 about some of the trainings that that that's offered at Fidzana estates that you offer to scheme executives and how can one use these ones and as a body corporate and as a scheme. I like the fact that you mentioned all of those ones and I'm sure that our family watching will really really appreciate and really use them so that they can also get that information but just talk us through some of the training options that you guys have. All right I think you first need to know that this is unique. I'm not aware of any other managing agent in South Africa that provides this kind of training for scheme executives. Good evening and welcome to the Private Property Podcast right here on our Private Property Facebook page. It's 7pm and it is a weekday so that means we are talking everything property and tonight if you live in an estate you have a sectional title in your portfolio or maybe are living in an apartment you definitely want to listen in on the conversation tonight and if you are part of our regulars thank you so much for always coming back and for always coming to mark the register hit that green button on the comment section let us know that you are here and if you're joining us from the Twitter spaces thank you so much also for joining us tonight. My guest tonight is Pearl Skeltema who is the CEO of Fidzana estates. Pearl good evening and welcome to the podcast. To me thank you so much I really appreciate your invitation. Thank you it's an absolute pleasure so tonight we are talking sectional title schemes and the different things that the trustees and people who are in these board of trustees need to know so that they can they cannot hear. Talk to us a bit about how these are set up who are the people who are who are trustees what makes them trustees and how really it operates. Okay well first of all a body corporate and we need to get the terminology correct. Yes a body corporate consists of some title of all the registered members and in terms of the legislation they are required to have an annual general meeting once a year. At this meeting trustees or as they're now being called scheme executives are being elected at every annual general meeting so we often hear people say you know these trustees then do just what they want. I want to say to you members you have the opportunity at every annual general meeting to appoint trustees or scheme executives of your choice so that they can look after your investment until the next annual general meeting. So trustees is usually appointed for a year at the time at the next AGM they can either be re-elected or new members can be elected so that is how trustees are nominated or elected annually. Thereafter a lot of responsibilities fall on the shoulders of these scheme executives and the new legislation that is now the sectional title schemes management act at 8th of 2011 which came into effect on the 7th of October 2016 placed much more responsibility on the shoulders of these scheme executives and remember they are not being remunerated and yet they have to look after your investment and ensure that it is to the enjoyment and to the benefit of all. So what are their responsibilities? Trustees have to make sure that the body corporate is insured sufficiently they have to have meetings they have to prepare annual budgets they have to approve expenditure they have to make sure that proper maintenance is being done in terms of the required legislation they have to have a tenure maintenance plan in place they have to prepare budgets according to this maintenance plan to make sure that sufficient funds are available to perform these functions so yes it is often thought that the managing agent is mainly responsible for these responsibilities and that's not the case. The managing agent is merely an administrator or a service provider to the body corporate who is representative by the trustees who is represented by the trustees so yeah the managing agent has no authority to take decisions on behalf of these trustees they can act on instruction of the trustees they can do the necessary homework and preparations but at the end of the day it is the trustees that actually make things happen. Thank you so much for that let's talk a little bit more now about the sectional title scheme management act that you spoke to a little bit earlier and you did speak that it's one it's an it's a national act so this is something that is happening throughout the country talk to us a bit more of what it entails what are some of the things that are contained in this act and why it's important that all sectional title schemes follow the act. Okay well first of all you have the act and then you have rules attached to the act the first rule is the management act or the management rules apology for that which prescribes exactly what you asked for before who are trustees how are they being electric meetings of owners meetings of trustees what would constitute a quorum it prescribes the responsibilities of trustees in terms of maintenance in terms of finances in terms of insurance and then you get a second set of rules which is called the conduct rules they were previously referred to as the house rules that pertains to noise may you do car repairs on common property at what time should you place out your bin pest control pets are you allowed to have pets and what are the rules pertaining to having pets so this is in short what the act and its regulations prescribe and this has to be adhered to by the members as well as the scheme executives I also want to mention that on the 7th of October 2016 a second act came into effect which is called the