Most South Africans who own a sectional title unit think of levies the way they think of a gym membership. Annoying. Overpriced. Something you can quietly fall behind on when things get tight.
They’re wrong. And in 2025, the courts made sure of it.
A Roodepoort Unit Owner Lost Their Home Over R50,974
In Bondi Body Corporate v Unpaid Owner (2024, South Gauteng High Court), the court approved the sale in execution of a residential unit over unpaid levies of just R50,974. The property had a bond of R632,000. The bank’s security didn’t matter. The body corporate’s claim ranked first, the unit went to auction, and the owner lost their home.
This wasn’t a once-off. In Cilaos Body Corporate v Tsengiwe (2025), the court confirmed that a body corporate may disconnect electricity for non-payment and upheld the recovery of legal fees under Regulation 25(4). The owner owed nearly R100,000. The court didn’t blink.
These aren’t outlying decisions. They’re the new baseline.
The Law Was Always There. The Appetite Wasn’t.
Section 3(1)(a) of the STSMA has always required trustees to collect outstanding levies. It’s not optional. It’s not discretionary. It’s a statutory obligation, and failing to pursue defaulters can constitute a breach of fiduciary duty by the trustees themselves.
What’s changed is that bodies corporate are finally using the full legal toolkit. Formal demand letters. CSOS adjudication orders. Magistrates’ Court summonses. Section 66 applications under the Magistrates’ Courts Act that allow a sheriff to attach and sell movable property — your car, your furniture, your electronics — and if the debt isn’t settled, your unit goes next.
And here’s the part nobody tells you: legal costs are recoverable from the defaulter under PMR 25(5), which entitles the body corporate to claim attorney and client costs, collection commission, and expenses. But there’s an important legal guardrail here — if the defaulter disputes or refuses to agree to those fees, the body corporate must have the costs taxed before they can be legally recovered. What the courts have confirmed is that “reasonable” legal fees means taxed attorney and client costs — the higher scale, not the lower party-and-party tariff — but they must go through taxation. A body corporate cannot simply add its attorney’s raw invoice to your levy statement. What it can do is recover the full taxed amount, and that amount is almost always significantly more than the original arrears.
A R12,000 levy arrear becomes R35,000 by the time it reaches judgment. A R30,000 arrear becomes R80,000. The meter doesn’t stop running because you stopped paying.
The In Duplum Rule: Protection With Limits
There is one legal ceiling that protects defaulters, and every owner should understand it. The common law in duplum rule provides that interest on a debt can never exceed the capital amount of that debt. If you owe R20,000 in arrear levies, interest stops accruing once it reaches R20,000. Your maximum exposure on arrears plus interest is R40,000.
But here’s what catches people: once a court grants judgment, the in duplum clock resets. Interest runs anew from the date of judgment on the full judgment debt — including the portion that consists of previously accrued interest. The protection you thought you had evaporates the moment the body corporate gets a court order.
The Marsh Rose case (2021) is the cautionary tale on the other side: a body corporate that charged interest on untaxed legal fees, inflated the rate to 24% compounded monthly, and let the total charges exceed the capital amount. The court struck it all down. The in duplum rule protects owners from exploitation — but it doesn’t protect them from the consequences of legitimate debt enforcement done properly.
The Levy Clearance Certificate Trap
Even if your body corporate never takes you to court, you can’t escape. Section 15(2) of the Sectional Titles Act requires a levy clearance certificate before any unit can be transferred. No clearance, no sale.
I’ve seen owners try to sell units to escape arrears only to discover that the arrears, plus compound interest, plus the managing agent’s collection fees, have to be settled in full before the conveyancer can process the transfer. The arrears they were running from became the wall they couldn’t climb over.
And if you think prescription saves you — think again. While the normal prescription period is three years under the Prescription Act, the courts have consistently upheld that the embargo provision in sectional title deeds keeps the debt alive. You can’t simply wait it out.
Why This Matters Right Now
South Africa’s prime lending rate has dropped from 11.75% to 10.25%. Property transactions are picking up. More units are changing hands. And every body corporate in the country is about to discover exactly how much uncollected levy debt is sitting on its books — because the conveyancers processing these sales are going to force the issue.
The buildings that acted early — that had proper collection policies, that sent demand letters within 60 days, that escalated to CSOS or attorneys when needed — will process their sales smoothly.
The buildings that didn’t? They’re about to have a very uncomfortable AGM season.
What You Should Do This Week
If you’re a trustee: request a full arrears report from your managing agent. Not the summary — the detailed report showing every owner, every outstanding amount, every month of non-payment. If any account is more than 60 days overdue and no demand letter has been sent, ask your managing agent why. If you don’t get a satisfactory answer, you may have a managing agent problem as well as an arrears problem.
If you’re an owner in arrears: contact your managing agent before they contact their attorney. Most bodies corporate will agree to a structured repayment plan. Once the legal process starts, your ability to negotiate drops to near zero and the costs start compounding.
If you’re buying a unit: demand to see the body corporate’s financial statements before you sign. Not just the levy amount — the arrears schedule, the reserve fund balance, the insurance valuation. A building with 15% of its owners in default is a building in financial distress, regardless of how pretty the entrance looks.
The Bottom Line
Levy debt in South African sectional title schemes has reached what one specialist attorney recently called “a tipping point.” The courts are backing bodies corporate. The legal mechanisms are being enforced. And the era of quiet non-payment is over.
Your levy isn’t a suggestion. It’s a statutory obligation backed by the full force of the Magistrates’ Courts Act. Treat it accordingly.
