About me

What I blog about

My Story

My journey started when I began to understand what living in a Sectional Title Complex meant. Body Corporate decisions made by elected trustees affected the running of the complex and the value of my investment.  I had no clue before this.  I just bought my unit as an investment and thought that was largely that.  Due to personal circumstances, I needed to move into my unit later and that’s when the light bulb went off.  

Taking up my frustrations with the estate manager and managing agent proved futile.  Rather than continue with this dead end, I decided to investigate meeting with trustees, who by now I understood to be the real decision-makers.  This too was a frustrating experience as I was not really provided with a platform to engage.  There was an ‘owner’ vs ‘trustee’(us vs them) mentality which really never made sense to me until much later.

I run my own business and have learned that solving any serious issue requires some skin in the game, so rather than vent, I volunteered for trusteeship in the next AGM.  I got elected……

The South African way

For the first year, I laid low and flew under the radar.  This slowly changed over time as I got the lay of the land.  In our complex(which I suspect is largely the case in most large complexes), the reason most trustees volunteered was due to the lucrative nature of the position.  Most owners actively shy away from taking any part in Body Corporate work.  I liken this to the political setup in our world.  We elect our politicians to take care of our welfare.  However, which sane person WANTS to be a politician?  Again, most of those that do are a certain type of species who understand how lucrative it is to be in the position and will do and say what it takes to secure the position.  The amount of money collected from levies in a large complex presents certain “opportunities”:

I almost think trusteeship in a large complex is a launchpad for political careers!

This cynism and perspective is unfortunately what I gained through experience as a trustee and then as chairman. I would like to think that other similar-sized complexes have trustees who are the good and decent kind. Motivated by principle.  A strong desire to do what is right.  Sadly though, these rare persona’s would be the outliers in our society and I would be willing to bet good money on this perspective.  

What to do?

The difference in addressing this cancer, however, is that it is happening right on your doorstep when you are an owner.  It would just take a little effort on each owner’s part to hold trustees accountable and assist in ensuring proper governance.  A ‘culture’ can be developed, that with enough support, can overcome the issues being faced.

Real change.  There are some of us in this country who are gatvol of life as usual. You want change but don’t know where to start.  Sectional Title setups are widely prevalent in urban settings – everyone and his dog knows someone living in these types of accommodations.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these entities were run the way you would want your country to be run?

This blog and resource are for those who are truly interested in changing the status quo.  I will be writing about my experience and what I have learned from my experience.  Hopefully, when there is significant readership and following, there will be guest posts of others with their experience.  Challenges would be narrated and then detailed on how they were addressed.  Most of us would like to believe that there are good people out there that want to see and realize proper governance in their complex.  This is entirely possible if there is a will to do so and a resource like this that can provide some insight into how.  What better way to get the ball rolling in our country than to start in your own backyard?