CSOS PREJUDICE PARTIES WITH UNDISCLOSED DOCUMENTS

Both the Sectional Title Managing Act (STMA) and the CSOS Act were instituted to take care of matters to manage schemes and disputes in Sectional Title Schemes. The coming of CSOS was a huge exciting step forward in dispute resolution in South Africa and there is no doubt, that there are some good people working at CSOS and probably did help some people with disputes. That being said, my experience with CSOS was very negative and we believe Private Arbitration is a better way forward. We had three matters over a few years at CSOS. 1. In the first matter, my file with documents at CSOS went "strangely missing." The Adjudication hearing itself was a "circus" and six months later the Adjudicator's order was full of errors with many errors on a question of law. In order to "fix" the mistakes made at CSOS, I had to take the matter on appeal to the High Court, to "fix" the mistakes made at CSOS, at a legal cost to more than Hundred Thousand Rand. So, CSOS is not inexpensive! (2) In a second matter CSOS told me for a year and a half, that they handed the file over to an Adjudicator. I discovered after a year and a half that I was wrongly advised and the file was never handed over. We eventually got so tired of the "delays", that we withdrew the matter and followed another route to remedy matters. (3) In a third matter, a well legally prepared file of over 200 pages of evidence, witness reports and documents was handed in at CSOS for Adjudication. The Adjudication order was once again full of errors, some on a question of law. What was more disturbing was that the Adjudicator ignored our file with evidence and made a ruling on a 'Undisclosed Document," with unfounded allegations, on which we were never given an opportunity to respond to. The staff at CSOS could not explain to us where and how the "undisclosed" document came from and how the Adjudicator were allowed to use "undisclosed" document, that prejudice us. Since CSOS stopped doing "face to face" hearings, it prejudice the parties, as there are no "systems" in place to protect the parties against "undisclosed" documents, that could negatively effect the outcome and then to "fix" it again, you must mount a huge legal bill in the High Court. We approached CSOS Senior Management and requested an investigation and to bring to account those staff that allowed "undisclosed documents." Still waiting for any evidence whatsoever that CSOS corrected their "errors", regarding these matters. We are now preparing to approached the Minister and we welcome any person that want to share similar experiences with us, so that we can ask the Minister for an investigation into CSOS. My email address is ***.