CSOS disputes are becoming an increasingly important concern for sectional title schemes in South Africa. Financial and administrative problems, poor record-keeping, governance failures and compliance issues can quickly escalate into formal disputes, placing additional pressure on trustees and owners.

 CSOS received 15,587 new disputes in 2023/24. In 2024/25, that number rose to 16,791 — a 7.7% increase, the second consecutive year of growth.
Financial and administrative complaints remain the most common category, year after year. That’s not a coincidence — it’s the exact category a professional managing agent exists to prevent.

Just as telling: of an estimated 70,000 community schemes in South Africa, only 37,613 are formally registered with CSOS. Roughly half the sector has no basic regulatory oversight at all.

Jannie Smit, Managing Director of Urban Property Management, breaks down what CSOS’s own numbers actually say about the cost of poor management — and why the fix is almost entirely administrative, not legal.

What Causes CSOS Disputes in Sectional Title Schemes?

At some point, almost every trustee has asked whether employing a professional managing agent is really worth the monthly fee.

It is a fair question. But perhaps we should also ask what poor administration costs a scheme, and how quickly a relatively small oversight can turn into a formal dispute.

The Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) publishes figures that help answer that question. Unfortunately, the latest numbers do not make for comfortable reading.

During the 2023/24 financial year, CSOS received 15,587 new dispute applications. That figure rose to 16,791 in 2024/25—an increase of 1,204 applications, or 7.7%, in a single year.

It was the second consecutive year of growth. Disputes are not levelling off. They are becoming more common.

Where are these disputes coming from?
CSOS’s reporting is consistent on one important point: financial and administrative complaints remain among the most common disputes lodged year after year.

That matters because these disputes are seldom caused by bad luck or particularly difficult owners.

They usually begin with everyday administrative failures:

• Levy arrears are allowed to drift without consistent follow-up.
• Levies and payments are not properly reconciled.
• Financial statements are late, unclear or simply unavailable.
• Meetings are called without the correct notice or quorum.
• Minutes and resolutions are incomplete or cannot be produced.
• Governance documents are out of date or missing.

These are not unusual legal problems. They are signs of how a scheme is being managed from one month to the next.

Put simply, many of the disputes reaching CSOS arise from the very areas in which a competent managing agent should provide structure, oversight, and consistency.

A sector that remains largely unregulated in practice
CSOS estimates that South Africa has approximately 70,000 community schemes. As of March 2025, only 37,613 were formally registered with CSOS.

That means roughly half the sector remains outside even the most basic level of regulatory visibility.

For those schemes, there may be no confirmed governance documentation on file, no annual returns being checked and no reliable record of who is responsible for managing the scheme’s finances.

Registration alone does not necessarily solve the problem.

In the 2023/24 financial year, only 69% of registered schemes required to submit governance documents and annual financial statements within 30 days of registration did so. That improved to 72% in 2024/25.

The improvement is welcome, but the figure still tells us that more than one in four registered schemes is failing to meet a basic, time-bound compliance obligation.

If a scheme cannot produce its governance documents when requested, it is already on the back foot when an owner challenges a decision.

More money—and more responsibility
The amount of money moving through the community-scheme sector is also growing.

CSOS levy billing increased from R398.1 million in 2023/24 to R470.3 million in 2024/25, a 18% increase. Levy collections rose by 13% over the same period, from R283.6 million to R320.7 million.

Some of that growth is naturally the result of more schemes being registered. But it also shows that more money is moving through more schemes at a time when dispute volumes continue to rise.

The combination of growing financial responsibility and weak administrative discipline should concern every trustee.

What does a dispute really cost a scheme?
A CSOS dispute may be faster and less expensive than going to the High Court, but it is neither instant nor free.

Adjudication has a 90-working-day service standard. In practice, this means a dispute reaching that stage can take three months or longer to resolve.

During that time, trustees must deal with frustrated owners, prepare documents, respond to legal questions, and manage reputational damage within their own complex.

Then there are the costs that are harder to see:

• Legal or professional fees incurred in responding to the dispute.
• The time volunteer trustees spend searching for records that should already be available.
• Delayed projects or decisions while the dispute remains unresolved.
• The deterioration of trust between owners and their trustees.

None of these costs appears in the R40 monthly CSOS levy. Yet every one of them is ultimately carried by the scheme and its owners.

This is not a criticism of trustees.
The overwhelming majority of trustees are volunteers doing a difficult and often thankless job while managing their careers, families and personal responsibilities.

The problem is structural, not personal.

Even the most capable volunteer board may be expected to oversee financial administration, levy collection, statutory compliance, meetings, record-keeping and dispute-sensitive governance, often without any professional background in these areas.

This is precisely the gap a professional managing agent should close.

A good managing agent does not replace the trustees or take away their authority. Trustees remain the decision-makers. The managing agent’s job is to provide them with reliable information, administrative systems, and support they need to make those decisions properly.

In practical terms, this means:

• Producing monthly financial statements that trustees can understand and act upon.
• Following up on levy arrears in accordance with a documented, consistent process.
• Convening AGMs and special general meetings with the correct notice and quorum.
• Recording minutes and resolutions accurately.
• Keeping governance and compliance documents current, complete and ready to produce when required.

These are administrative disciplines rather than complicated legal judgements. That is precisely why they are fixable, and why schemes with these systems in place are less likely to generate the disputes reflected in CSOS’s statistics.

How we approach this at Urban Property Management
At Urban Property Management, we do not see the CSOS figures as abstract statistics. We see them as a practical warning to our industry.

If financial and administrative failures are driving a substantial share of disputes, those are the areas where prevention must begin.

Our focus is straightforward:

• Monthly financial reporting that trustees can actually use.
• Consistent levy collection rather than last-minute reaction.
• Properly convened and recorded meetings.
• Governance documentation that is complete before somebody asks for it, not after.

If your scheme has ever had to scramble to find a financial statement, locate a set of minutes or prove that the correct AGM notice was issued, it is worth taking seriously.

It does not necessarily mean that something has already gone wrong. It does, however, mean that the conditions for a future dispute may already be present.

Prevention is almost always less expensive than repairing the damage once a matter has reached CSOS.

We would be pleased to review your scheme’s financial and governance position against the same categories CSOS is tracking nationally—and give you an honest assessment of where your scheme stands. Contact us Today!

Sources: Community Schemes Ombud Service Annual Report 2024/25, published January 2026, and CSOS dispute and levy statistics reported to Parliament.

This article is provided for general information and does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice. The figures are drawn from CSOS’s published Annual Report and were accurate at the date of publication. Every community scheme should assess its own circumstances and obtain appropriate professional advice.

Jannie Smith – Owner and Managing Director – Urban Property Management

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jannie Smit is the founder and Managing Director of Urban Property Management, a Pretoria-based Residential Community Management company built on one principle: every scheme deserves a managing agent who actually cares.

With deep experience across sectional title governance, residential community management, business planning, and stakeholder negotiation, Jannie leads a team that treats every trustee query, owner concern, and maintenance request as if it were their own. His approach is simple — be reachable, be honest, and get it right the first time.

When he isn’t helping trustees navigate reserve funds, AGMs, and CSOS compliance, he’s probably thinking about how to do it better.

🔗 Connect with Jannie on LinkedIn: Jannie Smit | LinkedIn

🌐 Learn more about our services:

Homeowners Association Management
Sectional Title Scheme Management
Property Developers
Compliance
Maintenance Management Services
Get a Quote

📞 012 004 3322 ·

💬 WhatsApp: 063 860 4850