The Covid-19 pandemic, which has now been a feature of our lives for 18 months, continues to generate new controversies. People who by nature are orderly and conscientious – and that includes most managing agents and trustees – are usually prepared to accept restrictions of their freedoms. Their priority is to protect themselves, their families…
WHEN A TWELVE-STORY TOWER PARTIALLY COLLAPSED in Surfside, Florida, community schemes throughout the world took note. Shoddy building works, poor municipal supervision, insufficient maintenance, serious storms and the board’s refusal to raise special levies to fund repairs did not just result in arguments and legal action—these conditions cost lives. 36 people died and 109 other…
In an article in the third 2021 edition of the prestigious Journal of South African Law (pages 456 to 473), Professor C.G. van der Merwe analysed a recent Australian case which is directly applicable to sectional title management in South Africa. He confirmed that all the same principles apply to sectional title rules, considered applicable…
The Community Scheme Ombud Service has been in operation for over six years and it now has a new chief ombud, Mr. Adv. Boyce Mkhize, who took office on 1 April 2021. So we need to look at the CSOS, assess the effect it has had on the community scheme industry as well as the…
What am I doing—apart from enjoying my semi-retirement? Working on a variety of new books. The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Navigator eBook was launched last week. This is something we have been working on for some time. The seed for this book was planted twenty years ago when a Sectional Title Scheme Manager short course…
Readers may recall that at the end of September 2020 I questioned the correctness of the part of the judgment in Kingshaven Homeowners’ Association v Botha and Others (6220/2019) [2020] ZAWCHC 92 in which the judge agreed with the Community Schemes Ombud Service adjudicator’s view that she could not have ordered an owner to stop…
The Community Schemes Ombud Service has published a reasonable number of adjudicator orders, all of which are available at https://www.csos.org.za/csos_adjudication_orders/. I have added to these various orders that have been sent to me and, excluding orders that are merely formal or record settlements, in total, I now have the text of 83 Gauteng orders, 83…
It is surprising how often hot-water geysers burst, usually causing water damage to the interior of sections, and often causing damage to one or more adjoining sections. There is a lot of work arising from geyser failures. A claim needs to be made on the body corporate’s insurance policy, which can involve much correspondence and…
A criticism of the judgment in Kingshaven HOA v Botha Illegal parking in community schemes is often a real problem, and scheme executives need to be able to effectively control parking in the scheme. In the case of Kingshaven Homeowners’ Association v Botha and Others (6220/2019) [2020] ZAWCHC 92, which came to the high court…
The Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (POPI Act) is now in operation, as from 1 July 2020. What does this mean for community schemes such as sectional title developments, homeowners associations and retirement villages? 1. By when do you have to comply with the POPI Act’s requirements? You have one year…
In these unusual Pandemic-tainted times, we need to be smart if we are to ensure the sustainability of our community schemes. In the area of scheme administration, there are seven issues I suggest all HOA, sectional title, retirement development and share block scheme executives should consider, to improve their scheme’s administrative efficiency. Most schemes…
We all know times are tough, and the reality is that some people cannot afford to pay their levies. They should sell, and as quickly as possible, but often they hold on too long and run up major debt to the body corporate in the form of unpaid levies. Once the legal fees are added,…
It is often hard to get sectional owners to attend meetings and for the body corporate to get a quorum of owners present or represented. The normal quorum requirement is one third of all owners’ voting values, but it is not unusual for general meetings to be automatically adjourned for a week because there is…
Sectional owners frequently complain that trustees spend scheme money on expenses that are not covered by the body corporate’s approved budgets, sometimes on unnecessary expenses, or that they spend more than the budgeted amounts. What can owners do when this happens? The law requires that trustees must spend the body corporate’s money in accordance with…
So you live in a sectional title unit, and suddenly you get a message from the managing agent or trustees saying your family is making too much noise. The message is headed “Final Warning” and says you have broken the scheme’s rules. If it happens again, you will be fined. The complaint may relate to…
