Question:
Four year ago I enclosed a courtyard in my complex with permission from the chairman at the time. We have 50 units and half of them have done small alterations without the required plans. Now we have a new chairman and he is doing alterations and getting plans done and is insisting everyone do the same. People have sold and gone. What about the new owners? He wants them to pay. Can he do this?

Answer:
The situation you describe is not uncommon. A number of alterations have been effected without the required authorization and/or without approved building plans. The chairman is now attempting to 'regularise' the irregular alterations in the scheme.

Can he do this? Yes, and in terms of the trustees' statutory obligation to control and administer the common property for the benefit of all owners and to enforce the rules of the scheme, he is obliged to do so.

What about the new owners? If the units that they have bought have unauthorized alterations, they have 'inherited' these problems from their predecessors-in-title. The body corporate can only act against the current owner of a unit and therefore it is unlikely that it will have any luck in taking up the unauthorized alterations with a previous owner. However, the current owner in his/her capacity as buyer of the unit may have a claim against his predecessor-in-title as the seller of the unit but s/he may require legal assistance in realizing such a claim.

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