Can Levies be written off?
The short answer is NO
There is a whole process available to the Body Corporate for collecting arrear levies – from phonecalls and reminders to court or adjudicator orders. Movable assets can be attached eventually or in extreme cases the unit itself can be auctioned off.
Trustees should ensure that action is taken timeously against arrear levies and not to let it expand into unmanageable amounts.
Should a unit be sold on auction then the buyer can be held liable for the outstanding debt as well.
Should it come to a place where the unit is sold, and the buyer is requesting levies to be written off the Body Corporate should take the matter to the owners.
Quote from the STSM Act:
There is nothing in the STSM Act or even the PMRs that allows the Body Corporate to write off levies. This position was confirmed by the Gauteng High Court in the Zikalala v Body Corporate Selma Court and Another case.
In this case the Judge ruled that in extreme circumstances you would need a unanimous resolution by the Body Corporate to write off levies.