Dear Conviction,
There is a dispute in my complex involving the body corporate, and it is in court. The trustees took the same case to the Community Schemes Ombud Service, and now there are two cases about the same dispute.
I do not know much about law, but is it not redundant to have the same issue before two different legal forums? Would that not cause double the lawyer costs? What if one places rules differently from the other?
Ashwini Singh provides the following insight:
The Community Schemes Ombud Service does not entertain the duplication of legal proceedings. As outlined in Paragraph 12.3 of the Community Schemes Ombud Service Practice Directive on Dispute Resolution (2019), a dispute lodged with the Community Schemes Ombud Service can be rejected by the Ombud if the dispute is already part of existing court proceedings.
In the case where a party has already instituted a legal case in a court, another party (or even the same party) cannot lodge a similar dispute with the Community Schemes Ombud Service due to the matter already being in another forum and awaiting a ruling.
Therefore, if there is a duplication of proceedings, it would be advisable to inform the Community Schemes Ombud Service of the other existing case in court so that they can close any similar matter with the Ombud.
Singh is a law academic and an affiliate of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, South Africa.
#Conviction
2 Comments
Thank you for the clarity. I had been looking everywhere online for information on this but I could not find anything until now.
It’s a pleasure.