Community scheme stakeholders are not happy with the Community Schemes Ombud Service (“CSOS”). There is an ever-increasing number of complaints about poor service and operating practices. An example of one such criticism is Auren’s article in this edition of Paddocks Press. It is legitimate to criticise a state-owned National Public Entity such as the CSOS…
AN OWNER sells a unit. The trustees know that some of the owner’s building works are not approved. These may be in an exclusive use area or on the common property. They may also be unauthorised lofts, roof decks or other alterations to the exterior of a section. Can the trustees or managing agent issue…
Last month I highlighted elements of the code of conduct that came into effect on 1 February 2022 under the Property Practitioners Act of 2019 (the ‘PP Act’). This article is an overview of the PP Act’s provisions that apply to managing agents and paid trustees. Introduction The Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (the ‘PPRA’) falls…
The Property Practitioners Act of 2019 came into effect on 1 February 2022. The Act itself has 77 sections in 11 chapters, and the regulations include a further 41 headings in 8 chapters. The reason people involved in community scheme management should read this lengthy Act, perhaps selectively, is that it regulates those who manage…
THE BODY CORPORATE MARSH ROSE (SECTIONAL SCHEME NUMBER: 269/2012) v ARNO STEINMULLER, THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA LIMITED and HAASBROEK & BOEZAART ATTORNEYS INC. CASE NUMBER: A5002/2020 Analysis and Comments by Prof. CG van der Merwe and Graham Paddock To download this article as a PDF, click here. MAJORITY (BINDING) JUDGMENT: MATOJANE, J…
Schemes need reliable executives to work with their managing agents. People are becoming more conscious of their rights and more demanding of those who owe them duties. At the same time, society is becoming less polite. People revel in their ability to be highly assertive and initiate loud and sometimes brutal conflict at meetings, on…
Obligation of Sectional Title Schemes To Use The CSOS To Resolve Their Disputes And Collect Arrears In Heathrow Property Holdings v Manhattan Place Body Corporate, the judge examined a sectional title body corporate’s obligation to take disputes to the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) for resolution, rather than to the high court. He decided that taking…
A High Court judgment that examines, among other issues, a body corporate’s right to insist on actual payment before issuing a clearance certificate for transfer, the effect of a magistrates’ court judgment on its claim, the need for taxation of legal collection costs and the use of the services of the Community Schemes Ombud Service…
The Covid-19 pandemic, which has now been a feature of our lives for 18 months, continues to generate new controversies. People who by nature are orderly and conscientious – and that includes most managing agents and trustees – are usually prepared to accept restrictions of their freedoms. Their priority is to protect themselves, their families…
WHEN A TWELVE-STORY TOWER PARTIALLY COLLAPSED in Surfside, Florida, community schemes throughout the world took note. Shoddy building works, poor municipal supervision, insufficient maintenance, serious storms and the board’s refusal to raise special levies to fund repairs did not just result in arguments and legal action—these conditions cost lives. 36 people died and 109 other…
In an article in the third 2021 edition of the prestigious Journal of South African Law (pages 456 to 473), Professor C.G. van der Merwe analysed a recent Australian case which is directly applicable to sectional title management in South Africa. He confirmed that all the same principles apply to sectional title rules, considered applicable…
The Community Scheme Ombud Service has been in operation for over six years and it now has a new chief ombud, Mr. Adv. Boyce Mkhize, who took office on 1 April 2021. So we need to look at the CSOS, assess the effect it has had on the community scheme industry as well as the…
What am I doing—apart from enjoying my semi-retirement? Working on a variety of new books. The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Navigator eBook was launched last week. This is something we have been working on for some time. The seed for this book was planted twenty years ago when a Sectional Title Scheme Manager short course…
Readers may recall that at the end of September 2020 I questioned the correctness of the part of the judgment in Kingshaven Homeowners’ Association v Botha and Others (6220/2019) [2020] ZAWCHC 92 in which the judge agreed with the Community Schemes Ombud Service adjudicator’s view that she could not have ordered an owner to stop…
The Community Schemes Ombud Service has published a reasonable number of adjudicator orders, all of which are available at https://www.csos.org.za/csos_adjudication_orders/. I have added to these various orders that have been sent to me and, excluding orders that are merely formal or record settlements, in total, I now have the text of 83 Gauteng orders, 83…
