I remember the days of taking my mini grey postbox key, looking for my postbox number amongst all the little labeled blue boxes neatly lined up in the basement parking of the local mall and being exceptionally excited to receive a slip telling me that there was something for me to collect in the post office. What could it be? This was before the days of expecting a summons for speeding mind you, or the popularity of online shopping with home delivery, so it was always a positive experience I recall. I remember handing in the slip to the person behind the counter at the post office inside the mall, after waiting in the queue, looking at the other customers packing up gifts to loved ones or rolling a stamp on that little roller that “wet” the stamp for you – I could not use this without losing at least one stamp by rolling it over too far in either direction or not being able to peel it off the roller! Thank goodness that the self-adhesive book of stamps came out, always with a different theme. Again, such a pleasant memory! I remember that my excitement would be slightly diminished when I saw that my prepaid registered mail was an envelope and not one of those blue, red, and white boxes or one wrapped up in those fun bubble-wrapped bags. Inside this A4 envelope was an invitation to a special general meeting where the trustees of the body corporate were proposing to improve the common property, and the thought of paying a special levy made my blood run cold. Often the invitation reached me just before, or a while after, the meeting was due to be held. Depending on when I went to collect the registered mail sent to me. If I was going to attend the meeting, I enjoyed knowing that I could simply take my hard copy pack with me to follow along during the proceedings, and recall seeing so many fellow attendees only open the envelope at the meeting – how did they know when the meeting was or where to go? This was also before it was custom to email the notice as well.
I hope some of you enjoyed the nostalgic trip down memory lane with me as it is not generally taken anymore. Now, we receive an email, if we have notified the managing agent of our email address to contact us, which the far majority of us do, letting us know that there will be an annual general meeting or a special general meeting, with or without the agenda and supporting documentation, as it may be a save the date initially. When we receive the email, formally notifying us of the meeting, the pack of documents is attached, and it is up to us to print a copy or take an electronic copy with us to the meeting i.e. our phone. We won’t be receiving a hard pack in the post if it’s a meeting with no special business (special or unanimous resolutions). However, if there is scheduled special business to be dealt with, the body corporate MUST send us a hard copy, and the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act tells us that this must be done via hand delivery or pre-paid registered mail. Hand delivery would be the preferred method if we all lived in the units we owned, but sometimes we don’t, and with the post offices either not functioning or not existing in our jurisdiction, what are we to do?
This is our advice. If you, as the trustees or managing agent, are calling an annual or special general meeting, with no special business, the notice and agenda and supporting documentation may only be sent via email, if the owner has designated, in writing, an email address for the purposes of notice from the body corporate. If no email address is specified, get one! Seriously. If not, the documentation must be hand delivered, sent via post (not pre-paid registered mail) or couriered.
If the meeting will deal with special business, we always recommend that the documentation is sent via email, but not as an alternative. The documentation must be delivered via hand delivery, prepaid registered mail, postage, or courier. An alternative would be registered e-mail. I am looking forward to hearing how people are finding this service! We believe that it is reasonable, under the right circumstances, to only send the documentation via email – but then you must be absolutely certain that you are sending it to the correct email address, have a mechanism in place to prove that it was sent, delivered, received, and even read if possible. You can even call or email the owner to confirm that you may send the documents only via email and check that the email address is correct. We were quite surprised that this issue was not dealt with in a more modern manner when the STSMA was promulgated back in 2016, but we’re sure that it will be caught in the next round. Until then, act reasonably, take the extra step and exercise caution.
Written by Zerlinda Van Der Merwe, director of TVDM Consultants
