We bought a townhouse in Pretoria without checking the building plans due to destruction of the Minitoria Munisipal buildings a few years ago. As far as oure neighbours are conserned the previous owner did not ammend the building plans due to the same reason,permission was obtained from the acting trustees at that stage in time. What is the implications for us the new owners of the unit wrt ammending the plans,and were would we find new plans? With the plans in Minitoria destroyed how would someboddy prove that the alterations werent done on the building plans? The improvements done was building a wooden patio with a roof over it and converting the adjacent garage into a living area without changing the outside appearance of the unit. Are we responsible for the costs ect.,and how do we go about getting everything legal? Are there a time factor involved wrt. above mentioned questions.

Hi Werner

If your townhouse is part of a sectional title scheme, then these plans are still available at the deeds office in pretoria and not at the municipality. If the floor area has changed these should have been amended at the time the alterations were done.

With regards to the building plans, you would need to contact your local town planning department. I believe that the building plans are the owners responsibility.

Werner, there appears to be two issues here:
1) I doubt if a wooden deck requires builiding plans. There are millions of covered carports in Pta and I'm told they all need building plans - but who cares anyway! The difficulty will arise if walls have now been built from deck to ceiling, thus creating a habitable space. Plus I assume it leads directly off an outside door. If this is the case then it will have to be dealt with under Sect 24 of the Act. If no walls exist then don't worry about the legalities, but the area in question must be investigated on the Sect Plan to establish wether it is common property or exclusive use area. If common property it must be dealt with under Sect 27(a). If exclusive use area then the trustees are able to approve this without further input from other owners, taking into account harmonius appearance etc
2) The garage IS a problem: previous trustees did not have the authority to approve the conversion even if the garage is shown on the Sect plan as exclusive use area: The floor space of the unit has been increased, thereby affecting the participation quota and similarly the levy component. It MUST be dealt with under Sect 24, but if you read it you will see horrific complications and costs. The odd plan shows garages as parts of the section, and if yours does then disregard everything I've said, except for the question of uses of garages according to your management rules
I'm in Pta and went through this whole exercise to legalise all the wrongdoings of the past, but you need every owner's participation: you will have to change your management and conduct rules, redraw the Sect plan, register at the Deeds office etc. Start off by getting the Sect plan: you will see who the architects were. Maybe they still have a copy of the building plans
Get a copy of the Act and the Schedule 8 Management rules and read these 10 times!
I can help here but the bad news is it has taken 2 and a half years and I'm still not finished!
Good luck
Jurgens