• DOES THIS SOUND LIKE YOU?

•  You have taken all reasonable steps to obtain the necessary approvals to extend your section.

• Your architect has just handed you the building plans showing exactly how your extensions are to be built. He has asked you to obtain the Body Corporate’s consent that the City of Cape Town requires before you can lodge your building plans for approval.

• You know that the trustees that have assisted you so far have vacated their positions, and the new trustees are less amenable to your plans to extend your section.

• You have already suffered a brush-off when they delayed convening a special general meeting of the Body Corporate where you wanted to table your building plans and ask for a resolution to authorize the chairman of the Body Corporate to sign the consent that the City requires.

• You fear that they will use the consent the City requires to block your efforts and maybe you force you to abandon your efforts.

• You are contemplating lodging an application with the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) for relief from the body corporate’s refusal to grant you their consent. You have been advised by acquaintances that the CSOS route is more of a gamble than not.

So, what to do?

• Here is the good news! The consent imposed on the members of Body Corporates is unlawful and arbitrary. I have represented clients where this requirement was abandoned by the City and their building plans were approved. The Body Corporate has no legal power to prevent such an outcome either.

• However, despite the fact that the City has abandoned that requirement in certain matters, the City has not removed the consent as a requirement from their list of pre-scrutiny requirements.

• If you are interested in exploring this option, you can phone me on 083 270 4087 for a short explanation of the grounds on which the City’s requirement is unlawful. I have been in private practice for 43 years as an attorney, conveyancer, and notary public, which included serving as an adjudicator for CSOS resolving sectional title disputes. I am therefore well qualified to act as a sectional title specialist.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.