This year December arrived in a blink of an eye and management and staff want to wish all residents/tenants and their families a memorable festive season. Please note the holiday safety precautions provided by Fidelity in the security section, it is handy and may assist to make better decisions when taking precautions against various risks.
Our offices closes on 13 December 2019 and open on 06 January 2020, but a duty manager and skeleton staff will be on call during the period and residents/tenants must call the control room for assistance when needed. Normal functions like security, gardening, maintenance etc. continue during this time.
We urge residents/tenants not going away to not to set off fireworks as it is against Estate rules and have a huge detrimental effect on our wild animals as their senses are more developed hence, they bolt easily and may injure themselves when trying to flee from such noise.
Several residents/tenants still expressed concerns regarding the monitoring of speed limits, the issue of penalties and the responsibility for visitors that commits speed transgressions when entering the Estate. To explain the following must be noted:
A brief summary of the Supreme Court ruling is:
Residents/tenants must note that the Community Participation rules, Section 1 Preliminary points 1.2. to 1.4 cover “ that it is the responsibility of each owner to ensure compliance to Estate rules by building contractors, sub-contractors, deliveries, Lessees, or occupier of their residences including their employees, guests and any family member of the owner, of his/her lessee or of his/her occupier or of his/her contractor.”
Further to this 1.4. “ Damages, penalties (fines), all legal costs (including costs between attorney and client) and expenses and charges incurred by the Association in enforcing compliance with the Rules, shall be deemed a levy and may be added to the owner’s levy statement and shall bear interest as a levy debt, and shall be recovered as a levy.”
From this it is clear such penalties/fines/interest incurred can be charged to each owner’s levy account and a separate statement/invoice is not needed.
As a good code of practice, the speed monitoring devices are calibrated diligently as guided by the equipment suppliers. The calibration certificates are kept on file for record/reference purposes and may be different to standards applied by for example traffic authorities where different laws applies for prosecution by law. As found and ruled by the Supreme Court Estate rules do not have a public law content and hence there is no law regulating the calibration of equipment that is used to monitor/capture the speed of vehicles using Estate roads.
Current statistics gathered reveal that 65 % of speed transgressions committed on our Estate roads are by our residents/tenants and the remaining percentages are by visitors. Most transgressions, 80% are in the 46km/hr. to 55km/hr. range.
We appeal to owners/tenants to cooperate and comply with the Estate governance rules as it is made to promote harmonious community living by considering the needs of all and that once a rule is made by majority decision to honour such decisions.