Recent amendments to the City of Cape Town’s Water By-law have introduced a few significant changes that are going to impact on our lives, especially for the owners of Sectional Title properties or properties where the main municipal water supply feeds more than one dwelling or unit.

If you were the owner, or the person in control of such a property, and if the branch supply pipes to the separate units did not have:

1. an isolating valve (to control or cut off supply); and
2. a water management device, prepayment meter, or private sub meter,

you now have an obligation to ensure that these items are installed. The deadline for such an installation is 4 October 2020.

If, however, there was already an isolating valve on the branch supply pipe, you were obliged to have installed a water management device, prepayment meter, or private sub meter by 4 October 2019. This obligation is therefore already overdue.

According to Tyron Vomberg of Inspecto, these requirements are not yet on the list of items to be checked by the plumber who issues a water certificate of compliance, but we believe they soon will be. When this happens, no water certificate will be issued if your property is non-compliant.

The installation of these items can be done by private plumbers who are registered with the City, but the work can take time. So, if you are non-compliant and intending to sell your sectional title property or a property forming part of a scheme, it would be advisable to get compliant before you do so, especially if your transfer will be registered after 4 October 2020.

Divan Stander and Deon Welz
Miltons Matsemela Inc
March 2020