When buying into a sectional title scheme it is important to remember that while you are buying ownership of your flat or townhouse, you are also automatically becoming a member of the body corporate.
The body corporate is essentially all the owners acting together.
At an annual general meeting (AGM), the owners will elect trustees who represent the body corporate and these people are the scheme’s connection to the real world.
While in practice the managing agents will handle much of the day-to-day affairs of the body corporate – paying accounts, buying cleaning materials, handling the sending out of accounts and collection of levies and service fees – this is done under the eye of the trustees.
The trustees can manage the decisions that need to be made between general meetings.
They can, for instance, approve repair work that needs to be done, approve dismissal and hiring of cleaners, approve minor quotations and the like.
They run, through the managing agents, the day-to-day work of your schemes.
For major decisions, they should always refer to all the owners – after all, everyone is an owner of a part of the whole common property and any decisions, other than normal day-to-day decisions, should be made by everyone.
When calling an AGM or special general meeting (any general meeting other than the AGM), trustees must give proper notice of the meeting and add items that need to be discussed and decided on by all owners.
The agenda should have full disclosure about what is to be discussed and should include any information that is relevant.
So, if the trustees think that it is a good idea to build additional parking bays, then they should motivate for it with reasons why they think it would be a good idea and include how much it is going to cost and how it is going to be funded – does the body corporate already have the money to do the work or will there be need for a special levy?
They should also set out the benefits – for example, will rent be charged for the parking bays and will this cover the cost in the medium or long run?
Each decision should be voted on by the owners.
While the Sectional Titles Act says that voting is done on a participation quota (PQ) basis, in most cases it is for practical reasons done by a show of hands.
The majority decides which way the vote goes.
In reality, there is often a consensus (when just about everyone agrees) but occasionally one or two owners will not agree.
The majority has the say – you may not like it, but you have to live with the decision.
One word of caution though is that decisions have to be logical.
For example, you cannot decide to raise a special levy based on an equal basis – it must be done on a PQ basis.
You cannot, for example, decide not to include an owner living on the ground floor from paying his/her share of a special levy to repair the lift.
If you are really unhappy with a decision made by your body corporate and feel that the decision is unfair or prejudices a particular owner then you can make a complaint to the Community Schemes Ombud Service tribunal which will look at the merits of your complaint.
- 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.