Generally, managing agents offer a great service at a very moderate cost to the owners in sectional title buildings.
Like any business, they have regular office hours which would usually extend from around 8:00 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon.
It seems to me that Cape Town is the exception where Friday afternoon tends to be the time for partying!
Unlike many banks and insurance companies, they undertake a lot of after-hours work for their clients, especially general and trustee meetings that start around 5pm and cannot infrequently go on for more than an hour.
They normally have an after-hours service in the case of emergencies.
But it is amazing how many people feel that they offer a 24-hour general service.
They often get calls for electricity that has run out after 10pm, weekends and public holidays are not infrequent.
Noise complaints, lost keys, gates that won’t open and tripped electricity are some of the common reasons for people to call.
It is also amazing how many times calls come through late at night from people looking for rental properties.
It is not uncommon for those people on after-hours duty to be called for insignificant items like dripping geysers at 2am in the morning.
For busy companies, waking up several times at night for unnecessary calls is not an uncommon occurrence.
So, be nice to your managing agent – they are human too!
- Mike Spencer is the founder and owner of Platinum Global. He is also a professional associated property valuer and consultant with work across the country as well as Eastern Europe and Australia.