Paddocks Press – January 2013

Paddocks Press is a monthly free digital newsletter published to educate and update the sectional title community. The issue (Volume 8, Issue 1) has a number of articles of interest, including:

End of transition period for compliance with new Companies Act - Anton Kelly
What does this mean for home owners’ associations?
he new Companies Act came into force on 1 May 2011. All of the new Act’s provisions to do with directors’ duties, conduct and liability, members’ rights to receive notice or have access to information, directors’ and members’ meetings and the adoption of resolutions automatically applied from that date. Any other provisions of the company’s memorandum of incorporation (MOI) that were in conflict with the new Act still applied, but only for the duration of the “transition period”, which ends on 30 April this year, 2013.

In this article, Anton highlights the imminent end of the transition period and discusses what non-profit HOA companies have to get done before May 2013.

Property's unique investment characteristics - Pierre Heistein
The reasons to invest
Before deciding to invest money in property, you need to ask the most basic of questions: why are you doing it? Is it to make money, or to store money? Property, unlike other investment mediums, has the ability to do both, but each one requires a very different approach when it comes to making wise investment decisions.

In this article, Pierre tells us why the "wise investor" will always have some property in their portfolio of investments.

Levies on an equal “per owner" basis - Graham Paddock
Is this a 'fair' system?
Over many years of giving sectional title advice, I have seen a persistent theme of schemes charging levies on an equal "pro rata" basis, either for all expenses or for specified ones. There is no one particular basis (measured floor area, equality or value) that is objectively “fairest". The Sectional Titles Act, No. 86 of 1986, provides that the default manner in which common expenses must be recovered from owners is in accordance with the participation quotas allocated to the sections they own.

In this article, Graham outlines various systems for charging levies. He also provides steps a body corporate must take in order to collect levies other than in accordance with the participation quotas.

Q&A with the Professor - Prof Graham Paddock

• Directors and payment
• Individual electricity meters

Paddocks Press Volume 8, Issue 1