How to Draft Effective Sectional Property By-Laws

You already know that sectional property by-laws are the constitution of a shared community—they are indispensable for protecting property values, ensuring financial solvency, and maintaining peace among residents. If you’re a property manager, a new Owners Association board member, or a legal professional, you’ve moved past the why and are now faced with the critical how: How do you draft an effective, compliant, and enforceable set of by-laws?

Drafting these documents is arguably the most critical administrative task a sectional property association undertakes. Get it right, and you establish a framework for long-term success; get it wrong, and you guarantee endless, expensive disputes that drain time and resources.

This guide will break down the essential components that must be included in any robust set of by-laws, highlight the fatal risks of using generic, copied documents, and introduce a smarter, compliance-focused approach to drafting your community’s foundational rules.

Key Takeaways:

A strong by-law document must systematically cover five core areas: governance, financial enforcement, common property use, owner conduct, and clear dispute resolution.
The financial section is critical, as it must legally mandate a Reserve Fund and grant the Board explicit authority to collect levies and register liens for delinquency.
Using generic, copied by-laws is highly risky because they are often non-compliant with the Sectional Properties Act (SPA, 2020), making them unenforceable.
Effective by-laws must replace vague phrases with objective rules, such as setting specific quiet hours and publishing a clear schedule of fines for violations.
A professionally guided template ensures immediate compliance with current local laws and provides the legal scaffolding necessary to govern without continuous, costly litigation.

What are The Essential Components of a Strong By-Law?

An effective by-law document is comprehensive, unambiguous, and covers every eventuality, from a leaky roof to a noisy neighbor. It serves as the primary reference point for the Owners Association (the Body Corporate) and must provide clear legal authority for every action taken.

While the structure can vary, a complete set of sectional property by-laws must address the following five foundational categories:

1. Governance and Administration

This section establishes the framework for how the community is managed, ensuring the Association operates transparently and democratically.

Board Structure and Duties: Define the composition of the Management Committee (Board of Directors), specifying the number of members, election procedures, term limits, and the specific powers delegated to the Board. This section clarifies who can make decisions and on what authority.
Meeting Procedures: Establish detailed rules for Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and Special General Meetings (SGMs), including notice periods, quorum requirements, and proxy voting rules. Clear procedure is essential for ensuring the legitimacy of all major decisions.
Documentation and Records: Mandate which records (minutes, financial reports, title documents) must be kept and how owners can access them, upholding transparency as required by law.

2. Financial Management and Levy Enforcement

Money is the lifeblood of any property association. These clauses define how money is collected, spent, and managed, providing the legal authority for financial actions.

Calculation and Collection of Levies: Clearly detail how monthly or quarterly levies are calculated, the due dates, and the specific unit factors used to determine each owner’s contribution.
Budget Approval: Define the process for presenting and approving the annual budget, often requiring approval at an AGM.
Reserve Fund Mandate: A robust by-law must mandate the establishment and proper funding of a Reserve Fund (or Sinking Fund) to cover major capital expenditures, like replacing roofs or repaving roads, preventing sudden, massive special assessments on owners.
Delinquency Enforcement: This is perhaps the most critical section. It must outline a clear, escalating series of actions for late payments, including the immediate application of interest, the timeline for a formal demand letter, and the right of the Association to register a lien against the property to recover the debt.

3. Use of Common Property and Services

This is the section most often referenced in day-to-day community life, managing the shared spaces and facilities.

Access Rules: Clearly delineate access rights, particularly for security gates, pools, gyms, and other recreational amenities.
Parking Regulations: Detail the assignment of exclusive-use parking bays, rules for visitor parking, and explicit authority for the Board or manager to tow unauthorized vehicles at the owner's expense.
External Appearance: Establish architectural control guidelines requiring owners to seek prior written consent before making any alterations to the exterior of their unit (e.g., paint, window replacements, solar panels).
Utility Usage: Outline rules regarding shared utilities or limits on excessive consumption that might strain the common services.

4. Owner Conduct and Nuisance Control

These rules govern the relationships between residents, ensuring peaceful coexistence and the right to quiet enjoyment of one’s unit.

Nuisance and Noise: Define quiet hours and specify what constitutes a nuisance (e.g., loud music, excessive vibration from machinery) that violates a neighbor's peace.
Pet Policy: Provide clear rules on the type, size, and number of pets allowed, mandating proper disposal of waste and rules on leashing in common areas.
Leasing/Tenancy: If allowed, set requirements for owners to notify the Board of new tenants and mandate that tenants are bound by the same by-laws as the owners.

5. Compliance and Dispute Resolution

When a rule is broken, there must be a clear path for the Association to respond without resorting to immediate litigation.

Violation Procedures: Define a structured, multi-step process for handling violations, including the right to a written warning, a formal hearing before the Board, and the right of the owner to appeal.
Fine Schedule: Publish a clear schedule of monetary fines for common violations (e.g., illegal parking, unapproved alterations), giving the Board immediate enforcement power.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): Mandate that internal conflicts between the Association and an owner (or between two owners) must first go through internal mediation or arbitration before proceeding to court, significantly saving legal costs and time.

