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or indulgence must be in writing and signed by both parties, in order to be valid.
As a rule of thumb, it is always wise to tread carefully when dealing with a
suspensive condition and ensure that all timeframes are met. If necessary, seek
the advice of your attorney to make sure that you don’t lose your dream home
because a condition was not correctly fulfilled.

How to stop the water abuse in your complex

March 2018

“We are all aware of the water restrictions around the country and that we
should all try and save water. Yet in our sectional scheme, there are some of
the owners that openly waste water, but receive the same water bill as I do
from the body corporate. Surely our body corporate should be dealing more
effectively with such wastage?”

The general rule in sectional title schemes is that owners are billed according
to the participation quota in the scheme, determined according to the relative
size of the unit. The problem with this is that this is not always reflective of the
actual use of the water. A large unit owner could be away for large parts of a
year and not use nearly as much water as a smaller unit that has a number of
persons who use water excessively, yet on the basis of this approach, the larger
unit would get the higher water bill from the Body Corporate.

Body corporates are however coming to grips with the importance of becoming Property
stricter with the water usage in the scheme, particularly because of penalties
and higher volume rates that many municipalities are implementing to curb
water usage. Many schemes are creating awareness within the scheme to act
more responsibly with regards to water use and even implementing scheme
rules in respect of water use, allowable plants, irrigation use, water recycling and
more, to help owners become more water wise. Some schemes are even going
so far as to implement penalty systems to discourage abuse by owners. But yet,
there will always be persons that will still try and get away and abuse the scarce
water supply available to us.
Other steps that many body corporates are taking to curb this, is to have
individual water meters installed for each unit, allowing each unit’s water
consumption to be measured and billed to that unit. Another alternative is,
installing prepaid water systems, where unit owners have to purchase water
(similar to prepaid electricity). In both cases, there are potential costs and
other issues involved, and such resolutions would have to be correctly taken
by the body corporate. With prepaid water systems, there are also potentially
constitutional issues relating to access to water to be considered. Yet, many

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