Sectional Title rights and obligations

Sectional Title has become one of the most popular forms of Ownership throughout South Africa. In practice, we have found that many Owners do not know what their rights and obligations are as an Owner in a Sectional Title Scheme.

In a sectional title scheme, trustees are not entitled to make any decisions or rules which conflict with the rules of the Act unless the rules are changed in accordance with the rules provided for by the act or other rules registered for the scheme.

Trustees should be warned of taking it upon themselves to act unilaterally in situations.

The Sectional Title Act requires the appointment of a minimum of two trustees and the maximum number of trustees is determined by the owners at the Annual General Meetings.

Owners are entitled to attend trustee’s meetings although they are not entitled to receive notice of Trustee’s meetings nor to vote at such meetings.

Trustees that are going to be absent from trustee’s meetings are not entitled to appoint a Trustee to act in their place and, as such, one must be certain of their willingness to act before accepting such a nomination. It is the trustees, and not the body corporate that elect the chairman to represent the board of trustees.

It is important to note that the chairman has no more obligations or entitlements than a regular trustee. The only difference, in practice is that the chairman has a casting vote in the case of an equal number of votes.