community schemes on the service act so the government established a body which is commonly referred to as CSOS which or where you can declare disputes if you're unhappy with rules or unhappy with the way things are handled or the finances of your building you can lodge a formal complaint at CSOS where a process is followed to have that dispute resolved it is a first of all the first step to that is a conciliation session which is a one-on-one situation and the conciliators task is to see if he can find a win-win situation for all if that cannot be established the matter will be referred to adjudication which is a much more formal process and once a ruling is made that can only be overturned in the high court so it's actually very very potent what they can rule for either against or for the complainant but what I wanted to mention that also consists of an act and regulations and what is imperative to know is that under the regulations chapter four let me just quickly check regulation number 14 actually places obligation and obligation on the scheme executives to get themselves trained to familiarize themselves with the governance of their scheme and this does not only apply to sectional title this also applies to home owners associations to any form of community scheme retirement villages so the scheme elected scheme executives have to have a thorough knowledge of their schemes what is going on in their finances what maintenance is required how they are they planning to execute to have this maintenance done so there is actually an enforcement in the CSOS act where scheme executives have to train and familiarize themselves with what is going on in their specific scheme sure thank you so much and talking about the training that's one of the things we will jump into just not to learn from now though the one question I have from the conversation we just had is when we're talking about this act is it does it have specific rules or the ground rules and all of those things that can be amended and maybe customized to the to the type of estates that we are talking to or do we have is it is it's is it generic and expected to be adhered to wherever because I'm assuming that in some in some complexes you're not able to do something and in others you're able to do something else is this then added as an annex chart how how is that been accounted for in sectional title rules can be amended management rules is a very difficult process to have change if you want to make changes or amendments to the management rules you have to call a special general meeting 30 days notice there has to be an 80 percent quorum present of all members and all 80 percent must be in favor of those amendments so it's rather difficult to have changes to management rules those are the ones talking about trustees how they are elected meetings of owners finances budgets agms etc okay conduct rules is a far more easier process if you want to change conduct rules because you are quite right conduct rules for one scheme doesn't necessarily apply to another scheme that is fairly easy to do you call a meeting once again 30 days notice an ordinary quorum of 33.3 percent has to be present and 75 percent of the quorum present must be in favor of those amendments so what do you do once you've obtained the permission either by unanimous or by special resolution within 10 days after this meeting these amendments have to be filed with the community schemes ombud service the chief ombud with the then peruse and revise the rules and once approved and stamped by the chief ombud those rules become applicable and enforceable so yes it can be changed in home owners association all home owners association associations are governed by being memorandum of incorporation shortly referred to as the MOI and that MOI would prescribe the process of how to change such yeah and you know you find that's in the different estates or sections as you mentioned that some of these rules are still in effect you know nobody has been intentional about removing them like because with the different challenges that we still have as COVID-19 is still very much a part of our reality is this something that should change and hopefully the education and training is one of those things that can that can help the different schemes so I just want to submit now hop on to the education and training and say if a body corporate has been set up and scheme executives have been elected what are what initiatives can be taken to ensure that these people are trained and they're fit for for their responsibilities that's rather difficult because the way they educate themselves is not prescribed in the act at all but there are many forums that provide very valuable information to current scheme executives or newly appointed scheme executives and I would like to mention a few of those the community schemes on but service sees us is providing training on certain selective topics from time to time they do that in all provinces and they widely advertise that it's usually free of charge and anyone can attend those seminars or webinars even online meetings where information is shared on whatever topic is pertinent at that point in time we also have NAMA the National Association of Managing Agents agents that provides training to managing agents and their clients being the scheme executives this is also done regionally and it's also widely advertised your managing agent your appointed managing agent should inform the scheme executives once they receive invitations to seminars like this to share NAMA seminars is usually not free of charge it depends on whether you are