CSOS CREATES A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

Dear Friends: Apologies for this long post. This is a matter that all ST owners must take notice of as this CSOS Order creates a dangerous precedent in ST Living. An owner suspected that R250 000 in a BC was unaccounted for and requested bank statements for a certain period of 6 months which was the last 6 months of the previous MA’s tenure. According to the trustees, the bank statements went “missing”. The owner took this matter to CSOS. After waiting for more than 150 days for CSOS to Adjudicate the matter and when the Adjudicator eventually made contact, he only went by the number 9, no name or credentials. The Adjudicator advised that the respondents' submission went missing and gave the Applicant/Respondent 3 business hours to respond and same asked a wrong question in law to whether the trustees have the bank statements to which the trustees just said no. When the Owner alerted CSOS to the concerns regarding the Adjudicator’s approach and asked that the Adjudicator be recused from the case, the Owner was reprimanded by CSOS in a legal letter that the owner must rather be grateful and appreciate the Adjudicators service, and the request for recusal was denied. Then the order by the Adjudicator came the next day as one of the worst errs in law, that we have witnessed in years, dealing with CSOS matters. CSOS dismissed the case in essence that it is ok for the trustees without evidence to say that they simply do not have the bank account statements. CSOS rejected the owner's plight and dismissed the case in favour of the trustees, setting a dangerous precedent that could affect Owners' rights nationally. This means that Trustees can mis-managed finances, let the bank statements disappear, and just say they dont have the bank statements, and that is ok with CSOS! One has to ask the question. Who does CSOS serve? If we have to take this case as a yard stick, certainly not the owners. Where is EQUAL JUSTICE? And as the frustration is growing nationally with CSOS, both within owners as well the legal profession with CSOS, the question must be asked: IS CSOS STILL RELEVANT OR HAS THE TIME COME FOR AN ALTERNATIVE PLATFORM WHERE OWNERS CAN GET JUSTICE.......