Special Levies in South African Sectional Title Schemes: When They Are Lawful and How to Raise One

The quote comes in on a Tuesday. The lift that has been limping along for two years has finally failed its inspection, the repair is R380 000, and the reserve fund holds a little under half of that. The trustees sit around a dining room table, look at the numbers, and someone says the words every owner dreads: special levy.

Few phrases in community scheme life cause more anger. Owners feel ambushed. Trustees feel cornered. WhatsApp groups catch fire. And in the middle of it all sits a piece of legislation that is actually quite clear about when a special levy is allowed, who decides, who pays, and what has to happen next. Trustees who know the rules can raise a lawful special levy and defend it calmly. Trustees who guess tend to end up defending a dispute instead.

This guide sets out the legal framework for special levies in South African sectional title schemes, the common mistakes that get bodies corporate into trouble, and the practical steps that make an unpopular decision survivable.

What the law actually says

Special levies, formally called special contributions, are governed by the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011, usually shortened to the STSMA, together with the Prescribed Management Rules (PMRs) issued under it.

Section 3(3) of the STSMA empowers the trustees to raise a special contribution by resolution. Read that again, because it surprises many owners: the trustees, not the members. A special levy does not need to be approved at an annual or special general meeting. There is no vote of owners. The trustees pass a resolution, and the contribution becomes due and payable on the passing of that resolution.

That is a significant power, and the rules balance it with a significant restriction. PMR 21(3)(a) only permits a special contribution when additional income is required to meet a necessary expense that cannot reasonably be delayed until it is provided for in the budget for the next financial year. Both legs matter. The expense must be necessary, and it must be genuinely unable to wait.

So the lawful territory for a special levy is narrow: an expense the scheme truly has to incur, which was not provided for in the budget approved at the last AGM, and which cannot reasonably stand over to the next budget cycle. Emergency repairs, an urgent statutory compliance cost, an insurance excess on a major claim: these are the classic examples.

When a special levy is not lawful

The restriction cuts off the two most common abuses.

A special levy cannot fund an expense that can wait. If the painting programme is due in eighteen months, that belongs in next year's budget and the reserve fund, not in a surprise contribution this quarter. If trustees cannot honestly say the expense is urgent, the correct route is to budget for it and put that budget to the members at a general meeting, where owners get their vote.

A special levy cannot re-fund the budget. If an item was already provided for in the approved estimate of expenditure and the money was spent on something else, or the estimate was simply too low across the board, the underlying problem is budgeting and financial control. Owners are entitled to ask hard questions when a special levy looks like a patch over poor planning, and CSOS adjudicators ask the same questions.

There is also a quieter, structural point. The STSMA requires every body corporate to maintain both an administrative fund and a reserve fund that are reasonably sufficient to cover the scheme's expenses, and to plan major maintenance ahead of time. A scheme that raises special levies year after year for predictable items, waterproofing, lifts, painting, paving, is really telling its owners that its reserve fund and maintenance planning have failed. The occasional special levy is a legitimate emergency tool. The habitual special levy is a governance symptom.

Who pays, and how much

Ordinary contributions are levied on owners in proportion to their participation quotas, the percentage each section carries based on its floor area, unless the scheme has lawfully adopted a different basis. The same default applies to special contributions: each owner's share follows their participation quota unless a properly adopted rule provides otherwise. A scheme can only change the basis of levy liability through the process the Act prescribes, which includes a special resolution and the written consent of any owner who would be adversely affected. Trustees cannot simply decide that a special levy will be split differently because it feels fairer.

Liability attaches to the persons who are owners when the trustee resolution is passed. That matters most when a unit is sold mid-levy. Under the old Sectional Titles Act regime, the seller generally had to settle special levies before transfer. The STSMA changed the position: where a special contribution is payable in instalments and ownership of the unit changes, the new owner, the successor in title, becomes liable for the pro rata share of the contribution from the date of change of ownership. Buyers and their conveyancers should ask specifically about special levies in the levy clearance process, and trustees should disclose them plainly, because a surprise inherited levy is a fast route to conflict.

