Emails are now acceptable – Community Schemes Ombud

A new ruling by the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) is a win for sectional title owners who want more transparency on how their levies are spent.

The recent ruling by the CSOS in the case of David Andrews vs Margate Property Management and trustees of Shelanu complex, represented by Muis Lombard, will go a long way towards assisting owners to keeping an eye on the finances of sectional title schemes.

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The Sectional Title Act gives every owner the right, on request and without exception, to see any document related to the management of the scheme, its rules and finances.

In essence, the dispute arose because Margate Property Management refused to email financial documents to certain owners, insisting that they come to the office and view hard copies.

This, said complainant David Andrews, was an obstructive and collusive practise’, given that the complex’s finances are managed on electronic systems and every document is available in electronic format.

Trustees however were exempt from this and viewed all documents via email.

The CSOS found in favour of Mr Andrews and ordered that the owner had the right to request any financial documents to be forward via email in an electronic format.

According to Mr Andrews, this would go a long way to make property agencies and trustees accountable to owners.

If your complex agent has a similar procedure in place, and insists that you can only view documents in hard copy, Mr Andrews said you would be right to question why.

“Fortunately, with the recent advent of the CSOS there is now an affordable adjudication body for owners

to get advice on the law and to air their grievances,” he added.

The CSOS website lays out the rules for the management of schemes in plain language, and can be accessed at https://csos.org.za/

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