Taking body corporate duty seriously

There has been a great fuss about Steinhoff directors’ responsibilities, but I wonder whether much attention has been given to the fiduciary duties of body corporate trustees.

I bought into a small complex in Kwazulu Natal in April 2017. After three months I was asked to be a trustee, which I reluctantly agreed to, despite my inexperience. After six months I started getting nervous and eventually forced the chairman to hold a trustees’ meeting.

Then the can of worms opened. No trustee meetings had been held since March 2016 and, because of the apathy shown by the former trustees, the chairman ran the complex like his personal fiefdom. He spent nearly R100,000 without collective approval, failed to register with the community schemes ombud service and did pretty much his own thing because his fellow trustees were only too happy to sit back and let him get on with it.

Once I challenged the lack of corporate governance he resigned and, despite resistance, I forced the body corporate to use a property management company from then on.

Now I discover that the complex is battling financially and is very short of having the correct reserves in place.

But what is really sad is the apathy shown by fellow residents and owners.

Many people agree to be trustees without realising that it is not a ceremonial position. New legislation places a huge duty on trustees. The days of residents running their own body corporates are clearly over, largely because the few are tired of doing all the dogsbody jobs for no reward.