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 no quorum, and this is a waste of time and money.
Under previous legislation, no form was prescribed for an owner’s appointment of a proxy. Now, under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act of 2011 (STSM Act), Form C to the Regulations is prescribed. You don’t have to use this form exactly as prescribed, but the appointment document has to be “substantially” in the same format. This means you can make minor amendments to the wording, and you can send it by email, but you do need to include all the information required by the format of the prescribed form and make sure it is signed by the owner and the person appointed.
Another important issue is that the STSM Act limits the number of proxy appointments any person may hold. No person may act as a proxy for more than two owners.
So when owners appoint proxies, as they should if they cannot attend a general meeting, they have to fill out Form C. They have to specify the name of the person they are appointing, and then have the appointed proxy sign the form to confirm that the appointed proxy accepts the mandate. If an owner signs the form but leaves out the name of the proxy, i.e. signs the proxy form “in blank”, that appointment is incomplete and therefore invalid. A third party cannot take that incomplete form, fill in their own name and then sign the acceptance. It can only be the owner who fills in the name of the proxy, and the form becomes valid when that proxy named by the owner signs the acceptance clause. In short: A proxy appointment form signed in blank is invalid.
In giving a proxy on Form C, an owner can include a statement that the named proxy will have “power of substitution”, which means that the appointed proxy is entitled to substitute a third party. This might make sense if the owner is concerned that the proxy may not be able to attend the meeting or may be appointed by two other owners. In this case the named proxy would need to sign the form to show acceptance of the original appointment and then enter into a separate contract delegating the rights and assigning the obligations under the original appointment to a third party, and both the original proxy and the third party accepting the mandate as the substitute would have to sign that contract. The chairperson of the meeting would have to see both the original proxy and the substitution contract before allowing the substitute to represent the owner.
Should you require any advice on this subject, or wish to discuss any related matter with a specialist community schemes attorney, don’t hesitate to contact our consulting department at consulting@paddocks.co.za for a no-obligation quote to provide the necessary legal assistance.
Graham Paddock is South Africa’s Sectional Title Guru. Graham advises and drafts legislation for the Government. His advice is valued by all stakeholder groups in the industry.
Article reference: Paddocks Press: October 2019.
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Graham Paddock on Body Corporate Functions: Insurance
- Graham Paddock on Spending body corporate funds
- Graham Paddock on The Levy Clearance Certificate: The Body Corporate’s Cheap & Effective Weapon
- Graham Paddock on The benefits of online sectional title meetings
- Heinz Wiesner on The benefits of online sectional title meetings
Archives
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- February 2008
- February 2007
4 Comments.
Proxies do not have to be submitted 48 or 12 hours prior to the meeting, they can be handed in at the meeting.
If I am provided with a general power of attorney and have to attend an AGM would the meeting reject my attendance ? Obviously the premise is that the power of attorney is open ended .
Example my son is abroad and leaves me as proxy for his real estate investments . The power of Attorney is limited in that I may not sell or dispose of such investments .
I would like to know, if I am not an owner but someone appoints me as a trustees, do they also have to provide me with a power of attorney or is only a Proxy needed?
If you are properly elected as a trustee, no you do not need a proxy from any owner to attend meetings, but you will not be able to vote.