have been thought
 
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I.am.Sam said:
...

another friend has to cough up around R30k in special levies for painting. It will cost way cheaper to paint on your own but the body corps want "professionals"
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I laugh at your friend's R30K, mine is >R50K. Imagine if you allowed everyone to paint the outside as they liked.
 
I.am.Sam said:
no, get the same paint and bla bla and get a normal painter to paint ...

why do you need a guy who is registered and bla bla
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I think it's rather insane wanting everyone to paint their own place. can you just imagine different perople doing it at different times, and then some not doing it because they don't have the money...

And lets not forget the common-use area's.

You need to get someone professional to do the complex, and who will guarantee their work and come back and fix any snag list. plus use decent paint.

Just need to make sure their are no kick-backs between managing agent and painter.
 
Lol, to paint our building is R1 million.

It depends on the trustees too. We haven't had an increase in levies in 3 years now. Before that they were always going up and the building never had any money. Now the building has lots of money in the bank account, nearing R800k
 
^^vampire^^ said:
I have told the managing agent that I will contact the trustees on Wed if they don't help me and if they trustees don't help by the end of the week I will have to take it further.
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I'd suggest going in to their offices. Trustees generally don't know all the ins-outs of laws & regulations & will probably just refer you back to the managing agent.
 
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