Waiting it out feels like the safe option. In sectional title, it's usually the most expensive one.
Nobody wants to sell under pressure. The instinct when financial stress sets in — when the levies start piling up, when the bond payment becomes a stretch, when the arrears letter arrives — is to hold on. To manage. To wait for things to improve.
It's an understandable instinct. In sectional title, it is often a financially devastating one.
The difference between selling voluntarily at the right time and being forced out through the courts is not just a matter of timing. It is the difference between walking away with something and walking away with nothing — and in some cases, still owing money long after the keys are gone.
How the Problem Starts
Levy arrears rarely begin with a deliberate decision not to pay. They begin with a month where something else takes priority. Then another month. Then a third, by which point the arrears have attracted interest and the total is harder to address than it would have been at the start.
The same pattern applies to bond stress. A retrenchment, a divorce, a business that hits trouble — life changes that were not part of the plan when the property was purchased.
What matters is not how the problem started. What matters is what happens next.
The Window That Exists — But Doesn't Stay Open
When an owner falls into levy arrears, the body corporate has the legal right to pursue recovery through the courts. The process moves from letters of demand to summons to judgment to attachment to — if nothing else works — sale in execution of the property.
The full process takes approximately 24 to 30 months from the issuing of summons to sale in execution. That sounds like a long time. In practice, it passes faster than most owners expect — and the financial damage accumulates throughout.
At every stage of that process, there is a window to sell voluntarily. To list the property on the open market, achieve a market-related price, settle the outstanding levies and bond from the proceeds, and walk away with whatever equity remains.
That window narrows at each stage. And once the sheriff's auction date is set, it effectively closes.
Willie Roos, CEO of Stratafin, describes the pattern he sees consistently in their "help you sell" programme: "People owe a lot of money. They get to the point where they act like ostriches — stick their heads in the sand and don't want to do anything. And then the day or the week before the sale in execution they phone and say can we do something, can we now sell."
By that stage, stopping the process no longer makes financial sense for the body corporate, for Stratafin, or for anyone involved in the legal proceedings. The answer, almost always, is no.
What a Forced Sale Actually Costs You
This is the part most owners don't fully understand until it's happened.
When a property is sold in execution, the purchase price at auction can appear remarkably low. The reserve price — set by the court — is often well below market value. And if the property has gone to auction multiple times without selling, the court may eventually remove the reserve entirely, meaning the property sells to the highest bidder regardless of what that bid is.
But the low auction price is not a relief for the original owner. It is a compounding problem.
If the auction price does not cover the outstanding bond, the bank can pursue the owner for the shortfall for up to 30 years. A judgment debt that stands for three decades, attached to every asset the owner acquires in that time.
The owner loses the property. They lose the equity they had built. They potentially lose future property and assets as the bank executes on its judgment. And they walk away with nothing — or less than nothing.
The Equity That Disappears
Here is the calculation that makes early action so compelling.
Consider an owner whose property is worth R800,000. Their outstanding bond is R550,000. Their accumulated levy arrears are R60,000.
If they sell on the open market today:
- Sale proceeds: R800,000
- Bond settlement: R550,000
- Levy arrears settlement: R60,000
- Estate agent commission and transfer costs: approximately R60,000
- Amount in the owner's pocket: approximately R130,000
If they wait 18 months and the property is sold in execution:
- Auction price: potentially R400,000 to R500,000 (well below market value)
- Outstanding bond — which has continued to accumulate interest: R580,000
- The auction price doesn't cover the bond. The bank pursues the shortfall.
- Amount in the owner's pocket: nothing. Plus an ongoing debt.
The equity that existed — the R130,000 that could have provided a fresh start — has been consumed by time, interest, legal fees, and a below-market forced sale.
Stratafin's Help You Sell Programme
Recognising this pattern, Stratafin runs a proactive programme designed to intercept owners at the point where voluntary sale is still possible and financially beneficial.
At each stage of the legal recovery process, their team contacts the debtor directly. The message is practical and honest: your equity is still there, but it is shrinking. The longer you wait, the less there is. An estate agent can list your property now, achieve a market-related price, and you can walk away with something meaningful.
For owners who engage, the outcome is almost always better than what a forced sale would have produced. The body corporate gets paid. The bank gets settled. The legal proceedings are halted. And the owner — despite the difficulty of the situation — exits with their financial future intact.
Willie Roos is direct about what this requires: "Far better approach is when you are realizing that the expenses are now too much for you to carry — get an estate agent involved and try and sell that property and at least recover that equity."
When the Bank Is Also Owed More Than the Property Is Worth
Some situations are more complicated. The outstanding bond exceeds the current market value. The levy arrears are substantial. The numbers, on the face of it, don't work.
Even in these cases, early engagement is the better path.
Stratafin regularly negotiates with banks on behalf of owners in this position. They present the full picture — what is owed to the body corporate, what is owed to the bank, what the property will realistically sell for, what commission and costs are involved — and work toward an arrangement where all parties give up something to make the deal work.
Willie Roos described completing exactly such a negotiation: "Standard Bank is prepared to accept less than 50% of their outstanding bond to actually make the deal work so that the property can transfer and the estate agents earn their commission and the levies get paid to the body corporate."
The bank takes a loss. The owner is released from the debt. The body corporate is paid. The estate agent earns their commission. Everyone leaves in a better position than a forced auction would have produced.
This kind of outcome is only possible when there is time to negotiate. It is not possible the week before an auction.
The One Decision That Changes Everything
If you are an owner in levy arrears, or struggling to meet your bond payments, or watching the letters arrive with increasing frequency — the single most important decision you can make is to act now rather than later.
Contact an estate agent. Get a current market valuation. Understand what you would walk away with at current market value versus what the trajectory looks like if the legal process runs its course.
In most cases, the numbers will make the decision obvious.
The equity you have today is the most you will have if you wait. It does not recover while levies accumulate and legal costs are added. It diminishes — steadily, and then quickly.
Sell while there is still something to sell. Walk away with something rather than nothing. And use what remains to start again somewhere that works.