INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Levies decided by majority vote in a
COMMUNAL
SCHEME
Is it constitutional for CSOS to determine that the agreed levies are unreasonable after the fact ?
WATCH THIS SPACE We recently had cause to deal with an adjudication before the Community Schemes Ombud Service ( CSOS ) in Johannesburg , in which our client was the homeowners association of a residential development ( the estate ), which comprises 328 residential units , including various types of property being :
• more than 200 full title residential erven
• two sectional title schemes comprising over 100 units – being schemes within the scheme .
As is often the case , the sectional title owners in the 101-unit scheme ( whose units are relatively small , as compared to the freehold homes ) became dissatisfied with the obligation to pay what they saw as two levies – one in terms of the sectional title laws , and one under the MOI of the estate , within whose boundary the sectional title schemes exist .
As the dispute dragged on , the sectional title scheme withheld its levy payments , and the estate instructed us to proceed
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