Levies

A levy is what a body corporate charges the owner of a sectional-title unit for the running of the scheme — maintenance, insurance, security, the reserve fund — often with water, electricity and refuse on the same statement.

Freehold properties normally have no levies, because they have no body corporate.

The levy charges are the body corporate bill

Each unit’s levy charges are the lines of the body corporate’s statement for that unit. Each line is charged to someone:

• The tenant — it goes on the tenant’s invoice (often water and refuse).
• The owner — the rest. For an agency it goes on the owner’s statement; if you manage your own properties it is simply your share.

Together they are what the body corporate bills the unit that month. That total appears in Expenses as the month’s body corporate bill by itself — there is nothing else to record.

A charge marked as a levy on the lease or on the owner shows on the Levies tab, and a charge added on the Levies tab goes on the tenant’s or owner’s invoice: they are the same charges.

The control sheet

Levies opens on the control sheet: every levy unit for a month, with

opening balance   what the unit owed the body corporate
+ charges         this month's levy charges
− paid            what was paid this month
= closing balance what it owes now

The closing balance is what the body corporate’s statement should show, so a difference is something missing, doubled or on the wrong unit. Next month opens at it.

Click a unit to see and change its charges: fill in a water reading, change an amount, or Add levy charge. The charge can be fixed (monthly, quarterly or yearly), for this month only, one that varies each month, metered (water or electricity), or a total paid in instalments (a special levy over six months).

Starting a unit

A unit makes a body corporate bill from the month you start it on the sheet. Tick the units on the control sheet and start them from a month, then set each unit’s opening balance — what it owed the body corporate then — on the unit. Nothing is billed before the start month.

If you recorded a body corporate payment for a month before, starting the unit takes it over as that month’s payment, so it is never counted twice.

Each month

1. Fill in what changes — a water reading, say. Until every charge has its amount, the month’s bill is Expected.
2. Pay the body corporate and mark the bill paid in Expenses, with the date. If the unit pays by debit order, tick that on the unit once and every bill is marked paid on its own.

A charge changed after the bill was paid updates the bill; what was paid stays, so the bill and the closing balance show what is still owing.

Who pays

• Agency: the levies pass through on the owner’s statement as before (levies and commission). The body corporate bill in Expenses is a record of the payment — it is never taken off the owner a second time. It follows the unit’s Body corporate paid by.
• Managing your own properties: the bill is your expense on the Income page; what the tenant pays for levy charges is income. See managing your own properties.