Court rules in residents’ favour

The Durban High Court has put a stop to the sale of the Destiny Life Church building to the Seaward Estate Master Homeowners Association (SEMHOA) because it has ruled the sale unlawful.

The church decided in May last year to sell its freehold property – which has been in Seaward’s grounds since the estate was launched in 1998 – because it had grown too large for the site and needed to relocate to suit its expansion plans.

The estate offered R6.3m, but later raised it to R7.2m to match a bid placed by Life Abundance, a charismatic church from Richards Bay.

Hoping to swing the sale in their favour, SEMHOA raised their budget to R8m, which they planned to achieve by imposing a special levy of R12 000 on all homeowners in the estate

But, homeowners told the court, this decision was taken unlawfully and without their consent. A group of five homeowners, who took on the case on behalf of all owners, said SEMHOA had no authority to buy property and then lump them with the bill.

The matter was taken to the Durban High Court, where Judge Rashid Vahed ruled last week that SEMHOA had no authority to make decisions without the proper consent of homeowners and granted a final interdict prohibiting the transfer of funds from Seaward to Destiny Life.

Judge Vahed said that two decisions of SEMHOA were unlawful: deciding on their own to reduce the notice period for calling a special general meeting from 60 to 21 days, and deciding that the voting majority be reduced from 75 to 51 percent.

Homeowner Heidi Gibson told the Courier: “In principle, we are not against the sale, but rather the manner in which the estate attempted to buy this land and the way we have been treated.”

“This offer was presented to us by the association with no option but to accept it,” said Gibson, who said that homeowners felt “bulldozed” by the association into accepting their terms.

Commenting on the judgement, SEMHOA chairman Dickie Garzancich said that from their point of view, the sale had become urgent because there was another buyer interested.

“We are not trying to prevent a charismatic church specifically from buying the land. We want to prevent another third party from holding and exercising control within our gated community,” said Garzancich in response to Judge Rashid Vahed’s statement that the estate wishes to buy the land “solely to prevent its sale to a charismatic church”.

Garzancich said estate living is attractive because of the tighter security that comes with access control and that the association was acting in the homeowners’ best interests.

Estate manager Joe Reeler said they wanted to buy Destiny Life and incorporate it into the estate, creating meeting facilities, a clubhouse and a crèche for residents.

He said the property would add to the value of all properties within the estate.

Judge Vahed ordered SEMHOA to call an extraordinary general meeting between homeowners and trustees in order to debate and vote on resolutions drawn up by homeowners opposed to the sale agreement.

The land is still owned by Destiny Life Church until the sale is deemed lawful and the interdict is lifted on the transfer of funds.

“There have been some delays, but the hope is that the deal will still go through,” said Destiny Life pastor Peter Maakroft.

The church moved out, taking occupation of a larger building on the western side of the N2 toll road in May last year.