Understanding your rights within sectional titles
Keen to buy a sectional title property? Think about the rules and regulations involved and what you can and can’t do to the property.
Sectional title property rules and regulations can often get a little bit confusing, and the longer one lives in a sectional title estate, the more potential there is for one to feel a sense of ownership over potentially communal spaces. The lines can get a little blurry, which why it’s a good thing to fully understand your rights when it comes to owning a sectional title property.
A sectional title property is a unit owned within a complex or development that offers communal or public space within it. An issue that commonly occurs due to misunderstanding sectional rules is that owners change or add structural elements to what they consider their personal property, but is in fact classified as public, leading to neighbourly disputes.
According to Andrew Schaefer, MD of Trafalgar, “we have seen owners – and tenants – decide to block off the section of a walkway that only leads to their front door with a security gate, put a fence around a piece of garden in front of their unit, hang an awning over their balcony from the outside wall of the building, or put up a carport on the roadway in front of their garage”.
While these seem like legitimate changes, sectional title ownership is limited to the interior walls of a unit or townhouse, and whatever is beyond that point isn’t necessarily an owners personal property that they can do what they want with. If an owner wishes to make any changes or claim an area as their own, they will first have to approach the board of trustees who will consider the request. These requests often include the buy in of not only the trustees, but all owners within the complex too.
So, if you’re on the verge of buying a sectional title, remember to ask about all the rules and regulations involved, and how much control or say over the outside of your property you will have.
