One of the main purposes of Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) was to allow for a much cheaper alternative to the heavy cost of going to the courts.
Quite frankly we find that the magistrates seem to interpret the law in a very biased manner towards a defaulting owner, so it becomes a bit of a risk to go to the courts unless you go to the High Court.
The mandate of the CSOS is to: regulate, monitor and quality assure scheme governance documentation; develop and provide a dispute resolution service; provide training for conciliators, adjudicators and other employees of the CSOS; and take custody of, preserve and provide public access to scheme governance documentation.
But is the CSOS any better?
I am not sure that it is.
You don’t get much in the way of feedback and cases just take for ever.
While the eventual outcome may be better than the decisions of the courts, they just take so long.
It is most frustrating.
My son owns a penthouse in Bryanston, but the trustees will not allow him to install an air-conditioner in his flat.
They say that it will be too noisy.
Sounds a bit crazy for me – an aircon unit would be a standard in any R2.5 million flat, at least in my mind.
What do you think?
But even serious cases take forever with the CSOS.
What about a scheme where the chairperson earns 50 percent of the levy income, getting paid to do the gardens or one where the accounts are so suspect that they really need to be re-audited?
They will not even give an opinion as to whether an owner can unilaterally withdraw from a body corporate and run his portion of the building without reference to the body corporate as a whole.
A body corporate cannot wait for months for a decision as to whether or not a tenant or owner must pay for the electricity that they have used or whether they are making too much noise or their dog barks too much.
It is most frustrating that cases are not just attended to promptly.
The idea of the CSOS is great in theory but like much legislation does not work in practice.
- Mike Spencer is the founder and owner of Platinum Global. He is also a professional associated property valuer and consultant with work across the country as well as Eastern Europe and Australia.