The Critical Danger of DIY Drafting

Faced with the cost of hiring a specialized property attorney, it’s tempting for associations to search for a free template online or simply copy the by-laws from a neighboring development. This practice is extremely risky and often leads to the very legal quagmire it was intended to avoid.

Risk 1: Non-Compliance with the Sectional Properties Act (SPA, 2020)

In Kenya, the Sectional Properties Act (SPA, 2020) fundamentally changed how sectional properties are governed, replacing older, outdated legislation.

A generic template found online is almost guaranteed to be drafted under old laws (like the Registration of Documents Act or the repealed ITPA). This means your copied document could contain:

Outdated Terminology: Using old terms for the Association or governance bodies.
Incorrect Voting Thresholds: Requiring incorrect majorities for critical decisions, making major votes legally challengeable.
Missing Mandates: Failing to include requirements specifically mandated by the SPA 2020, such as the minimum requirements for the Reserve Fund.

If your by-laws are not compliant with the current SPA 2020, any significant action you take—such as placing a lien on a property or issuing a major fine—can be easily overturned in court, costing the association tens of thousands in legal fees.

Risk 2: Ambiguity and Subjectivity

Generic samples are often vague, using phrases like "reasonable noise" or "acceptable appearance." When rules are subjective, every enforcement action becomes a negotiation or a fight.

Example: A generic by-law might say, "No owner shall cause undue nuisance." A resident facing a fine can argue their noise level is undue. An effective by-law, however, specifies: "No noise audible outside the unit shall be permitted between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM," turning the issue into an objective, verifiable fact.

Risk 3: Failure to Address Unique Property Features

Every development is different. A template designed for a low-rise apartment building will fail a gated community with private gardens, roads, and a clubhouse.

Generic templates fail to address essential specifics, such as:

Maintenance responsibilities for Exclusive Use Areas (e.g., patios or storage cages).
Rules specific to amenities like tennis courts, boreholes, or septic systems.
Protocols for dealing with specific local environmental or security risks.

The time saved by copying a template is instantly lost (and multiplied) the moment the first unique dispute arises that your generic document doesn't cover.

Draft Your Next Legal Document using Wansom

The goal is to achieve the legal certainty of an attorney-drafted document with the efficiency and affordability of a template. This is the promise of a professionally designed, locally compliant drafting solution. Wansom’s templates are built on the foundational requirements of the Sectional Properties Act, 2020 (SPA 2020), ensuring legal compliance right from the start.

Benefit 1: Immediate SPA 2020 Compliance and Risk Reduction

The number one risk for any community association is legal exposure. Our templates eliminate this by:

Legal Scaffolding: Providing pre-written clauses that meet the mandatory requirements of the SPA 2020, including proper governance structure and financial protocols.
Tested Enforceability: Utilizing terminology and structures that have been legally vetted to hold up under scrutiny in mediation and in court, particularly regarding delinquency recovery and fine enforcement.

Benefit 2: Massive Time and Cost Savings

Hiring a specialized attorney for full custom drafting can take weeks or months and cost a small fortune, often running into thousands of dollars. Using a professional, customizable template allows the Board or manager to handle the drafting internally with confidence.

Focus on Customization: Instead of spending 90% of your time creating the basic legal language, you spend 90% of your time tailoring the specific rules (like pet weights, quiet hours, and parking fines) to your community’s needs.
Speed to Implementation: Accelerate the drafting phase, allowing the Board to adopt the new, effective by-laws much faster and begin proactive enforcement immediately.

Benefit 3: Guided Customization, Not Blank Page Panic

Wansom's solution doesn't just hand you a static PDF; it provides a customizable framework that guides you through the necessary decisions for your specific community.

You are prompted to fill in the blanks on:

Numbers and Dates: Defining exact hours for quiet time, specific fine amounts, and required notice periods.
Amenity Usage: Selecting pre-written clauses for common features like swimming pools, gyms, or community halls.
Maintenance Areas: Clearly defining the boundary between the owner’s private section and the common area maintenance responsibility (e.g., who repairs a leaky window seal?).

This systematic approach ensures no critical clause is missed while giving your association the power to tailor the rules precisely to its unique character.

Next Steps: Moving from Drafting to Implementation

Understanding the components of a strong by-law and recognizing the dangers of generic samples puts you far ahead of most property associations. The decision now is simple: choose to eliminate risk and choose efficiency.

You’ve learned about the fundamental necessity of these rules in our article, [The Importance of By-Laws: Why Sectional Property By-Laws Matter].

Now, it’s time to move into the implementation phase. Don’t waste hours manually writing legal clauses or worrying about non-compliance.

Your next critical step is to personalize the framework. Learn exactly how you can tailor and adopt a comprehensive, SPA 2020-compliant document using our proven solution:

👉 [Internal Link: Customize Your Sectional By-Laws with Wansom]

Stop risking your community's stability on free internet samples. Start drafting your legally sound sectional property by-laws with Wansom’s customizable template today and ensure immediate compliance and clear enforcement.