Dear Welgevonden Estate Homeowners and Residents
We’re starting this month’s newsletter on a high note by announcing … the winners of the Garden-of-the-Year Competition 2022!
And the winners are…
Thank you to those who entered in the competition and for the high standards you’ve set. You made it such a pleasure and, at the same time, extremely difficult for the adjudicators to perform their task!
Thank you, especially, for your time and effort to beautify Welgevonden Estate with your lovely gardens, and for the way in which you’re enriching the lives of residents who have the privilege of seeing and enjoying them.
The winners of this year’s Welgevonden Estate Garden-of-the-Year Competition – sponsored by Leapfrog Properties Stellenbosch – are as follows:
Best newly-established garden (prize: R1000): 35/37 Welgevonden Boulevard (Ancia van der Mescht)
Most water-wise indigenous garden (prize: R1000): 38 Froetang Street (Robert and Lana Morrison)
Runner-up Garden-of-the-Year 2022 (prize: R750): 2 Gousblom Street (Marita Nigrini)
Garden-of-the-Year 2022 (prize: R2250): 6 Chestnut Lane (Liesel Visser). (Editor’s comment: This achievement is even more admirable when taking into account that the energetic Mrs. Visser, 92 years of age and one of the original residents of Welgevonden Estate, is doing her gardening all by herself, even when it comes to mowing the lawn!)
Well done to everyone – winners and participants alike! At the same time, a big thank you to Giel Viljoen, Principal of Leapfrog Properties Stellenbosch for sponsoring the prizes for this competition! |  |
Thank you to Welgevonden Estate resident Christo van Renen from IdoLife Photography (www.idolifephotography.co.za) for taking these photographs at no cost to Welgevonden Estate.
Appointment of a part-time compliance officer
In a recent newsletter we’ve mentioned an estate management project focussed on auditing the external appearance of all houses in Welgevonden Estate. This is in accordance with WHOA Estate Rule 14 (Maintenance of Properties and Streetscape) to ensure that properties are maintained and in a state of good repair to the satisfaction of Excom.
To carry this out, Excom has appointed Mr. Willem Conradie – a retired engineer with previous experience at a homeowners association – as a part-time compliance officer on a fixed-term contract basis. His initial and primary responsibility is to carry out the audit mentioned above. For this, he’ll be doing comprehensive property inspections which will include, amongst others, maintenance of exterior paintwork, roof sheeting, gutters and downpipes; upkeep of paving and driveways; appearance of carports and pergolas; existence of illegal fencing and structures; screening visibility of air conditioner units from the street; and the general upkeep of properties.
We request residents to give Willem your cooperation, as well as to allow him access to your erven to do these inspections.
New control measures: Maintenance and upkeep of gardens and streetscape
Excom hereby gives notice in terms of Section 59A.5 of the Welgevonden Home Owners’ Association Constitution that it has approved new control measures, effective from 1 December 2022, to ensure that gardens and the area between the street boundary line of an erf and the kerb are kept in a neat and tidy state.
The current procedure as far as the above goes, in summary, entails the following:
issuing a warning to a homeowner if the appearance of a garden was found not to be up to standard, followed up by an inspection approximately 10 days later; and
issuing a penalty and appointing a garden service contractor to remedy the garden at the homeowner’s expense, if found that nothing had been done or that the garden was still below standard during a follow-up inspection.
The above procedure is not effective as it could result in up to three weeks going by while gardens remained in an unsatisfactory state if homeowners do not respond to the warnings issued to them. Furthermore, experience has shown that certain homeowners (or their tenants) abused the system by making a habit of not attending to their gardens, or only attending to it when they receive warnings. The result of the current procedure is that too many Welgevonden Estate gardens remain in a poor condition for extended periods.
The new procedure is as follows:
A warning is issued to the homeowner if the garden is found not to be up to standard during an inspection, and the owner is given 10 days to rectify the matter.
If, after 10 days, the garden has not been attended to, a penalty is issued and a garden service contractor is appointed to remedy the garden at the homeowner’s expense.
If, afterwards, the garden is again found to be in an unsatisfactory condition within a 12-month cycle since the warning was issued, a penalty will immediately be issued (no warning) and a garden service contractor will be appointed to remedy the garden at the homeowner’s expense.
The aim of this new procedure is to rule out repetitive transgressions by owners and tenants who only attend to their gardens when receiving warnings, and to ensure that gardens in general are maintained and in good appearance.
WHOA statutory documents
Please take note that the documents below have recently been updated to reflect all the changes agreed to by WHOA members at WHOA annual general meetings up until 2021. These documents – with current version numbers indicated on them – replace all previous versions, and are available on the Welgevonden Estate website at this link: Documents | Welgevonden.
WHOA Constitution: V6 - 26 November 2020
WHOA Estate Rules: V2 - 26 November 2020 (with 2021 amendment)
WHOA Architectural Directives and Design Guidelines: V7 - 26 November 2020
Important dates: December 2022 / January 2023 holiday season
Administrative office: The Welgevonden Estate office (R44 entrance) will close at 12:00 on Wednesday 21 December 2022, and reopen on Monday 9 January 2023. Matters that may require urgent attention during this period can be referred to the estate’s security office, telephone number 021 889 5209.
Biometric registration: The security office (R304 entrance) will be open on weekdays from 09:00-12:00 from 22 December 2022 to 6 January 2023 for those who wish to register on the biometric system.
Estate landscaping service: Bidvest personnel will be on leave from 24 December 2022 until 2 January 2023. Landscaping services will resume on 3 January 2023.
Builders’ holiday: The annual builders’ holiday starts on Monday 19 December 2022, and ends on Sunday 8 January 2023. Therefore, the last day for any building activity and construction is Thursday 15 December 2022. During the builders’ holiday period no construction or building activities will be allowed on Welgevonden Estate, and building contractors will not be allowed to enter the estate. During the builders’ holiday, all building sites must be properly closed off according to building requirements. No building materials and/or tools may be stored or left outside the building site enclosures. Furthermore, transportable toilets for contractors must be positioned within the enclosed site areas.
Last date for submitting building plans: The closing date for submitting building plans for revision at the Welgevonden Estate office is 25 November 2022.
WHOA AGM 2022
The 2022 WHOA annual general meeting will take place at 18:00 on 24 November 2022 in the Doornbosch Hall, R44, Stellenbosch. We request homeowners to make sure they have received the notice of the meeting that was sent out via the GLOCMS app and e-mail on 3 November 2022, as well as the additional information that will be sent out on 10 November 2022.
Best regards
Gawie Marx
Estate Manager
4 November 2022
