New rules for South African complexes

IF YOU are a homeowner or tenant in one of South Africa's many residential complexes, you are likely to be impacted by a new legal directive issued by the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS), which transforms how estates are governed.

- GRANT SMEE

Central to the change is the eradication of 'undesirable estate rules', which have long been a source of frustration for many residents. These are rules which are sometimes implemented by trustees that could be deemed unconstitutional or discriminatory.

This has been an issue for some time in South Africa, and the new legal directive—which is aimed at trustees and scheme managers—provides residents and tenants of sectional title properties with a much more equitable framework in which to live.

The CSOS Consolidated Practice Directive 1 of 2025 (signed 18 July 2025) consolidates and supersedes prior CSOS practice directives, creating a single reference for community-scheme governance.

It is important to note that the directive is not new legislation: it is practice guidance issued under Section 36 of the CSOS Act, providing direction but not creating primary law. This directive sets out stricter compliance standards around scheme governance, conduct rules and penalties while also ensuring the rules are more transparent and legally compliant.

A case went before the Pietermaritzburg High Court regarding regulations at a KwaZulu-Natal golfing estate, which were deemed unconstitutional.

Residents were being subjected to excessive speeding fines within the estate by the Homeowners Association, and with domestic employees being limited in their freedom of movement—which, as the judge noted, “prevailed in the apartheid era”, showing the kind of overreach CSOS aims to curb.