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Dear Friend
2007 has arrived and a new year has started. It looks like being a great year and a busy one.
Like many hard working companies, we decided to close for the period between Christmas and New Year to give our staff a well earned break. Most of the people in our city had gone away on their annual vacation. Since the beginning of November we have been reminding people that we would be closed during this period and amongst other things that they should make sure that those with pre-paid electricity meters purchased sufficient electricity.
No such luck – I think that every single tenant and owner who was not on holiday “forgot” to buy electricity before we closed!
What really hurt though were those tenants who had a problem with their sectional title units in complexes which we manage, but who hire either though another letting agency or directly from the owner. In one case a tenant phoned in a very indignant manner because his geyser was overflowing and we must do something about it. This tenant hires directly from the owner, who just happens to be on holiday and “cannot do anything about it until they come back in the middle of January – phone the managing agents!”
We managed to help the tenant, but I thought this would make an appropriate subject of my next Sectional Title newsletter.
Never mind what time of the year it is, I think that it is important that everyone understands what a Managing Agent may and may not do and what their responsibilities are.
Firstly they are appointed by the Trustees, who are entitled to appoint a Managing Agent without reference to the Body Corporate, to assist them in running the scheme. They must appoint a Managing Agent if instructed to do so by a general meeting of the Body Corporate. Now I am not suggesting that they should appoint a managing agent without approval of the other owners, I am just pointing out that they are entitled to do so.
The Managing Agent’s job is to do what they are told by the Trustees! Whilst professional managing agents may well seem to do everything to look after the building, much of which appears to be done automatically without referring back to the Trustees every five minutes, they are always in effect under Trustees orders. It will be agreed explicitly or by implication how far the Managing Agents may go without reference to the Trustees and this is the best type of working relationship between the two parties. However, the Managing Agents are always working “on behalf” of the Trustees.
We must therefore look at the limitations of the Trustees abilities relating to the scheme. Their job it to do everything that is necessary to look after the “Common Property” of the building, to enforce the rules, to set and collect levies to cover the expenses of running the building and pay the accounts – essentially that’s it.
They are not there to administer what happens inside a unit, unless it has a direct negative effect on other units in the building – and this would normally be covered by the Rules ie noise and pest infestation. It is not their job to act as policeman about what happens inside a unit. If ten people live in a one bedroom flat they can only report this to the local authorities and bring it to the attention of the owner. Providing that they do not park extra cars in the wrong place, cause unreasonable noise, and otherwise don’t break the rules, it has nothing to do with them.
Similarly if the geyser overflows and needs repair, or the electricity has a fault inside the unit then this is the owner’s problem to sort out. If the occupier is a tenant he/she must make contact with the person that hired it to them, not the Managing Agents. The only time that the Managing Agent or Trustees should get involved is when it has a serious effect on the common property or other units ie when a burst pipe inside a unit floods the flat below or the common property. In that case the Trustees (and through them the Managing Agents) have the right to take emergency action to prevent further damage and to call in people to fix the problem (including a locksmith to gain access to a vacant unit). The cost for this, including an hourly charge by the Managing Agents for the after hours work, being for the unit owners account.
This brings me to a contentious final point. When should a Managing Agent be available?
A Managing Agent is a business that is employed by the Trustees to work on behalf of the Body Corporate. A good managing agency is always available to the Trustees in the case of an emergency, no matter what the time of day or whether it is a public holiday/Sunday etc. But it is still a business. Whilst they are paid to do a job, they are actually paid to do this job during normal working hours. My question is should they not be paid extra if they are called out outside reasonable business hours? How many times do Trustees phone managing agents late on a Sunday night because somebody is making noise in the building or the gate is not working, Last year I personally spent the whole of Christmas day at a block of flats where a burst pipe had flooded 8 vacant flats. The whole day was spent tracing tenants, organising plumbers, people to suck water out of carpets, locksmiths to open doors, guards etc. Should this be done for nothing? It is just a question for Trustees to think about.
Platinum Global, as Bloemfontein’s leading Body Corporate managing agency, really does try to help owners and Trustees in the buildings that they manage. It is not always easy to live up to peoples expectations of what Managing Agents should be doing for the small amounts that they receive compared amount of work that they attend to on behalf of all the owners.
Anyone who has a query regarding the role of managing agents is more than welcome to contact me at mikehome@telkomsa.net.
Kindest regards
Mike Spencer
Professional Associated Valuer
CRS (SA), CIEA, MIV, CAPM
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