Sectional Title owners often ask for information regarding the procedure for extending their section. Recent far reaching amendments have been made to the Sectional Title Act in regard to the above. These guidelines include the latest amendments.
The procedure for extending a section is governed by Section 24 of the Sectional Title Act No. 95 of 1986, as amended, (the Act). This section states that if an owner proposes to extend the boundaries or floor area of his or her section then such owner shall with the approval of the body corporate authorized by a special resolution of its members have a land surveyor prepare a sectional plan of extension and have it approved by the Surveyor general.

PROCEDURE
We recommend that the following steps be taken:-

Ordinary levies
We advise that there were recent amendments made to section 37(2) of the Sectional Titles Act (the Act) regarding ordinary levies:-
where the liability for levies was set as from the date the trustees passed the relevant resolution, and applied to owners of units, the holders of exclusive use areas and holders of section 25(1) rights to extend a scheme.

A more significant change made to the said section was the introduction of a proviso which states that on a change of ownership of a unit, exclusive use area or right to extend a scheme the new owner/holder becomes liable for the levy contribution on a pro rate basis from the date of registration of transfer.

BACKGROUND

There are still many Share Block flats in the Durban and coast region.

Prior to the inception of the Sectional Titles Act in 1971, which has since been replaced by the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986, developers went the share block route.

A share block company was registered as the owner of the land and buildings, and each flat was allocated a number of shares (known as a "share block") in the company which entitled the owner to the exclusive use and occupation of the flat.

Developers began evolving their own format of documentation, and so to regulate and control this and relationships between developer and purchaser, the legislator promulgated the Share Blocks Control Act 59 of 1980 which came into force on the 1 January 1981.

Since 1 April 2011 SARS will only accept electronic transfer duty applications through SARS e-filing.  No manual applications will be processed.  As a result of this we anticipated delays in receiving transfer duty receipts timeously.  However unfortunately we have experienced that the delays are a lot worse than we imagined. An article appeared in the newspaper "Business Report" on Thursday the 28^th of April pointing out that the delays being experienced by Conveyancers was not the 5-10 days that was anticipated but more 3-4 weeks. We have matters where we have been waiting now for nearly a month for Transfer Duty Receipts and they have still not been received. We are trying to address this issue with SARS but are having difficulties with making meaningful contact with someone who can assist us. Now read the good news....

Finance Minister Pravin Gordham announced during the 2011 Budget Speech that it will now be possible to buy a property up to R600 000,00 without paying transfer duties. The transfer duty exemption prior to this was R500 000,00. This revised rate structure will apply to properties acquired under sale agreements concluded on or after 23 February 2011 and will mean that the purchaser will enjoy considerable savings when purchasing a property.

The transfer duty rates now applicable will be as follows:-

First R600 000 consideration 0%

R600 001 to R1 000 000 3%

R1 000 000 to R1 500 000 5% Excess over R1 500 000 8%

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