Maintenance Is Invisible Excellence

A large special levy is almost never as sudden as it feels. Owners open a letter saying each of them must pay a big sum within a few months because the complex needs repainting and waterproofing at once, and it lands like a storm out of a clear sky. But that bill was building for years, one postponed job at a time.

The law expects sectional title schemes to plan for exactly this. A body corporate is meant to keep a written plan for maintaining, repairing and replacing the major parts of the common property, and to put money into a reserve fund so the work can be paid for when it comes due. When trustees keep levies low by skipping that saving, they are borrowing from the owners of the future, often the same owners.

Maintenance done on schedule earns no praise. Nobody holds a meeting to celebrate walls that were sealed before the damp got in, or a lift that was serviced and simply kept working. The reward is something that never happens, and that is hard to vote for.

So the scheme's documents are some of the most honest evidence a buyer can read. A maintenance plan that is followed and a reserve fund that grows describe a complex paying as it goes. A thin reserve and a long list of postponed jobs describe a special levy that has not been announced yet.