a registered member of NAMA or not that would determine the cost of the attendance and then I would like to mention there's I'm very very impressed with a group on social media on Facebook which is called sectional title living in South Africa this is open to all scheme executives members parole players in the industry and members and scheme executives can receive very valuable information there just to mention a few and I don't want to talk about only specific people but it's necessary for the public to know this and there's for example a lady by the name of Zerlenda she's from TVDM consultants and an attorney and she provides weekly webinars or seminars on a Thursday online free of charge I'm talking about the value of Stratofen that recently posted a very valuable thing a tool called a sectional title compliance checklist there's also ordinary members Teresa Williams Nigel Capito that provides very valuable information I can also refer to Puna La Rue of Meeting Powell that would advise trustees of equipment or apps on your phone that's extremely usable when attending meetings and having to count votes and also how to take minutes of the meeting if you don't have a professional managing agent that does this on your behalf there's also Aubrey Sneyman of Multiprof is a town planner that gives advice very regularly on what to do when structural changes are made in sectional title and the process is to follow and then lastly when I can remember is Zetfen Mr. Michael Schaefer who is a company that provides financial aid to body corporates so I've talked about this maintenance plan that the three scheme executives have to adhere to but say for example the roofs need to be repaired and the cost of that is an estimated 400,000 but you only have 20 or 30,000 in your pity companies like Stratofen or Zetfen can provide financial aid on a loan agreement to the body corporate in order to assist them to have these tasks performed so there are many ways to get educated via social media via this group via Nama via CSUS but if you have a professional managing agent they should guide you where to obtain all of the information you require. Very thank you for that and I'm guessing that the private property podcast has just made it to that list of a place where you can find information when it comes to this yes definitely before we close our conversation tonight can you just tell us about some of the trainings that that's offered at Fidzana estates that you offer to scheme executives and how can one use these ones and as a body corporate and as a scheme I like the fact that you mentioned all of those ones and I'm sure that my family watching will really really appreciate and really use them so that they can also get that information but just talk us through some of the training options that you guys have. All right I think you first need to know that this is unique I'm not aware of any other managing agent in South Africa that provides this kind of training for scheme executives. Fidzana has made a scheme training video session in 2017 already we are thinking of having that upgraded shortly but this is an online course for scheme executives at a minimal fee you ask me right now exactly what it is I think it's five five hundred and sixty odd rand I'm not sure where you have 20 small videos of approximately 10 to 15 minutes each taking you through the legislation as I've mentioned the management rules conduct rules CSOS legislation at the end which you can do at your own time and at your own leisure and once you've completed this you will be required to fill in a multiple question list and if you have a passing rate of 75% you will be issued with a certificate to say that you are now a trained scheme executives so if you have if you need more information on this please visit our website at www.fidzan.co.ca under training and you'll find all you need there thank you so much such valuable information I really really appreciate you you're mentioning those because it does sound like something so lucrative for for schemes to do because if you have the information I always say if you are under the information you do right and when you do right you get the right rewards just any closing words from you from the conversation we had tonight before we close off education education the more educated you are the more what shall I say the more confidence you'll have in running your schemes affairs efficiently yes and once you do that and people see the value you will definitely be reappointed although it's very hard work trust body corporates cannot do without trustees or scheme executives so please take heed of this there's lots of help outside there and if any of your listeners would like to know more they're more than welcome to contact me all right thank you so much for opening that door and I'm sure that some of the questions that we are probably getting on on on the on the live currently will be answered as as they reach out to you for those for those answers thank you so much for joining us and have a good evening proud thank you to me and to you too and once again what a privilege to have been invited to this thank you so much and just like that we reached the end of tonight's episode thank you so much for joining us and if you are in that sectional title make sure that you appoint the right trustees make sure that at least a budget is allocated for them to be able to go through training and for them to get to know so that to get to know some of these scheme acts and them to be able to do the right thing at the right time thank you so much for joining us tonight have a blessed evening