Community scheme management
software for South Africa.
Shared-ownership property, end to end — the hub for South African managing agents and trustees running Homeowners Associations, sectional title schemes and body corporates. Governance, the levy roll, finance, CSOS compliance and maintenance on one platform that also runs your rentals. Start here, then deep-dive each workflow.
- HOA · Sectional title · Body corporate
- Governance + finance + compliance
- CSOS-aligned
- For managing agents & trustees
HOA, sectional title and body corporate — each routed to its own workflow on the same property model.
Trustees, levy roll, budget, approvals, compliance and maintenance on one scheme record — no parallel stack.
Reserve fund kept separate at the chart-of-accounts level — structured to support auditor and CSOS handover.
One category, three shapes — and a managing-agent role that ties them together.
In South Africa, "community scheme" is the umbrella term — defined under the Community Schemes Ombud Service Act of 2011 — for any arrangement where land use and ownership are shared and governed in common. In practice that covers three shapes most managing agents deal with daily: the Homeowners Association governing a full-title estate, the sectional title scheme where each owner holds a section plus an undivided share of common property, and the body corporate that automatically forms to govern that sectional title scheme under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA).
Each shape has its own governance instrument — an HOA constitution, the STSMA management and conduct rules — and its own money flow, but the day-to-day job is the same: bill the levy, collect it, segregate the reserve fund, approve supplier payments, keep the compliance planner current, run the AGM, and give owners and trustees a clean view. This hub maps that whole landscape, then routes you into the specific workflow you need.
For managing agents, the operational unlock is consolidation. Run the HOA, sectional title and body corporate book on the same platform as your rentals — one chart of accounts, one trust ledger, one team directory, one POPIA surface — and the firm finally gets a single portfolio-wide view instead of stitching reports across separate systems.
Three scheme types, three deep-dive workflows.
Each scheme type has its own governance shape and its own money flow. Pick the one you manage to see the dedicated workflow — or read the full product page for the integrated picture.
HOA management
Homeowners Association estates: constitution-governed full-title schemes with estate levies, conduct rules, transfers and AGMs. See the dedicated HOA management workflow.
Sectional title management
Section-plus-common-property ownership: participation-quota levies, STSMA management and conduct rules, reserve fund segregation. See the sectional title workflow.
Body corporate management
The legal entity governing a sectional title scheme under STSMA: trustee committee, dual-gate resolutions, administrative and reserve funds. See the body corporate workflow.
What fragmented scheme management costs you
- Governance lives in email and shared drives; the constitution, conduct rules and AGM minutes are never one click from the scheme they govern.
- The levy roll is a spreadsheet rebuilt every budget cycle — participation quotas drift out of sync with the chart of accounts.
- Reserve fund money is not visibly segregated, so STSMA s.3(1)(b) reporting becomes a year-end reconstruction.
- Trustees approve supplier payments over WhatsApp with no captured decision trail for the CSOS evidence pack.
- Owners and trustees have no self-service portal, so every balance query and every notice is a manual touch.
- A managing agent running rentals and schemes maintains two stacks, two ledgers and two POPIA surfaces — and still cannot answer "how is firm-wide arrears trending?".
What a single platform gives you
- Constitution, management rules and conduct rules attach to the scheme record as retention-aware documents.
- A live levy roll computed from each unit's participation quota and the active approved budget.
- Reserve fund segregation enforced at the chart-of-accounts level — STSMA reporting runs from inside the platform.
- Trustee sign-off thresholds with a captured decision trail — who approved, who declined, with supporting documents.
- Owner and trustee portals carry balances, statements, notices and approvals without a manual touch.
- Rentals and schemes on one record — one chart of accounts, one trust ledger, one firm-wide arrears view.
From take-on to clean audit — the shape of the work.
Take on the scheme and set governance
Capture the scheme type, CSOS registration and financial-year start, and link the governance instruments — HOA constitution or STSMA management and conduct rules. The scheme record then opens up the compliance, conduct-offence, transfer and trustee tools that fit that scheme type.
