Seconding Motions at Body Corporate Meetings – Is that necessary?
by Jennifer Paddock
The short answer is NO.
But this post would be very short if I didn’t elaborate…
The Sectional Titles Act, the prescribed rules and the South African common law do not require that a motion be seconded.
The agenda of a general meeting of the body corporate includes all the motions that must be considered by the meeting. These motions have either come about because they are prescribed, for example mandatory items that must be considered at each AGM, or because the trustees or one or more owners has proposed the motion, asking for it to be included in the agenda.
Once a motion is on the meeting’s agenda it must be considered or otherwise dealt with by the meeting and there is no reason for someone to second it at the meeting before proceeding to debate and vote.
If there was a requirement for seconding motions an owner who, alone, objected to a particular proposal would not have the opportunity to be heard at a general meeting.
If a member of the meeting believes that an item on the agenda is outside the scope of the meeting or should not be considered due to some procedural defect, s/he can raise a ‘point of order’ drawing the chairperson’s attention to the apparent irregularity.
The chairperson must then make a ruling on the point of order deciding whether or not the point of order has any standing and the meeting must then proceed on this basis. The chairperson’s decision on a point of order must be minuted.
For more information on the law of sectional title meetings Paddocks has two useful products:
1) Prof. Paddock’s Sectional Title Meetings Handbook;
2) Our 4-week part-time online Sectional Title Meetings short course
Does your body corporate require motions to be seconded? Share by commenting below.
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Thinking Inside the Box 
Hi Anne. Perhaps your scheme’s rules provide for seconding? Or maybe this is just an established practice based on history.
Interesting. Proposals at our meetings (general and trustees’) have always recorded a seconder for a proposal, as this is established general practice. I’ll bring your posting to our Chairman’s attention.