
30 Oct Who is responsible for the maintenance of EUAs?
It is a common myth that exclusive use areas do not form part of the common property. The truth is that exclusive use areas (EUAs) do form part of the common property; however, the owner has exclusive use of this area – for example, an enclosed garden. The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act No 8 of 2011 determines that it is the body corporate’s responsibility to manage and maintain the common property of their sectional title scheme.
Maintenance of exclusive use areas
While the body corporate is responsible for maintaining exclusive use areas, the owner (who uses the exclusive use area) must ensure that the area is kept neat and tidy. If the body corporate feels that the owner is not adhering to its responsibilities, they may request the owner to do so in writing.
If the owner does not respond within 30 days of receiving the written notice – or fails to comply with the notice – the body corporate may enter to the exclusive use area to tidy up. The costs involved in cleaning the area will be recovered from the relevant owner.
Funding of maintenance to exclusive use areas
Trustees must ensure that a levies are raised over all exclusive use areas to cover costs incurred by the body corporate to maintain these areas. It is important that the exclusive use area levies are calculated correctly. If not, this could create a funding problem for the body corporate – particularly when maintenance for the exclusive use areas are due – leaving them few options but utilise funds originally allocated for other maintenance expenses.
Trustees and managing agents need to spend enough time calculating exclusive use levies and isolating the contributions for the maintenance to exclusive use areas from the rest of the maintenance allocations in a scheme`s administrative budget. By doing so, trustees will not be forced to use funds from the body corporate reserves to adequately maintain exclusive use areas.
In summary, the body corporate is responsible to maintain exclusive use areas but need to raise and collect levies for these areas to fund its maintenance. In turn, owners are responsible for keeping these areas neat and to pay their EUA levies.