- Scheme type + CSOS registration
- Governance documents linked
- Trustees registered with roles
Build the budget and the levy roll
Install the scheme chart of accounts with the reserve fund flagged, draft the annual budget per line, and let the levy roll compute per unit from the participation quota. Special levies and reserve top-ups layer in on demand.
- Reserve-fund-flagged chart of accounts
- Budget draft → trustee approved
- PQ-driven live levy roll
Collect, govern and approve
Owner payments reconcile against the right invoice; arrears recovery runs on a structured path. Supplier payments need the required number of trustee approvals before the EFT batch exports. Conduct rule offences escalate, and any fine is charged straight to the owner ledger.
- Structured levy arrears recovery
- Trustee multi-sign approvals
- Conduct rule offence escalation
Report, meet and hand over
Run the AGM with resolution settings structured to align with STSMA requirements, generate annual financial statements that keep the administrative and reserve funds separate, keep the CSOS compliance planner current, and produce a structured evidence pack on demand when a dispute reaches the Ombud.
- AGM workflow structured for STSMA
- Separated annual financial statements
- CSOS evidence pack on demand
Governance, finance, compliance and maintenance — in one place.
Trustee committee register
Trustees join the scheme with a role — chair, treasurer, secretary, member — and appear in the firm-wide team directory with a trustee badge. Decisions are attributable.
Live levy roll
Per-unit levy computed from participation quota and the active budget. Base levies, special levies and reserve-fund top-ups all flow through the same monthly run.
Reserve fund segregation
STSMA s.3(1)(b) handled at the chart-of-accounts level. Reserve accounts are flagged; movements post to a dedicated reserve trust account; reports filter on demand.
Trustee multi-sign approvals
Set how many trustees must sign off per scheme — for example two of three for payments above a threshold — with each decision and its supporting documents captured.
CSOS compliance planner
Per-scheme compliance items — AGM scheduling, CSOS levy submission, annual financial statements, reserve top-up — each with documents and an audit trail.
Conduct rule offences
Warning, penalty and fine escalation steps with per-scheme categories, and the fine charged straight to the owner ledger when it is issued.
Owner & trustee portals
Owners see balances, statements and notices; trustees see the budget, arrears, approvals queue and compliance for the scheme they serve — self-service, no manual touch.
AGM & meetings
AGMs structured to align with STSMA resolution requirements, owner RSVP, pre-filled proxy PDFs and round-robin resolutions — producing a structured evidence pack to support CSOS submissions.
Scheme finance & ledger
Hierarchical chart of accounts, budget versus actual, trial balance and general ledger from one unified ledger — structured to support audit preparation, with EFT batch export per bank format.
STSMA, CSOS, the Sectional Titles Act and the PPA — how the stack fits together.
Community schemes sit under a layered regulatory stack. The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA, 2011) governs how a sectional title scheme and its body corporate operate — including the section 3(1)(b) requirement to maintain both an administrative fund and a reserve fund. The Community Schemes Ombud Service Act (CSOS, 2011) establishes CSOS as the dispute-resolution and oversight body that schemes register with. The Sectional Titles Act of 1986 governs the title-deed and participation-quota side. The Property Practitioners Act (PPA, 2019) overlays the managing-agent registration and trust-account regime. HOAs that are not sectional title schemes are governed primarily by their own constitution.
Regalis lines up to each layer rather than treating compliance as an afterthought. Reserve fund segregation is enforced at the chart-of-accounts level. CSOS registration is a first-class field. Levy obligations and CSOS dispute references surface in the compliance planner. Scheme trust accounts carry the same regulated-trust posture as rental deposits — clean separation, an audit-ready ledger and immutable entries.
This page explains the public regulatory concepts so you can orient quickly; it is informational only and not legal advice. For binding interpretation of any provision, consult a qualified professional. Where you need the precise product mechanics for a specific obligation, follow the deep-dive links into the compliance and finance spokes below.
Continue exploring how Regalis handles the rest of the rental operation.
Community schemes platform
The full integrated product page — scheme-mode property, unified owner records, levy runs, reserve fund, transfers, all in one.
Read moreHOA management
Homeowners Association estates: constitution-governed levies, conduct rules, transfers and AGMs.
