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Celebrating the Festive Season in a Scheme? Be Merry…Mindfully.

By December 4, 2024December 12th, 2024People Management, Sectional Title Management

By Ané de Klerk

Over the Festive Season it is natural for sectional titles schemes to experience an influx of people and an increase in traffic and activity. Many who work and live in busy cities own apartments at the seaside where they spend their holidays. Others who live in sectional titles schemes permanently are likely to have more guests over and host more gatherings than they might for the rest of the year. While residents are absolutely entitled to celebrate joyfully, even during times of celebration they must remain mindful of the following:

  1. Noise
    Residents and their guests must not make noise to the extent that it is likely to interfere with others’ peaceful enjoyment of other sections and the scheme’s common property. Listening to Christmas Carols, kids enjoying the pool and laughter around a braai is quintessentially Christmas, but when doing so just be mindful of whether your neighbours are still able to hear their radio, the sounds of their kids joyfully playing and their friends’ braai-conversations.
  2. Guests
    Residents are not only responsible for their own behaviour, but must also take reasonable steps to ensure that their visitors refrain from behaving in a way that is likely to interfere with others’ peaceful enjoyment of sections and the common property. If out-of-towners are staying over for a while, consider sharing the scheme’s conduct rules (or at least the most relevant ones) with them. Many people may only ever have lived in freehold properties and so seeing or hearing about important rules may help them better understand what behaviour is and is not acceptable within your scheme.
  3. Parking
    Even when hosting big gatherings, no one is allowed to park on the scheme’s common property unless it is an emergency or the trustees’ prior consent has been obtained in writing. Take cognisance of the amount of visitor bays in your scheme and if you suspect demand will outweigh demand (likely to happen on days such as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years day,) ask your visitors to park in the road directly outside the scheme or encourage them to use lift services such as Uber.

While it is very important to enjoy the Festive Season and celebrate respectfully, it is also important to note that it is reasonable to expect more noise and disruption during this period. When ascertaining whether residents and their guests’ behaviour constitutes a nuisance, the surrounding circumstances, including the time of year and type of celebration, must be taken into account. Therefore, if you find yourself desperately wanting to report your neighbour for playing “Jingle Bells” for what feels like the 60th time this Summer, ask yourself whether they are willfully engaging in nuisance-causing behaviour or simply trying to enjoy the Season and are very likely to stop playing the song by Boxing Day. We must be reasonable not only in enjoying our own holiday, but also in judging how others are enjoying theirs.

Wishing all of our readers and their families a joyous, peaceful and blessed Festive Season.


Specialist Community Scheme Attorney (BA, LLB), Ané de Klerk, is a Director of The Advisory, a boutique consultancy specialising exclusively in community schemes law. Her focus is legal education, which includes presenting seminars and running online and in-person training programs and courses. You can reach out to her via email at info@theadvisory.co.za to request an obligation-free quotation for assistance with any noise or parking issues you may be facing in your sectional title scheme.

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