[imagesource: Pearl Valley Estate]

You’ve heard of state capture, but have you ever heard of estate capture?

Last year, the developers of Pearl Valley Golf and Country Estate faced accusations of alleged financial misconduct and behaving in an “authoritarian” way.

A bunch of homeowners, spearheaded by professional golfer Richard Sterne, were involved in a war of words with the Val de Vie Group of Companies. Val de Vie Estate amalgamated with Pearl Valley in 2016.

Clearly, tension has been simmering not too far below the surface and now we’re looking at another potential battleground between developers and homeowner trustees. News24 has the exclusive:

This time, a new development called The Acres is at the centre of the dispute between the parties.

Val de Vie developer Martin Venter and his team, including marketing head Ryk Neethling, are promising potential buyers of The Acres “country living with peace of mind”…

Image: Val de Vie

But members of the Pearl Valley Homeowners’ Association (HOA) have warned owners of the impact of incorporating up to 165 new families into their facility – 165 potential golfers on the signature Jack Nicklaus golf course; 300 more family vehicles in the estate and 500 more users of the clubhouse, gym and swimming pool.

Oh, the horror.

Then again, you pay top dollar to snap up a spot at Val de Vie, nestled within the Paarl-Franschhoek Valley, so you’re likely to want it to remain as exclusive as possible.

The Acres is situated on the Pearl Valley side of Val de Vie Estate.

The Pearl Valley HOA and Pearl Valley Investments (PVI) are set to lock horns in court on October 11. The HOA claims that developers pushed ahead with incorporating The Acres, despite the HOA being under the impression that any such proposal “would be presented to homeowners for consideration and voting”.

Instead, they were told by the PVI in April that the incorporation would go ahead:

Pearl Valley has 572 levy payers – 489 residential units, 66 sectional title golf lodges, one farm and 16 hotel levies. Of these, PVI owns less than 1% of levy-paying units and less than 0.2% in value, according to the trustees.

However, because Pearl Valley is technically still in “development”, the company has enormous sway over any decisions.

A special vote was then held in June and there were 5 156 votes in favour of the incorporation and 226 against. However, PVI holds 5 000 votes and used all of those in favour, meaning around 60% of HOA members voted against the resolution.

The next step will see the warring parties do battle in the Western Cape High Court.

You can read the full story on News24.

[source:news24]