The legal position recently was held in a High Court Judgment in Pietermaritzburg that trustees of a Body Corporate do not have the power to agree to any arrangements as there are no provision in law that allows for the reduction on the amount of levies due and payable by the owner.
As the recent financial climate has affected many people financially the Home Owners Associations as well as Body Corporates has fallen behind on the receival of levies and payments.
In many instances the Body Corporate then, in the event where a non-payer of levies offer to pay a lesser amount, accept the lesser amount as they feel that a stone in the bush is better than nothing at all.
In this particular High Court Judgement, the Court held that a Body Corporate is supposed to enforce full payment of levies by each owner of a unit.
The Court held further that by allowing an owner to pay lesser levies then the rest of the owners it ”undermines the uniformity for the common burden that must be shared by all sectional owners to pay the levies, based on the participation quota. This is an intrinsic component of communal living.”
Therefor it is clear that the Body Corporate can not engage in any settlement arrangements by which it accepts any amount lesser than the full levies.