Dear Welgevonden Estate Homeowners and Residents
Welcome to the September 2022 Spring edition of the Welgevonden Estate newsletter. In this issue you can read about the following, and more:
National Arbor Week
Garden-of-the-Year 2022 competition
Tips on how to get your garden ready for spring
Reporting general complaints
Renewal of rental contracts – keeping your tenants registered on the biometric system
A property maintenance audit programme
The date for the 2022 Annual General Meeting
National Arbor Week 2022
National Arbor Week started on a rainy, yet invigorating, note for Welgevonden Estate when the Executive Mayor of Stellenbosch – Councillor Gesie van Deventer – planted a tree on 5 September on the estate during a tree planting ceremony, attended by estate management, guests and residents.
This event was part of Welgevonden Estate’s National Arbor Week activities. Homeowners, residents, individual Excom members and certain Stellenbosch-based real estate agencies also contributed towards this initiative by sponsoring a whopping 61 trees to be planted on the estate! Adding Welgevonden Estate’s own contribution, means the estate will boast more than 100 newly-planted trees at the end of Arbor Week 2022!
Thank you to all who contributed to make this possible!
Garden-of-the-Year Competition 2022
We are delighted to announce this year’s Welgevonden Estate Garden-of-the-Year Competition which will again be sponsored by Leapfrog Properties Stellenbosch!
This competition aims to acknowledge and reward Welgevonden Estate residents who make a difference in our neighbourhood by taking pride in their gardens. Entries will be open from Monday 12 September until Friday 21 October 2022. Judging takes place from 24-27 October, and the prize winners will be announced on 31 October 2022.
Four prizes are at stake – first prize Garden-of-the-Year 2022, runner-up Garden-of-the-Year 2022, a prize for the most water-wise indigenous garden, and a prize for the best newly-established garden!
We look forward to all gardening enthusiasts entering for the competition! Entry forms are available from the estate’s administrative office, or can be downloaded from this link.
Getting your garden ready for spring
Still on the topic of gardening, Ruan du Plessis – Welgevonden Estate’s landscape manager – has the following gardening tips to get your garden ready for spring:
As the weather warms up and rainfall becomes less frequent, the watering needs of plants will increase. Therefore, mulch garden beds with bark, nut shells, peach pips or good ground cover to retain moisture without damaging the soil.
Check the functionality of automatic irrigation systems, and adjust irrigation volumes and frequencies to be in line with the warmer temperatures of the new season.
Remove weeds as they appear, and apply thick layers of compost over all beds. This acts to suppress weeds, while providing nutrition for strong and rigorous plant growth at the same time.
Remove old potting soil around container plants right up to the root level and fill up with fresh soil, or replant into larger containers, where necessary.
Scarify and aerate lawns for easier penetration of air, water and fertilisers. Cover with a fine layer of lawn dressing to stimulate new growth and improve the condition of the soil. It is also a good time to service the lawnmower and sharpen or replace the blades.
Reporting of general complaints
Complaints must be reported to Welgevonden Estate Security office on 021 889 5209. This relates to all kinds of complaints regarding disturbance, nuisance, parking and speeding, as well as complaints about the keeping of pets.
However, it is important to do so immediately when behaviour warrants a complaint. This will give the security supervisor an opportunity to investigate right away, to provide feedback, and to log the complaint so that estate management can follow up on it during office hours.
We often receive complaints long after an incident took place. This makes it difficult, often even impossible, to investigate and to take appropriate action.
Extending existing and new lease agreements
We request landlords to inform the estate’s administrative office in good time should they renew their existing tenants’ lease agreements. This will enable estate management to extend the tenants’ registration on Welgevonden Estate’s biometric system to correlate with the renewed dates.
The biometric system is set to discontinue tenants’ access to and egress from the estate automatically on the date when their lease agreements expire. Therefore, if we have not been informed of lease agreements being extended, such tenants will not be able to enter or exit the estate when scanning their fingerprints on the biometric scanners.
Please take note of the following:
Lease agreements must be completed in full and signed by the landlord (or their appointed agent) and the tenant.
Tenants whose lease agreements have been renewed, can submit these agreement or addendums via e-mail to admin@welgevonden.co.za.
They only need to visit the office to pay the renewal/registration fee.
New! Credit card facility
Please take note that Welgevonden Estate’s administrative office will have credit card facilities available from 1 October 2022 to facilitate the payment of registration and renewal fees for biometric subscription.
Stellenbosch Municipality
We wish to thank the Stellenbosch Municipality for their positive response to our request to solve the storm water and sewerage problems we’ve been experiencing over many years on a certain section of the estate’s boundary with Cloetesville. An audit was recently done in this area to determine the nature of the problem and, based upon the findings, Nejeni Construction was appointed as contractor to upgrade the services. Work recently started in Holly Oak Lane and Scarlet Crescent.
Maintenance of properties and streetscape
During the past few months Excom and estate management have received various complaints regarding the maintenance and upkeep of properties on Welgevonden Estate. As a result, Excom has decided to embark on a project to review and audit the external appearance of all houses on the estate. This is in accordance with Rule 14 (Maintenance of Properties and Streetscape) of the WHOA Estate Rules to ensure that properties are maintained and in a state of good repair to the satisfaction of Excom.
Details of the project will be made available towards the end of September. In the meantime, please inspect your property for areas that may require attention and do what may be necessary to remedy such shortcomings.
Please click on the links below for the documents that govern the statutory requirements for buildings on Welgevonden Estate:
AGM 2022: Save the date!
The 2022 annual general meeting will take place on 24 November 2022 at 18:00 in the Doornbosch Hall, Stellenbosch. More information will follow in due course.
Best regards
Gawie Marx
Estate Manager
7 September 2022
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