Good Day All

I currently have a situation wherein I have a dispute with the chairmen of the bodycorporate as his bath is leaking into my toilet. The matter has been on going for more than 5 years and in June last year I finally managed to get him to arrange for the building inspector from the managing agent of our block to inspect the cause of the leak. In june 2007 the inspector confirmed that water was seeping through his tiles and that he needs to attend to it. From june 2007 to now numerous test were conducted with the last been on 16/04/2008 and the results were the same as that taken in june 2007. I have written to the trustees in feb 2008 and requested that they instruct the managing agent to send the owner of the unit above me a letter instructing him as per section 70 of the sectional title act. They have failed to do this and thus I have requested a lawyer to send him a letter of deemand. This was done on the 30/04/2008 and to date I have received no response from him. I thus require info/guidance with regards to appointment of a curatore as the person in question is the chairmen and thus using his powers to ignore my letters to the trustees. Each trustee was sent a letter.

Please assist and guid
Regards
Wilstead

Hi Wilstead

An important thing to remember is that the trustees and the chairperson is an owner too, and therefore subject to the same rules etc. as all the owners.

Two parts of the Sectional Titles Act requires owners to ensure that their section is in a good state of repair.

The first being Section 44(1)(c), which states:
“An owner shall repair and maintain his section in a state of good repair and, in respect of an exclusive use area, keep it in a clean and neat condition”.

The second is in Annexure 8 (Management Rule) 70, which states:
“If an owner--
(a) fails to repair or maintain his section in a state of good repair as required by section 44(1)(c) of the Act; or
(b) fails to maintain adequately any area of the common property allocated for his exclusive use and enjoyment,
and any such failure persists for a period of thirty days after the giving of written notice to repair or maintain given by the trustees or the managing agent on their behalf, the body corporate shall be entitled to remedy the owner’s failure and to recover the reasonable cost of doing so from such owner.”

You have informed all the trustees of the body corporate, and the chairperson, and obtained evidence that a repair to his section is required.

I would suggest declaring a dispute with the body corporate in terms of Management Rule 71.

Please read the article on disputes and arbirtation on the site, as it will assist you in the steps required. A dispute to be determined by arbitration may be declared by an owner, or the body corporate.

Link to the article on disputes and arbirtation