What can you do in a body corporate?
5 February 2021 | Nicole Tavares
When owning and/or living in a sectional title scheme, not only do you need to abide by the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act and the Regulations to the Act, you also need to follow your schemes management and conduct rules. It is therefore completely understandable, that you could easily get confused when it comes to what you can do in a body corporate.
TVDM Consultants recently hosted a webinar to discuss just this topic, and now share with you what in our opinion is the top 20 list of what you can do in a body corporate.
Let’s take a look at these now:
By means of a rule, you can change the method of calculating and recovering contributions levied, as well as voting by value, from participation quota to any other method. This can be done by special resolution and the written consent of any adversely affected owner.
A special or unanimous resolution can be approved in writing (round robin). Here one needs to note the increased quorum threshold requirement.
Enter into a lease agreement for a part/s of common property on a short-term basis by an owner or occupier of a section. This is done by means of a special resolution. Or enter into a lease agreement on a long-term basis by an owner or occupier of a section, including any period of time with an outsider to the scheme, which requires an unanimous resolution.
Stop the developer from exercising their right of extension of the scheme if there is a deviation from what the developer intended.
The members of the body corporate may place restrictions and/or provide directions to their trustees by means of an ordinary resolution.
Members of the body corporate can call a special or annual general meeting, provided that they have at least 25% participation quota support from owners.
Call a special general meeting on a shorter notice period, keeping in mind that there are exceptions to this.
An external person can be the chairperson at an annual or special general meeting.
All body corporate meetings can be held via remote attendance, this one is especially important in terms of the current global pandemic.
The chairperson may accept proxy forms at the meeting, provided that it is done so before the commencement of the meeting.
Should insufficient trustee nominations be received, members may nominate trustees from the floor at the meeting.
The managing agent can issue a levy clearance certificate without trustee knowledge or consent.
Allow access to body corporate records, yes even once POPI has come into effect.
An owner, occupier and/or tenant will automatically have the trustees consent when bringing a guide, hearing or assistance dog into the scheme.
An owner can maintain and repair common property, provided that they have been delegated the function in a management rule via unanimous resolution.
The trustees may hold a trustee meeting without a quorum, however they need to ratify, in writing, any decisions taken at the meeting.
Trustees are permitted to appoint staff, agents, contractors, provided the budget allows.
Trustees can be paid for their services to the body corporate, by way of special resolution if the trustee is a member of the body corporate.
Trustees can be contractors to the body corporate. In this regard, we caution conflict of interest.
Raise a special levy for non-budgeted items, only by trustee resolution.
Please keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, and is often counterbalanced by what you can’t do in a body corporate, which we will deal with next time.
Should you wish to find out more about a specific point made and/or require our assistance, please contact us on 061 536 3138 or email info@tvdmconsultants.com.