A Property24 reader asks:
I read your article My body corporate refuses to fix lift! and although it laid out the responsibilities of trustees of a sectional title scheme, it did not answer my question:
How do I get my Body Corporate Trustees to comply with the Management Rules?
Phil Calothi, owner and Managing Director of the Cape Town based Managing Agent Company, Land and Sea Development Services (Pty) Ltd, responds:
There are two ways to do this. The cheapest, but more time-consuming way, is to get rid of the errant Trustees by way of an ordinary resolution at a special general meeting of the members convened for this purpose and to elect a new board of Trustees at the same meeting who you know will comply with the management rules.
It is a bit cumbersome but this procedure is clearly provided for in terms of Rule 13 of the Management Rules.
In order to achieve this in practice, it would be preferable that a group of members serve a written notice of no confidence to the Trustees and ask them to agree to convene a general meeting at which they will stand down and an election is held to elect new Trustees. If they refuse to agree to stand down, the written notice to them should be that a resolution be tabled at a general meeting that all the Trustees should be removed from office and, if the resolution is adopted, for an election of new Trustees. Alternatively, if time is not of the essence, they could simply be voted off the board at the next Annual General Meeting.
The second way is to pay an attorney to serve them with a letter demanding that they exercise their duties as required of them failing which you intend to take legal action against them in their personal capacities for dereliction of duty. They will either get a fright and comply immediately or they will contest. The costs of this exercise will, however, have to be carried by the offended parties and not the whole body corporate.
There is a third indirect route and that is to put pressure on the managing agent to point out to the Trustees that they are not complying with the Act. It is a fact that, in many cases, the managing agent is not blameless for situations where Trustees have been ignorant of their responsibilities and the managing agent has not given them any guidance as a good managing agent should.
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
To the Property Team. Thank you for getting this response, very enlightening! - Thane
Cannot help but wonder why you are not a trustee? Is it because you like having others in charge so that you can just complain a lot but not do anything constructive? Do you know why they are not fixing the lift? Is it because there are no funds and they do not want to call for a special levy? Yes they need to do so if necessary but then are abused verbally by owners because they have to pay more? Are you a tenant or an owner? If you are an owner get off your butt and put yourself forward to become a trustee and them implement all these things yourself. Simple really. - Suzette
I have gone the legal route, had an attorney to serve a R15 000 letter by the Sheriff of the Court, with no success, Where does an individual get the R170 000 to R200 000 to complete the court case? Even my attorney has given up hope.The managing agent does not care, they now goes as far as blocking my emails. Nobody is interested, and even the legal route does not work. Please explain why you publish “advice” that is meaningless? - Elmarie