You have more power over your scheme than you think. Most owners never exercise any of it.

Ask a sectional title owner what rights they have in their scheme and the answer is usually some version of: "I'm not sure." They know they pay levies. They know there are trustees. They know there are rules. Beyond that, most owners are operating in the dark — paying their monthly contribution and hoping someone competent is managing things on their behalf.

The reality is that sectional title ownership comes with a substantial set of legal rights. Rights to information. Rights to participation. Rights to challenge decisions. Rights to remove trustees and change managing agents. Rights that, if exercised, give owners genuine collective control over the schemes they live in and invest in.

Most of these rights go unused — not because owners have given them up, but because they don't know they have them.

The Right to All Scheme Information

This is the right most frequently denied and least frequently asserted.

Under Prescribed Management Rules 26 and 27 of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, owners are entitled to all information regarding the scheme. This includes:

  • Audited financial statements
  • Levy statements and arrears information
  • The body corporate's insurance schedule
  • The 10-year maintenance plan
  • Meeting minutes and resolutions
  • The scheme's rules
  • Sectional plans

Managing agents often push back on these requests, citing POPIA (the Protection of Personal Information Act) as a reason to withhold information. In most cases, this is incorrect. The right of an owner to access scheme information — for the legitimate purpose of understanding and managing their investment — is established in the legislation and confirmed by the courts.

The Johannesburg High Court addressed this directly in the matter of Montrose Mews v Müller. The court found that owners are entitled to all scheme information and cannot have additional conditions placed on their access to it. A cost order was granted against the scheme for failing to provide the information — not because they refused outright, but because they imposed procedural barriers that the court found were inconsistent with the prescribed management rules.

What this means in practice: If your managing agent tells you that you are not entitled to the financial statements, or that POPIA prevents them from sharing arrears information, or that you need to follow a specific procedure that makes the information effectively inaccessible — cite Prescribed Management Rules 26 and 27 and the Montrose Mews matter. You are entitled to the information. Insist on it.

The Right to Attend and Vote at the AGM

Every sectional title scheme is required to hold an Annual General Meeting within four months of the financial year end. At the AGM, owners:

  • Review and approve the audited financial statements
  • Approve the budget for the coming year — which determines the levy
  • Approve the scheme's insurance values
  • Elect trustees for the coming year

The AGM is where the financial direction of the scheme is set. It is where the levy you will pay for the next 12 months is approved. It is where the people who govern the scheme on a daily basis are elected or re-elected.

And yet, as Willie Roos notes from direct experience: "We had an AGM two nights ago where there wasn't a quorum. We asked for a meeting for a specific purpose regarding the maintaining of the scheme and we couldn't even get 33% of owners there to make a decision how they want to maintain their scheme."

Owners who don't attend AGMs are not neutral. They are, in effect, delegating every decision about their investment to whoever does show up — and in poorly governed schemes, that is often a small group of trustees who have been in place for years, unopposed, because nobody else bothered to come.

Go to your AGM. Vote on the budget. Ask questions about the financials. Understand what you're approving. It is the single most direct form of control you have over your scheme.

The Right to Call a Special General Meeting

You don't have to wait for the annual AGM to raise concerns or force decisions. Any 25% of owners can formally demand that the trustees call a special general meeting.

The trustees are then legally obligated to call that meeting within 14 days of receiving the demand. The meeting itself doesn't have to take place within 14 days — but the call to convene must go out.

At a special general meeting, owners can:

  • Table motions on any matter within the scheme's governance
  • Vote to remove trustees
  • Vote to appoint a different managing agent
  • Direct the trustees on specific matters
  • Raise compliance issues and require them to be addressed

This is a powerful mechanism that is almost never used — because most owners don't know it exists. A group of five owners in a 20-unit scheme. Ten owners in a 40-unit scheme. If you can get that number together and formally request a meeting in writing, the trustees must respond.

The Right to Remove Trustees

Trustees serve at the pleasure of the owners. They are elected at the AGM, and they can be removed — either at a subsequent AGM or at a special general meeting called for that purpose.

Trustees who are inactive, conflicted, making decisions in their own interest rather than the scheme's, or simply not competent can be voted out. New trustees can be appointed in their place.

This sounds straightforward. In practice, it requires owners to be organised, present, and willing to act collectively. That is the barrier — not the legal framework, which supports removal without difficulty.

Willie Roos is direct about what owners who are unhappy with scheme governance should do: "Get that 25% of owners together. Get rid of the trustees. Get rid of the managing agent. Get somebody in that understands compliance and wants to make sure that the scheme is compliant and is run properly."

The Right to Direct the Managing Agent

The managing agent is a service provider appointed by the trustees. They work for the scheme — which means, ultimately, they work for the owners.

Owners can direct the trustees to change managing agents. At an AGM or special general meeting, owners can pass a resolution instructing the trustees to terminate the current managing agent's appointment and appoint a replacement.

This right matters because managing agents are not all equal. An agent who sends levy statements, chases arrears promptly, produces accurate financial reports, communicates transparently, and ensures the scheme is compliant with its legal obligations is a genuine asset. One who doesn't do these things — who hides behind POPIA to avoid accountability, who fails to produce financials on time, who allows arrears to accumulate without taking action — is a liability.

You don't have to accept a poor managing agent indefinitely. You have the right to change them.

The Right to Challenge Incorrect Levy Charges

Levies must be calculated correctly — in accordance with each owner's Participation Quota. If levies were charged in a way that did not properly apply the PQ, an owner has a legal defence against those charges.

As Willie Roos explains: "If levies were divided equally amongst 30 units in the scheme but they're not all the same size, then you have a defence because the participation quota wasn't used."

This doesn't mean you can simply stop paying because you disagree with a levy. The obligation to pay levies remains, and non-payment leads to legal consequences. But where a calculation error has resulted in an owner paying more than their correct proportional share, that overcharge can be contested.

If you believe your levy has been incorrectly calculated, raise it in writing with the managing agent and trustees, and obtain a copy of the levy schedule showing how amounts were determined. If the error is confirmed, seek a correction and credit for any overpayment.

The Right to Refer Disputes to CSOS

The Community Schemes Ombud Service (CESOS) is the regulatory and dispute resolution body for sectional title schemes. Owners can refer disputes — about governance, maintenance failures, levy calculations, rule enforcement, and many other matters — to CSOS for adjudication.

CSOS can issue orders requiring schemes to comply with their legal obligations. Its processes are designed to be accessible to individual owners without requiring legal representation.

The honest caveat, from Willie Roos's experience: "Longer than it should" is how he describes CSOS timelines. The system's effectiveness has limitations, and some practitioners prefer the courts for speed and reliability. But for individual owners without the resources for litigation, CSOS provides a genuine avenue for addressing governance failures.

Why These Rights Go Unused

The answer, consistently, is the same: owners don't know their rights exist, don't know how to exercise them, and — even when they do know — find collective action difficult.

Getting 25% of owners to sign a letter requires organisation and communication. Attending an AGM requires time. Challenging a managing agent requires confidence and persistence. For owners who bought a unit expecting a passive investment, the reality of sectional title governance can feel like more than they signed up for.

But the alternative — passivity in a sector carrying 25–30% levy non-payment, aging infrastructure, and inconsistent governance — is not without cost. It is simply a cost that is paid slowly and invisibly, through deteriorating scheme conditions, rising levies, special levies, and the declining value of an investment that could have been protected.

Your rights as a sectional title owner exist because the legislation recognises that owners are the ultimate stakeholders in their schemes. Use them.