Chianti Heights Body Corporate (Guiliana Agostini) v Adriaan Abrahams

The Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) received an application for dispute resolution on 20 October 2023 between Chianti Heights Body Corporate (represented by Guiliana Agostini) and Adriaan Abrahams. The application appears to have included a claim relating to arrear levies. Before adjudication was finalised, the applicant requested that the application concerning arrear levies be withdrawn because the account had been settled, as reflected in correspondence from the applicant's property administrators dated 29 February 2024. The adjudicator considered the matter under the amended Practice Directive for Dispute Resolution, 2019, and noted that the parties had been afforded an opportunity to provide final written submissions.

• Whether the CSOS adjudication should proceed after the applicant requested withdrawal of the arrear levies dispute on the basis that the account had been settled.
• Whether, in the circumstances, the appropriate procedural order was to remove the matter from the adjudication roll and close the file.

The matter was removed from the roll and the file was closed.

Where a CSOS dispute, particularly one concerning arrear levies, has been settled and the applicant requests withdrawal, leaving no live controversy for determination, the adjudicator may remove the matter from the roll and close the file rather than adjudicate the merits.

No substantive obiter dicta appear from the text provided. The order is brief and purely procedural, containing no broader non-binding observations.

This order illustrates the CSOS's procedural approach where a levy dispute is effectively resolved before final adjudication. It confirms that, where the underlying dispute has been settled and the applicant seeks withdrawal, the adjudicator may remove the matter from the roll and close the file instead of deciding the merits. Its significance is administrative and procedural rather than as a source of substantive legal principle.