Following the meeting held at 9 Oakwood Lane on 27 August 2018, the trustees are in a position to provide feedback on the action items agreed upon.
First and foremost, allow us to reiterate that the trustees have no interest in influencing the members on how to vote in this matter. We are simply trying to provide as much data as possible to enable all homeowners to make an informed decision.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Frank and Richard met with Norman Brook of the SRA to determine if there would be any financial savings to the estate homeowners if we were to join the SRA.
The savings on our current budget would be limited. We would no longer contribute as an estate to the HBNW (which would be a R36,000 saving per year). Besides that there would be savings with respect to camera maintenance and periodic capital expenditure, but we don’t expect it to be a meaningful amount.
In total we’d expect a reduction of about R150 per property in Oakwood levies.
There is an argument that we would gain a much improved response element with a sustainably funded CCP, and this is a cost that could be factored in, at between R100 and R200 per property. This is an area that has been identified as lacking in Oakwood’s security plan, and is a cost that will probably be proposed in future budgets.
Costs which individual property owners may currently be contributing (which would fall away in the event of an SRA being formed) include any contributions to:
- HBNW (Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch)
- CCP (Community Crime Prevention)
- HBCIA (Hout Bay Community Improvement Association)
- The operation of the boom at the bottom of Whittlers Way
- Watchcon
THE CONSEQUENCES OF OBJECTING/WITHDRAWING FROM THE SRA
The city have confirmed that the SRA boundary cannot be redrawn in the current application. An entirely new application will have to be submitted.
This means that it will push the formation of an SRA back by a year, as the completed applications with votes etc need to be submitted by 30 September (not to be confused with the homeowners vote deadline of 20 September).
Norman Brook says that should this SRA application fail, he will not be doing a new application. Whether someone else in the area would attempt to do so is anyone’s guess, but there is a chance that it is either this SRA or no SRA.
The city have said that they will not take anything into consideration from the HOA. From the city’s perspective, the HOA doesn’t have any standing (except as an owner of three erven). They will only consider the objections and comments from property owners. They have said that they will consider all objections though, so if (for example, and not as a recommendation) all the Oakwood owners were to vote against, and everyone else was to vote for, it would most likely result in the City not approving the SRA, even though the 60% vote had been achieved.
NEXT ACTIONS
We strongly encourage all property owners to submit their vote (in favour or against) by the deadline on 20 September. This is your only guarantee of making your voice heard. Here is the form again, for your convenience.
The trustees will be circulating a resolution requesting homeowners preference on how to vote with respect to the three common area erven owned by the HOA. This will also enable us to gauge the feeling of the membership of the Oakwood HOA should a collective action (whatever that may entail) be decided upon in this regard in the future