Santam Tackles Levy Problems Through New Product

July 23 - A new company has launched a product geared for the sectional title property sector, and insurance giant, Santam, has taken a major shareholding in the group.

The company and its product are both named Stilus, an acronym for Sectional Title Levy Underwriting Security, and offers the service of taking full responsibility for collecting arrear payments from defaulters.

"Liquidity problems in the sectional title industry stem from bodies corporate being unable to obtain short term loans because they have no assets which financial institutions can use as security," explained the Managing Director of Stilus, Charles Coetzee.

"When corporate members omit to pay their levies on time, the bodies corporate find themselves in a situation where they cannot pay for municipal services such as water, refuse collection and sewerage disposal, nor can they maintain their properties as they should," he continued.

Bodies corporate do not need to be members of Santam in order to take out the Stilus policy, since this is a standalone product.

However, bodies corporate do need to bring their financial statements up to date and show clear evidence of good governance.

The body will then sign an insurance policy with Stilus in order to guaranteed all monthly levies payable by members.

Coetzee believes so much in this product that he foresees Stilus becoming a compulsory part of all bodies corporate in the future.