The Body Corporate is the collective name given to all the owners of units in a scheme.
The Heritage Estate Body Corporate came into on the 21st of December 2017 – as soon as the first units were transferred to the new owners. All registered owners of units in Heritage Estate are automatically members of the Home Owners Association and then also members of the Body Corporate. The HOA controls and runs the Estate and the Body Corporate it applicable scheme.
Day-to-day administration of the scheme is vested in Trustees who are appointed by the Body Corporate. Major decisions regarding the scheme are made by the HOA and Body Corporate, usually at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), or at a Special General Meeting. At these meetings, matters that affect the scheme are discussed. Audited Financials and Budgets are ratified, Rules can be amended, and Trustees and directors are appointed.
Every Member of the Body Corporate is entitled to vote at these meetings, providing that the Member does not have a judgement or court order against them relating to arrear levies or breach of contract. Unless otherwise determined by the Developer at the time that the register was opened, or subsequently by the Body Corporate by means of a Special Resolution, an individual Member’s voting power is governed by the Member’s percentage ownership of the entire scheme. This percentage is known as the Participation Quota (PQ)
The Trustees are usually owners of units in a scheme who have been entrusted with the task of looking after the scheme on a day-to-day basis. Trustees are appointed by the Body Corporate at an AGM and usually hold office until the next AGM. The Managing Agent may not be a Trustee.
To perform their functions or duties, trustees are endowed with certain powers, which are not unlimited and are strictly circumscribed by the Act and the Rules, as well as by instructions or restrictions imposed by members at a General Meeting.
Trustees of a Body Corporate require the following:
• Registered Management Rules
• Conduct Rules or House Rules
• Sectional Titles Act
• Sectional Plan for the scheme
• common sense and diplomacy!
Trustees of a Body Corporate act voluntarily and without compensation and are only liable for losses or damages incurred by the Body Corporate if they act as grossly negligent or fraudulent. Trustees must perform the following functions necessary for the good management and administration of the Body Corporate:
• Determine, collect and administer levies in respect of sections and exclusive use areas
• Open and maintain a bank account
• Insure all building improvements including sections (but not their contents)
• Maintain common property (including exclusive use areas) and enter into contracts or SLA.
• Keep minutes of all meetings
• Keep and administer all records, including financial records of all Body Corporate transactions
• Trustees must keep proper books and accounts for the Scheme, and record all monies received or expended
• Keep a record of the current Rules
• Arrange and conduct the AGM and, when necessary as well as Special General Meetings
• Prepare the documentation to be presented at each AGM, including the Budget and audited financial statement.
• Full financial statements must be prepared and audited by a professional firm, and signed by Trustees and the Auditor
A good board of trustees can ensure that the Body Corporate yields positive financials whilst running effectively and smoothly in such a way that they keep owners happy.
Levies are made up of the costs incurred in running a scheme and have to be paid by owners of units to the Body Corporate. These costs include:
• Security – electric fencing, guarding, access control etc;
• Insurance Premiums;
• Waste Management;
• Cleaning and hygiene services for the common property;
• Repairs and maintenance of the common property including maintenance of carports and garages;
• Wages and salaries for caretakes, cleaning staff etc;
• Management fees;
• Unmetered and common property utilities are recovered based on actual consumption.
These costs are paid by individual owners in the form of a monthly levy, calculated in accordance with the Participation Quota for their unit. In addition to the above, the Body Corporate is obliged to establish a fund for future maintenance and unexpected expenses.
If the fund becomes excessively large, The Act does not allow any part of the excess to be refunded. However, the excess could be used to subsidise future levies, to improve the common property, or to bolster the compulsory Reserve Fund.
The Oaks – Phase 3 and Heritage House
Work continues in Heritage House and the Pavilion – with cleaning, restoring, dry walling and plastering! 
Clearing of Phase 3 began in earnest with the setting out and raising of platforms for the 3 blocks. A retaining wall and earth compacting will come next and thereafter the foundations will be set out and building will commence. We anticipate a 6-8 month building process with the 3 storey blocks and are looking at occupation in the 4th Quarter of 2018.
Maintenance in sectional title schemes
Maintenance in sectional title schemes is regulated by the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011 (“the STSMA”) which provides that the body corporate must maintain the common property while unit owners must each maintain their section. Exclusive use areas are the responsibility of both the body corporate and owner.
Common Property
Section 3(1)(l) of the STSMA regulates that the body corporate must properly maintain all the common property and keep it in a state of good and serviceable repair.
The common property includes the land and parts of the building/s which are not included in a section. Additional equipment and fixtures, gardens and walkways, carports, shared parking facilities and drive ways all form part of the common property. It also includes the exterior boundary wall and fences, electric fencing and security system.
Most of the utility infrastructure and services are also considered common property and includes the water, electricity and gas supplies including pipes, wires, cables and ducts as well as the sewer system, drainage, garbage and waste disposal and separate meters for electricity, water and gas.
Property owners are however, responsible for the maintenance of pipes, wires, cables and ducts which only supplies a utility service to that section and which is located within that section.
The basic maintenance and administration of the scheme is usually covered by the levies paid by property owners. Section 3(1)(b) of the STSMA obligates the body corporate to establish and maintain a reserve fund for unforeseen maintenance and repairs of the common property and empowers it to collect these contributions from owners, whenever necessary.
Sections and Exclusive Use
In terms of Section 13(1)(c), an owner must repair and maintain his/her section in a state of good repair and, in respect of an exclusive use area, keep it in a clean and neat condition.
The boundaries of each section are usually defined by a sectional plan and the maintenance obligations of the owner would firstly extend to the interior of the unit while a driveway and garden would be part of the ‘exclusive use’ area allocated to the particular unit.
Shared walls between the sections, the foundations as well as windows and doors in the exterior walls of sections are part of the section and part of the common property and hence the shared responsibility of the owner and the body corporate to share the maintenance and repair costs equally.
