Parking bays in sectional title schemes | What owners need to know
26 August 2026
Sarah’s Socials | Post 11
Parking bays look simple until you try to work out what you actually own or hold rights to. Four completely different legal arrangements can look identical from the outside. Getting the structure right matters more than you'd expect, because it affects what you can do with your bay, what happens when you sell your unit, and what recourse you have if it's taken away.
1. When the parking bay is actually a section
Here's something most owners don't realise: your parking bay could be registered as its own section.
This is how my scheme, in Cape Town, regulates our parking bays. My parking bay is registered as a separate section in the sectional title deed, complete with its own unit number.
This made a massive difference when it came to the recent City of Cape Town (CoCT) tariffs that have now been overturned. Despite having no water connection or sewage connection, the CoCT treated it as part of the municipal valuation and calculated rates based on its floor space contribution to the unit's total value. I ended up paying CoCT water and sanitation tariffs on a parking bay.
While this structure is rare, it does happen. And if it's your parking bay, you need to know, because the legal and financial consequences are different from every other parking arrangement.
2. Registered Exclusive Use Areas (EUAs) - The real right
Most parking bays created after the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 came into force are registered as exclusive use areas under section 27. These are registered real rights to immovable property. The right is ceded by notarial deed and registered at the deeds office against your section.
The key word here is "real." A real right attaches to the property itself. If you own the section, the registered exclusive use right comes with it. You can trade it, exchange it, or sell it, but only to another owner in the same scheme. A registered EUA cannot be sold on the open market to an outsider; the right is only transferable between members of the body corporate.
This is also where the conveyancing trap could appear. If the notarial deed of cession isn't actually registered against the section on transfer to a new owner, the right doesn't follow the buyer. It can fall back to being common property, leaving the new owner with no claim to the bay they thought they were getting. A real right versus a personal right isn't just theory, it's what happens (or doesn't happen) at the deeds office when the unit changes hands.
3. Rule-based EUAs - The personal right
The second way to create an exclusive use area is through the scheme's management or conduct rules, under sections 10(7) and 10(8) of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011 ("the STSMA"). These are considered personal rights, and not real rights. They're effective against the body corporate and all owners and occupiers of units, but they don't follow the property in the same way a registered right does.
If an EUA is created in the conduct rules, it requires a special resolution (75% in value and number). If it's created in the management rules, a unanimous resolution (100% voting in favour at a meeting of 80% quorum) is required.
The advantage of a rule-based EUA is flexibility, you can amend the rules more easily than you can change a registered deed. The disadvantage is that the right is personal to the body corporate's framework, not a property right in the traditional sense. It's a contractual arrangement between the owner and the scheme.
4. Just leasing a bay from the body corporate - The informal route
Then there's the lease arrangement. Section 4(h) of the STSMA allows a body corporate to lease areas of common property to an owner or occupier of a section. This requires a special resolution by the members of the body corporate.
Here's where practice and law diverge. Informally, many schemes lease parking bays to owners without any resolution at all. The understanding is simple: you pay the body corporate a monthly fee, and you get to park there. It's done quietly, without formality, and it happens a lot.
The Community Schemes Ombud Service (“the CSOS”) is often not in favour of this approach being regulated by the conduct rules as it is seen as a separate legal contract between an owner and the body corporate. Your conduct rules can't regulate a lease, the lease agreement itself does that. And if the lease isn't properly authorised by resolution, you're in a vulnerable position. The body corporate can technically withdraw the arrangement at will, and you have limited recourse.
An important detail to note is that a lease under section 4(h) can only be granted to an owner or occupier of a section and is limited to 10 years maximum. If you're leasing to a tenant, or if the term is 10 years or longer, a unanimous resolution is required instead. Leases of shorter duration to unit owners need only a special resolution.
Common mistakes and visitor parking
Most schemes make one or more of these mistakes with parking:
Trustees allocate bays informally without any resolution at all, relying on "we've always done it this way."
Visitor parking bays quietly become semi-permanent private parking, with the same car in the "visitor" bay most days of the week.
An "understanding" about parking doesn't carry over when a unit is sold. The new owner arrives to find someone else in what they thought was their bay.
Parking rules are written vaguely, leaving owners and trustees guessing about enforcement and priority.
Conclusion | Correctly identity your parking bay
Know which of the four arrangements your parking bay actually is. It changes what you can do with it, what happens when you sell, and what happens if someone tries to take it away. A parking bay that looks straightforward from the outside might carry hidden legal complexity underneath.
If you need assistance navigating your schemes parking bays, reach out to us at info@tvdmconsultants.com or call 061 536 3138.
About the author
Sarah Sydenham is a community schemes consultants at TVDM Consultants.
Sarah is also an admitted attorney, brings a well-rounded legal background and a passion for community schemes to her role.
Learn more about Sarah Sydenham.