Read moreSectional title management
Participation-quota levies, STSMA management and conduct rules, reserve fund segregation.
Read moreBody corporate management
The STSMA legal entity: trustee committee, dual-gate resolutions, administrative and reserve funds.
Read moreLevy collection
Structured levy arrears recovery — DebiCheck, multi-channel reminders, CSOS-grade evidence trail.
Read moreLevy roll
Live per-unit levy computed from participation quota and the active approved budget.
Read moreBody corporate accounting
Chart of accounts, budget versus actual, trial balance and general ledger from one unified ledger.
Read moreCSOS compliance
CSOS registration, levy submission, dispute references and the compliance planner per scheme.
Read moreTrustee portal
Budget, arrears, approvals queue and compliance items for the scheme each trustee serves.
Read moreOwner portal
Owner self-service: balances, statements, notices and payments without a manual touch.
Read moreAGM & meetings
STSMA-aligned AGMs with the right resolution thresholds, RSVP, proxy PDFs and an evidence pack.
Read moreCommunity scheme management — common questions.
What is community scheme management software?+
Community scheme management software runs the governance, finance, compliance and maintenance of shared-ownership property in South Africa — Homeowners Associations, sectional title schemes and body corporates. It handles the levy roll, owner statements, trustee approvals, reserve fund segregation, conduct rule offences, transfers and CSOS-aligned compliance from one record. Regalis runs it in the same platform as your rental book.
What is the difference between a HOA, a sectional title scheme and a body corporate?+
A body corporate is the legal entity that automatically comes into existence when a sectional title scheme is opened — every registered owner is a member, and it is governed under the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act (STSMA). A Homeowners Association (HOA) governs a full-title estate, usually as a non-profit company or common-law association with a constitution rather than under STSMA. "Sectional title" describes the ownership structure (a section plus an undivided share of common property). Regalis supports all of these as a property mode and routes you to the right workflow for each.
Who is this pillar page for — managing agents or trustees?+
Both. A managing agent firm sees the full portfolio view across every scheme it administers; trustees see their own scheme through the trustee portal — the budget, arrears, approvals queue and compliance items for the scheme they serve. This hub maps the whole category so each audience can route to the workflow they need.
What is a levy roll and a participation quota?+
The levy roll is the schedule of what each unit owes, computed from its participation quota (PQ) and the active budget. In a sectional title scheme the PQ is broadly the floor area of a section as a fraction of the total — it drives the share of common-expense levies and, by default, voting weight on certain resolutions. Regalis computes the roll live from each unit's PQ and the approved budget. Informational only — not legal advice.
How does the reserve fund requirement work?+
STSMA section 3(1)(b) requires a body corporate to establish and maintain a reserve fund in addition to its administrative fund. Regalis ring-fences the reserve fund at the chart-of-accounts level — reserve accounts carry a dedicated flag and movements post to a separate reserve trust account, so reports filter cleanly for auditor and CSOS handover. Informational only — not legal advice.
What is CSOS and what does it require?+
The Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) is the statutory body that provides dispute resolution and regulatory oversight for community schemes under the CSOS Act of 2011. Schemes register with CSOS, submit certain governance documents and pay CSOS levies. Regalis captures the CSOS registration number on each scheme and surfaces CSOS obligations and dispute references in the compliance planner. Informational only — not legal advice.
Can one firm manage rentals and community schemes together?+
Yes. Regalis treats a scheme as a property with scheme attributes set, so a managing agent firm runs its rental landlords and its HOA / body corporate book on one platform — one chart of accounts, one trust ledger, one team directory, one POPIA surface. The CEO drills into any property manager and sees their combined book.
Where do I go for the full product detail?+
This is the category hub. For the deep product walkthrough, see the community schemes solution page, then the scheme-type pages (HOA, sectional title, body corporate) and the money-flow and compliance spokes — levy collection, levy roll, body corporate accounting, CSOS compliance, the trustee and owner portals, and AGM meetings.
Run every community scheme in one place.
Governance, finance, compliance.
Walk through the integrated scheme record, the levy roll, the trustee approvals workflow and the reserve-fund reporting with someone from the team.