Many people buy a ground floor flat or a townhouse because it gives them what they think is their private garden.
But take care, it is not always what it seems.
In flat buildings, gardens are almost always common property, meaning they can be used by everyone, but over the years people have worked on the garden and slowly enclosed areas for their own use.
You need to be clear whether the garden that is allocated is purely for your own use or whether anyone is entitled to use it.
This can cause serious conflict when somebody from upstairs wants to have a family party and braai in your “garden”.
It is possible to have what is called an exclusive use area (EUA) which is legally allocated either on the sectional title plans or via the rules of the body corporate.
In that case, the area is for your exclusive use. It also means you are responsible for its upkeep too.
EUAs are supposed to have an extra levy that allows for those items that the body corporate needs to cover such as insurance and maintenance of this area in the sense of painting of the walls and windows contained in the EUA area.
You still need to look after it from a cleaning and maintenance point of view, such as grass cutting, repair the tap, and pay for the water that you use in your area.
Whether your garden is an EUA or common property, if you use it as your own then you are responsible for what goes on there.
One of the biggest problems are trees and climbers that are planted or allowed to grow in these areas.
We recently had to have some owners remove trees from their garden (SIMON POPULAR TREES) because of the damage they were causing.
The roots were growing through the walls of the units and boundary walls and causing serious damage.
The unit owner who planted these trees refused to remove them.
The contractors we hired to fix the place showed us the damage that was being caused and the owner was forced to remove the trees completely at her cost.
In addition she will now have to pay for the cost of removing the roots from the dividing wall and possibly the damage that has been caused to the adjacent unit where roots have grown into the floor of the lounge causing it to buckle.
Owners who hire out units should do regular inspections via their letting agents to ensure that such problems are not occurring in their gardens.
It must be remembered that if you or your tenant allow wild trees to grow and cause damage then you will have to pay the cost of repairs.
Owners cannot have it both ways that they have private garden areas but are not responsible for what happens in them.
- Mike Spencer is the founder and owner of Platinum Global. He is also a professional associated property valuer and consultant with work across the country as well as Eastern Europe and Australia.