Greystone Body Corporate v N Nanzee

The applicant, Greystone Body Corporate, is a community scheme/body corporate under the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act 9 of 2011 (CSOS Act). The respondent, N Nanzee, is the registered owner of Unit 21 in Greystone Body Corporate, Groblerspark, Gauteng. The body corporate alleged that the respondent had fallen into arrears with levies, utilities, interest, sewer and related charges. According to the applicant’s statement of account, the arrears stood at R14 434.75 as at 31 March 2023. The body corporate and its managing agent, Vhumbanani Property Management, had sent monthly statements and letters of demand and attempted to secure payment before approaching CSOS. The dispute was referred for conciliation, but conciliation failed and a certificate of non-resolution was issued. The matter then proceeded to adjudication on the papers. The respondent filed no submissions, sought no extension, and brought no condonation application, with the result that the matter was effectively unopposed.

• Whether the body corporate was entitled under the CSOS Act and sectional title legislation to recover arrear levies and related charges from the respondent owner.
• Whether the evidence established, on a balance of probabilities, that the respondent was indebted to the applicant in the amount of R14 434.75.
• Whether the adjudicator should permit payment of the arrear amount by instalments rather than immediate payment in full.
• Whether the applicant was entitled to recover additional administration or litigation-related costs incurred in lodging the CSOS application.
• Whether any order as to costs should be made.

The application succeeded in part. The adjudicator ordered that: (a) the respondent is indebted to the applicant in the amount of R14 434.75; (b) the respondent must pay that amount in six equal monthly instalments of R2 405.79 commencing on 1 December 2023 until paid in full; (c) the respondent must simultaneously pay current levies while servicing the arrears; (d) if the respondent fails to make payments on due date, the full outstanding amount becomes immediately due, owing and payable; and (e) no order as to costs was made. The applicant’s claim for other application-related/administration costs was not granted.

An owner in a sectional title/community scheme is legally obliged to pay levies and authorised related charges as an incident of ownership, and a body corporate is empowered under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act and the CSOS Act to recover arrear contributions through CSOS adjudication. Where the applicant body corporate proves the indebtedness on a balance of probabilities and the claim is uncontested, an adjudicator may grant payment relief, including structured instalment payments. By contrast, additional administration or litigation costs associated with the CSOS application are not recoverable without proof of agreement, taxation, or another proper legal basis, especially in light of the general CSOS principle that parties bear their own costs.

The adjudicator observed that it was in the interests of justice and fairness to grant the respondent additional time to settle the arrears through instalments rather than requiring immediate payment in full. The adjudicator also commented generally on the standard approach to litigation costs in CSOS matters, including that parties are ordinarily required to meet their own costs under the CSOS Practice Directive. No further substantial obiter dicta appears from the text.

This decision is significant in the community schemes context because it reaffirms that payment of levies is a legal incident of sectional title ownership and that a body corporate is entitled, and indeed obliged, to recover arrear contributions from owners through CSOS proceedings. It also illustrates the evidentiary and procedural approach in unopposed CSOS adjudications and confirms that additional legal or administrative costs will generally not be awarded absent proof of agreement, taxation, or some recognised basis for departure from the usual rule that parties bear their own costs in CSOS matters.