Exclusive use areas

The Act makes provision for exclusive use rights to be allocated to certain areas of the common property.  Exclusive use rights can only be given to owners of sections in the scheme – if you are no longer an owner you forfeit your exclusive use right to that area.

There are three types of exclusive use areas (EUA’s):

• EUA’s created under the 1971 Act
• EUA’s created in terms of Section 5(1)(e) of the STSM Act and Section 27 of the ST Act (shown on the sectional plans)
• EUA’s created in terms of Section 10(7) of the STSM Act (shown in the rules of the scheme)

EUA’s created under Section 5 are the best option but the most difficult and most costly to obtain, but these areas can be mortgaged and sold to new owners of the section it is linked to.

EUA’s created under Section 10 are only set out in the rules – that means they can easily be taken away from an owner when the rules are amended.

Owners are sometimes under the impression that they have exclusive use rights to an area – for example a garden if there is a wall built around the area and access can only be gained through their section.  But if exclusive use rights have not been created in terms of one of the above ways it is definitely not an exclusive use area and technically any owner can insist on access to the area – even if it is a balcony on the fourth floor of a block of flats!