We have seen that special levies are definitely something which is being frowned upon by sectional scheme owners. They expect that all maintenance should be done by their current levies, and they don’t like the idea of paying extra for emergency repair purposes. In this article I will briefly explain why people don’t like the idea and why it is important to understand it.

It is important that sectional scheme owners understand that proper maintenance will add value to their property even if they are asked to pay a bit extra. The main cause of frustrations comes when they are expected to pay more. They believe that they are asking more money because the property wasn’t maintained in a proper way or they are getting money for other people’s outstanding levies.

They should understand that the current levies of most sectional units are barely enough to cover for the day to day expenses and will not cover for when there is an emergency that needs to be taken care of. Maintenance becomes expensive when you have leaking roofs, security system failures, plumbing problems and electrical problems in the complex, and most apartment blocks don’t have sufficient funds to cover the expenses.

In most cases the owners wont have a problem to pay for a levy if it is for a specific purpose, but the problem is that they never know what the total costs would be for the repairs or maintenance. They will also get the idea that they are paying for other people.

A common situation it that when ground floor owners are being asked to assist with the levies when they want to add a lift or repair staircases, but they should understand that it will improve the property value of their ground unit as well.

I would recommend that levies should be a bit higher from the start. Then they can save a bit of the monthly fees into a reserve account which can be used in the case of an emergency. So that they know there will be extra funds for when it is needed.

It is thus clear that the amounts of money being spend will be paid back by the rising value of the sectional units. It is common sense that a well looked after piece of property is definitely more attractive for future buyers.