Description
The Community Schemes Ombud Service (“CSOS”) has been conducting adjudications since late 2016 and has published a substantial number of its Orders in the form of images. These are not ‘machine-readable’, so those who need to study the texts cannot search for relevant terms or cut and paste from the texts. These publications will make it easier for people to read relevant orders and get an idea of what they can expect when they make applications to the CSOS.
These publications include all the texts published to February 2021 and many others that have not been published, but which have been sent to Paddocks. All of these have been put in three machine-readable texts to make them more accessible. We expect that they will be of interest to scheme executives, owners, tenants and other occupiers as well as to the managing agents and lawyers who advise them.
We have used optical character recognition software to extract the content and then edited/corrected the results as far as possible in an attempt to ensure that the text is as close as possible to the original—however there are bound to be some errors in the text, so if any of it does not seem to make sense, please refer to those originals that published by the CSOS — http://www.csos.org.za.
We have applied very limited editing in an attempt to make the texts more accessible. The Adjudicators’ summaries and findings that precede the text of the orders have been italicised, and the case numbers have been limited to four digits. We have also simplified, and standardised the order headings and the line spacing, to reduce the amount of paper required if these reproductions of the original orders are printed.
Who needs this?
Absolutely anyone involved either professionally or personally in sectional title will benefit from these publications – prospective owners, owners, tenants, trustees, chairpersons, managing agents, facilities managers, developers, attorneys, conveyancers, accountants, bookkeepers, insurance providers and anyone else owning, living in, or providing services to community schemes.