Sectional Titles Act: Know the law before extending your home

It often happens that an owner wants to increase the size of their apartment or home by adding extra space. This could be done by either creating a patio or extending an existing room or similar. Also possible is the erection of a free standing building on common property linked to the section in question.

As always there are legal requirements to be complied with to achieve the desired result. In legal parlance, this is known as extending your section and is governed by section 24 of the Sectional Titles Act, 1986.

The process is as follows:

1. The body corporate must first approve the proposed extension by way of a special resolution.
2. Once approved, a surveyor will draw a plan of extension of the section and submit it to the surveyor general for approval.
3. The owner will then instruct a conveyancer to apply to the Deeds office for the registration of the extension. The application is accompanied by the approved plan of extension together with the title deed to the section.
4. If the section is subject to a mortgage bond, then the application must be accompanied by the bond and an architect’s certificate that the extension will not alter the section’s participation quota (PQ) by more than 10%.
5. If there is a variation of the PQ exceeding 10%, all the banks who hold mortgages in the scheme must consent to the registration of the extension. There is fortunately a short method of achieving this available.
6. Once the extension has been registered, the registered area of the section is increased accordingly.
7. The increase in the area of the section increases that section’s participation quota (PQ) in the scheme ie it’s share of levies will increase. All the other PQ’s will be reduced proportionately.

If an unregistered extension to a section exists, it is essential that the owner registers the extension as there may be adverse consequences from an insurance and marketability perspective. The unregistered portions of a section are not taken into account when assessing the section’s insurance or market value.