Registering with CSOS is important for those involved in managing or owning property within community schemes such as sectional title developments, share block companies, homeowners’ associations and retirement villages. In terms of the regulations to the Community Schemes Ombud Services Act, 2011 (“the CSOS Act”), which came into effect on the 7 October 2016, all community schemes were required to register with the Community Scheme Ombud Services within 30 days of the coming into effect of the regulations, or the date of establishment / incorporation of the community scheme.
The purpose of the Act is to establish a Community Schemes Ombud Service (“CSOS”) which provides for:
- a quicker and fairly inexpensive mechanism for dispute resolution within community schemes;
- regulates the quality of the governance documentation of community schemes and provides access to such governance documents to the public;
- assistance with the interpretation of a scheme’s governing documents such as Management Rules;
- the proper administration of schemes;
- training to its adjudicators and employees, and
- education to members within a community scheme or associated with a scheme.
To register, an authorised representative of the community scheme must access CSOS Connect (www.csosconnect.org.za or www.csos.org.za ) to register the scheme on the online platform. CSOS will then issue a certificate of registration and within 30 days of receipt of the certificate, the community scheme is required to submit the following documents to be “quality assured and approved”:-
- Scheme Rules (Management and Conduct)
- Constitution, or Memorandum of Incorporation, or Use Agreement, or signed Sectional Title Plans
- Levy schedule
- Latest annual financial statement
- Any other governance documentation
Whenever there is a change in any of the aforementioned documents or information, community schemes are required to update the information with CSOS accordingly.
Financial statements and returns must be submitted to CSOS on an annual basis and levies are paid to CSOS on a quarterly basis.
The registration of a community scheme with CSOS is a legal requirement. Failure by its trustees or directors to do so is a legal offence and if found guilty, they could be fined or imprisoned.
If your scheme is not registered yet, it would be advisable to do so to avoid any legal ramifications.
Written by Karen Britz