Trustees also decide the payment terms. A special contribution can be called up in one amount or spread over instalments, and spreading a large levy over several months is often the difference between grudging acceptance and genuine hardship. The resolution should record the amount, the purpose, the payment dates and the instalment structure in terms that an owner reading it cold can understand.

Notice, interest and arrears

Raising the levy is only half of the job. The management rules are specific about what owners must be told.

PMR 25(1) requires the body corporate to give every member written notice of the contributions and charges they must pay. The notice must state the obligation to pay and the due date, the interest rate that will apply to overdue amounts, and details of the scheme's dispute resolution process. For ordinary contributions this notice follows the budget approval; for a special contribution, the same discipline applies from the trustee resolution. A special levy that arrives as a one line WhatsApp message is asking for trouble.

If an owner does not pay, PMR 25(2) requires a final notice before recovery action, setting out the interest accrued, the amounts accruing daily, and the body corporate's intention to recover the debt if it is not settled within 14 days.

Interest on overdue contributions is not automatic and not unlimited. Under PMR 21(3)(c) the trustees may charge interest on arrears only by written trustee resolution, and the rate may not exceed the maximum rate permitted under the National Credit Act, compounded monthly in arrear. Schemes that charge an arbitrary penalty rate with no resolution behind it routinely lose that argument when it is tested.

If owners dispute the levy

Owners are not powerless, but the law is clear about the route. An owner who believes a special contribution was incorrectly determined or is unreasonable can apply to the Community Schemes Ombud Service, which has the power under section 39(1)(c) of the CSOS Act to declare a contribution incorrectly determined or unreasonable and to adjust it.

What an owner cannot lawfully do is simply stop paying. Levies must be paid while a dispute runs its course; withholding payment puts the owner in breach and exposes them to interest and recovery costs even if the underlying complaint has merit. Trustees should say this early and kindly, and should also take it as a mirror: if the scheme's paper trail is thin, the resolution vague or the purpose questionable, CSOS is where those gaps will be examined.

A trustee checklist before you sign the resolution

Before the trustees resolve to raise a special levy, they should be able to answer yes to each of these:

• The expense is necessary, and we can explain why in one paragraph.
• It cannot reasonably wait for the next financial year's budget.
• It is not already provided for in the approved budget.
• We have quotes or a professional assessment supporting the amount.
• The resolution records the amount, purpose, basis of apportionment, due dates and any instalment plan.
• Every owner will receive a proper written notice with due dates, the interest position and the dispute process.
• We have considered instalments and hardship arrangements for owners who cannot pay at once.
• The levy and its purpose will be reported on until the money is spent and accounted for.

If any answer is no, fix that first. The half day it takes is far cheaper than an adjudication.

What this looks like in Votera

Most special levy disputes are really record keeping and communication failures wearing a legal costume. That is the part software can carry.

In Votera, the trustee resolution lives in the scheme's governance record with its supporting quotes attached, so the "why" of the levy is never a matter of memory. The levy itself is raised against each unit according to its participation quota, with instalment schedules applied automatically, so no owner is left doing suspicious arithmetic on a statement. Written notices go out through the platform with the due dates, interest terms and dispute process included, and every owner's acknowledgement and payment status is visible to the trustees in one view. When a unit changes hands, the outstanding pro rata position is there in black and white for the conveyancer's clearance questions. And because Votera also tracks the maintenance plan and reserve fund, trustees can see the honest answer to the harder question: is this a genuine emergency, or the third "emergency" this cycle that better planning would have caught?

A special levy will never be popular. Handled this way, it can at least be defensible, transparent and quick.

Votera is an HOA and body corporate management platform built for South African community schemes, covering governance, maintenance, vendor compliance, and resident communication in one dashboard. See how the governance module works or start a free 30-day trial.