Emergency repairs in a body corporate after hours do not have to wait for a trustee meeting. The prescribed management rules let trustees delegate spending power in writing beforehand, pay urgent work from the reserve fund and report it to owners afterwards.
That answer only works if the scheme set it up before the phone rang. This piece is for the trustee or managing agent of a Johannesburg sectional title scheme who gets that call at 2am. The rules quoted are South Africa's prescribed management rules in Annexure 1 of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Regulations, 2016. A scheme may amend them by unanimous resolution, so check your own registered rules as well.
Who may authorise emergency work when the trustees can't meet?
The person the trustees delegated it to in writing, within the amount they set. Rule 21(3)(g) lets the body corporate, on a written trustee resolution, delegate the trustees' powers to one or more trustees, a member, an agent or an employee. The delegation must state in writing the power, a maximum amount that may be spent and any conditions.
Without a delegation, the trustees can still decide without meeting. Rule 14(4)(b) allows a resolution by notice to each trustee, agreed by signature before a closing date. At 2am that is slower than a standing mandate.
Then the money. Rule 24(5)(b) allows payment from the reserve fund if the trustees resolve it is needed for an urgent maintenance, repair or replacement expense. That includes work on property the body corporate is responsible for, where there are reasonable grounds to believe immediate spending is needed to ensure safety or prevent significant loss or damage. It also covers repairs to such property that could not reasonably have been foreseen in the maintenance plan.
Conditions come with it. Under rule 24(6) the spend must not exceed what the purpose needs or any limit the body corporate has set, and it must follow any restrictions or directions from members. The trustees must also report the expenditure to members as soon as possible after it is made.
Can the contractor enter a unit without notice?
Yes, for the right work and with the right paper. Section 13(1)(a) of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act obliges an owner to let in any person authorised in writing by the body corporate. Entry must be during reasonable hours and on notice, "except in case of emergency, when no notice is required". The emergency removes the notice, not the reasonable hours.
Read the purpose too. Entry is for inspecting, maintaining, repairing or renewing pipes, wires, cables and ducts that can serve another section or the common property. It also covers checking that the Act and the rules are being observed. A burst supply pipe running through one unit to the units below fits squarely.
The words that matter are "in writing". Give your night contractor a letter of authority signed under the delegation, before you need it.
Rule 31(2) goes further. If an owner's failure to maintain a section threatens the stability of the common property or the safety of the building, the body corporate must fix it. It then recovers the reasonable cost from that owner, and in an emergency no demand or notice is needed.
Who pays: the scheme or the owner?
Common property is the scheme's. Section 3(1)(l) makes the body corporate maintain all the common property in good and serviceable repair. Under section 3(1)(r) it also maintains the pipes, wires, cables and ducts serving more than one section or the common property. Section 13(1)(c) puts the owner's own section on the owner.
Geysers are the exception that catches people out. Rule 31(1) says that although a water heater forms part of the common property and is insured by the body corporate, the owner it serves must maintain, repair and replace it. A geyser shared by several units is split between them pro rata. If the 2am burst is a geyser, read up on the drip tray requirement before the replacement goes in.
Insurance follows section 3(1)(h): the body corporate insures the buildings to their replacement value. Rule 23(1)(e) allows the policy to carry an excess. Rule 23(2)(b) makes the owner responsible for the excess on damage to any part of the building that owner must repair and maintain. The owner must give the body corporate written proof of payment from the insurer within seven days of a written request.
On its wording, it ties the excess to the damaged part and to whoever must maintain it, not to where the water came from. So the excess on damage to a burst geyser serving unit 12, and to unit 12 itself, falls on unit 12's owner under rule 31(1) and section 13(1)(c). Where the damage is to common property, rule 23(2)(b) names no owner.
What to record for the next trustee meeting
If the reserve fund paid under rule 24(5)(b), that rule requires a report to members. A decision taken under a delegation should also go back to the trustees.
- The time of the call, who reported it and what was found.
- The authority you acted under: the delegation or the trustee resolution, and why it could not wait.
- Who was sent, the written authority they carried and their trade registration. For plumbing, check the plumber is registered before the call, not after it.
- Photographs before and after, and every unit entered.
- The quote or invoice, the amount and the fund that paid it.
- Whether an insurance claim was lodged, and which owner, if any, owes the excess.
If the reserve fund paid, send members the report that rule 24(5)(b) asks for.
What to set up now
Three things, settled at one trustee meeting. A written delegation under rule 21(3)(g), naming who may act at night, the maximum amount and the conditions. A signed letter of authority for entry under section 13(1)(a). And a contractor who answers the phone at 2am, checked before the night they are needed.
How a scheme should choose that contractor is set out in maintenance contractors for bodies corporate. Who approves the larger work that follows is covered in who approves the quote in a sectional title scheme.
Arabella Infrastructure Solutions is a Johannesburg-based building maintenance and construction company, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, public holidays included, that gives trustees and managing agents one point of contact. Every contractor is checked against the registers before they are sent, and every quote comes in writing. What that looks like for a scheme is on the page for clients.
On Monday, ask the managing agent for a copy of every written delegation the trustees have made. If none names a rand limit for after-hours work, put one on the agenda for the next trustee meeting.
