We noted with great concern that there were delays of up to five years in resolving some complaints from the time the Office of the Ombud undertook to investigate the complaint. This was mainly due to cases involving property syndications.
The reason for the delay is contained in the latest annual report:
In our last Annual Report we shared the news of our shelving of about two thousand complaints relating to public property syndication schemes, while awaiting the pronouncement of the Appeal Board on the two determinations of Siegrist and Bekker.
Since the Appeal Board pronouncement on 10 April 2015, the Office embarked on one of the most resource-intensive projects of its times in order to deal with these complaints.
There were teething problems in the beginning but we are confident of the Office’s ability to complete the project.
Unfortunately many clients failed to lodge their complaints in time, resulting in their claims having prescribed.
