COURT ALLOWS BODY CORPORATE TO CUT ELECTRICITY TO SECTION
Body Corporate The S[…] v Katisi (2023/031774) [2025] ZAGPJHC 2 (3 January 2025)
Sound administration of a sectional title scheme cannot be achieved or maintained without collection of contributions due to the body corporate by owners. Sectional title law therefore empowers a body corporate to institute proceedings and obtain judgment against defaulters. Would a body corporate succeed in obtaining an additional order to cut electricity supply to the defaulting owner’s unit? The court answered in the affirmative, in circumstances where the body corporate paid the Eskom account and thereafter charged the unit owners in accordance with their actual usage.
The judgment can be viewed here
Summary of the Judgment
WHAT CONSTITUTES ‘GOOD CAUSE’ TO WITHHOLD CONSENT TO A BODY CORPORATE DISPOSING OF A RIGHT TO EXTEND?
Body Corporate of San Sydney v Shivani Singh and Others (779/2023) [2024] ZASCA 169 (9 December 2024)
In this judgment, the Supreme Court of Appeal considered the consent requirements and application processes that must accompany the disposal by a body corporate of the right to extend the scheme, which vests in it, to a third party. It deals specifically with the question of whether such disposal constitutes alienation of common property and, otherwise, how a court will determine whether an owner had good cause to refuse to consent to such disposal.
