Is your Managing Agent doing enough, or is oversight failing?

• Most frustrations in sectional title schemes stem from weak oversight, not poor day-to-day management.
• Managing Agents execute decisions; Scheme Executives provide strategy, control, and accountability.
• Active, informed trustees turn reactive buildings into stable, well-run investments.

Understanding Sectional Title & the Role of Managing Agents

Living in a sectional title scheme is meant to simplify life: shared costs, professional administration, and structured governance. In theory, it should deliver predictability and peace of mind. In practice, many owners experience slow responses, unclear decisions, and a sense that no one is really in charge.

That is when the question surfaces: Is the Managing Agent actually doing their job?

According to Pearl Scheltema, CEO of Fitzanne Estates, the question is valid, but often aimed at the wrong target.

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“Many of the challenges owners experience stem from confusion around roles. When expectations are not aligned with legal responsibilities, disappointment is almost inevitable.”

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A Managing Agent is appointed to run the scheme operationally: finances, administration, maintenance coordination, compliance, and implementation of approved decisions. They do not govern the scheme. They execute. Governance sits elsewhere.

Common pain points and how to fix them‍

1. Poor communication

• Pain: Emails unanswered, vague updates, slow feedback.
• Solution: Trustees must set service level expectations, meeting cycles, reporting standards, and response-time KPIs for the Managing Agent.

2. Reactive maintenance

• Pain: Repairs only happen when something breaks.
• Solution: Trustees must insist on planned maintenance programmes, reserve fund modelling, and long-term capital expenditure forecasts.

3. Unclear financial decisions

• Pain: Levies rise without explanation, budgets feel opaque.
• Solution: Trustees must interrogate budgets, understand cash flows, and communicate financial strategy clearly to owners.

4. Blurred accountability

• Pain: Everyone complains, no one takes responsibility.
• Solution: Owners elect capable trustees; trustees actively manage the Managing Agent’s mandate and performance.

Management vs Oversight: Where the line Is drawn

This is the core misunderstanding in most schemes.

Managing Agent (Management)

• Implements trustee decisions
• Runs administration and finances
• Manages contractors and compliance
• Provides reports and operational advice

Scheme Executives & Trustees - Oversight

• Set strategy and priorities
• Approve budgets and maintenance plans
• Enforce rules and governance standards
• Hold the Managing Agent accountable
• Represent owners’ interests

As Scheltema explains:

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“Scheme Executives are not there to rubber-stamp decisions. They are elected representatives of the owners, tasked with oversight, direction, and governance.”

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Without strong trustees, even the best Managing Agent becomes reactive, constrained, and exposed.

Why Schemes become crisis-driven

When trustees are passive, inexperienced, or absent:

• Maintenance is postponed until systems fail
• Financial planning becomes short-term and defensive
• Communication turns transactional instead of strategic
• Owners lose confidence and start blaming the Managing Agent

The problem is not management. It is leadership.

Shared accountability in Sectional Title

Accountability flows in a chain:

• Managing Agent - accountable to Trustees
• Trustees - accountable to Owners
• Owners - accountable for participation, voting, and electing capable leadership

When any link weakens, the entire governance system suffers.

From frustration to leadership

Many of the most effective trustees did not volunteer for status. They stepped forward because things were not working.

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As Scheltema notes: “Some of the best Scheme Executives are those who simply want things to work better. They care about transparency, fairness, and long-term value.”

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Trusteeship is not about micromanagement. It is about informed oversight.

The Role of Education in strong governance

Sectional title legislation, financial management, and fiduciary responsibility are specialised fields. Trustees who understand them:

• Ask better questions
• Read reports critically
• Make strategic, not emotional, decisions
• Build constructive relationships with Managing Agents

Training transforms trustees from frustrated owners into effective governors.

Best practice

If your scheme feels disorganised, reactive, or poorly communicated, the issue may not be that your Managing Agent is underperforming. More often, it is that oversight is weak, direction is unclear, and governance is passive.

Managing Agents manage. Trustees govern. Owners empower both.

When each role is understood and properly fulfilled, sectional title schemes shift from conflict and confusion to stability, transparency, and long-term value creation.

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