In a consulting matter I dealt with this month, the trustees of a scheme were undertaking the mammoth task of sorting out 20 years’ worth of unapproved alterations made to the scheme’s common property. Many schemes battle with unauthorised common property alterations. These alterations are often undertaken quite innocently by owners of sections who mistakenly…
In the May 2022 edition of Paddocks Press I wrote an article titled ‘Four Fundamental CSOS Issues Explained’. This month I focus on a further four issues. CSOS STAFF DO NOT CHECK APPLICATIONS TO ENSURE THEY ARE VIABLE I have looked at all the published CSOS adjudicator orders and many unpublished orders. In…
In our consulting practice, an issue that pops up time and again is the validity of scheme conduct rules. A client came to us recently because he had been refused trustee permission to install an air conditioning unit in his section and affix an exterior condenser unit to a small area of common property outside…
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…
On the 23rd of June 2020, during the early stages of the National COVID-19 Lockdown, the Community Schemes Ombud Service (“CSOS”) published an amendment to the Practice Directive on Dispute Resolution, 2019 which continues to apply to this day. The amendment boiled down to doing away with the requirement of face-to-face adjudication proceedings and introduced…
It has been almost six years since the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act (“the CSOS Act”) came into operation and by now it is generally understood by most stakeholders in community schemes that any person who is dissatisfied by an adjudicator’s order, may appeal to the High Court, but only on a question of law,…
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…
This article aims to provide information to owners and residents of community schemes who are bothered by ‘second-hand smoke’ that drifts from another dwelling or an open area into their private area and causes them distress. If this is an issue that concerns you, there are several things you should know and consider when dealing…
The July 2021 edition of Paddocks Press is now available.
The June 2021 edition of Paddocks Press is now available.
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…
On 01 June 2021, the High Court (Western Cape Division, Cape Town), delivered a judgment in respect of an urgent application in which relief was sought in relation to the reasonableness of a body corporate’s conduct rule prohibiting short-term letting and the validity of the trustees’ decision to install a biometric access control system. Interestingly,…
The May 2021 edition of Paddocks Press is now available.
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…
