The Machine Breathes

Trustees in a well run sectional title scheme spend surprisingly little time on emergencies. Levies arrive by debit order, the managing agent pays the municipal account and the insurance premium, the garden service comes on its day, and trustee meetings are short because most decisions were made once and written into the rules and the budget.

That dull routine is the achievement. Nobody celebrates the insurance renewing on time or the reserve fund growing a little, but the scheme no longer depends on one energetic person remembering everything.

Run the same complex without the routine. One owner collects money by hand, another keeps the insurance documents in a drawer at home, and when she sells and moves to Polokwane the drawer goes with her. Some months later a geyser bursts in an upstairs unit, water comes through two ceilings, and nobody can find the policy. Same buildings, same owners, and a very different week.