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Selling property, particularly your own home, is one of the more stressful events in life. Will you get the right buyer? The best price? What if it all goes wrong? Then an offer comes in that is acceptable, but not perfect. If for example there is a bond clause and the buyer’s bond application fails a month down the line you’ve lost all that valuable marketing time. You’ll never know whether you just missed the “perfect offer” while your buyer filled out bank fo...

Buying property in security estates and other community schemes comes with a range of benefits, but it’s important to be aware of all the rules and regulations you are agreeing to - our courts will almost always hold you to them! For example, Home Owners Associations and Bodies Corporate will welcome a recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision upholding the rights of a golf estate to impose a 40km/h speed limit (and penalties for breaching it) on all homeowners, tenants and guests using ...

Buying property in security estates and other community schemes comes with a range of benefits, but it’s important to be aware of all the rules and regulations you are agreeing to - our courts will almost always hold you to them! For example, Home Owners Associations and Bodies Corporate will welcome a recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision upholding the rights of a golf estate to impose a 40km/h speed limit (and penalties for breaching it) on all homeowners, tenants and guests using ...

Buying property in security estates and other community schemes comes with a range of benefits, but it’s important to be aware of all the rules and regulations you are agreeing to - our courts will almost always hold you to them! For example, Home Owners Associations and Bodies Corporate will welcome a recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision upholding the rights of a golf estate to impose a 40km/h speed limit (and penalties for breaching it) on all homeowners, tenants and guests using ...

We all know that causing someone else loss either negligently or intentionally lays us open to being sued for damages. What is less well known – and in this case ignorance is extremely dangerous – is that animal owners can be held liable for loss or damage caused by their animals on a “no fault” or “strict liability basis”. You can be sued for millions when you are in no way at fault. On what basis can you be held liable? Are there any defences you can ...

We all know that causing someone else loss either negligently or intentionally lays us open to being sued for damages. What is less well known – and in this case ignorance is extremely dangerous – is that animal owners can be held liable for loss or damage caused by their animals on a “no fault” or “strict liability basis”. You can be sued for millions when you are in no way at fault. On what basis can you be held liable? Are there any defences you can ...

If you plan to buy a house before the property market starts to recover from its present doldrums, be aware of the risks you face if anyone is currently in the property. A recent High Court decision illustrates the danger of your being unable to evict unwelcome occupiers who point-blank refuse to leave. We’ll analyse that decision, and the lessons to be learned from it, after summarising the two things that PIE (the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Ac...

If you plan to buy a house before the property market starts to recover from its present doldrums, be aware of the risks you face if anyone is currently in the property. A recent High Court decision illustrates the danger of your being unable to evict unwelcome occupiers who point-blank refuse to leave. We’ll analyse that decision, and the lessons to be learned from it, after summarising the two things that PIE (the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Ac...

The last thing you want in any property transfer is any more delay and cost than is already built into the process.  Unhappily, that is exactly what is in store if the property’s original title deed is for any reason not to hand. Whether it has been lost or destroyed, you will need your conveyancer to apply for replacement with a certified copy from the Deeds Office. And whereas that is currently a pretty straightforward procedure with minimal delay and cost, that is set to cha...

Both employers and employees should be up to speed with the new labour legislation which will affect all businesses and individuals on one level or another. Firstly we discuss the new “parental leave” provisions relevant to fathers, adoptive parents and commissioning parents in surrogacy agreements. Next we look at the new National Minimum Wage and the different hourly rates applicable to various categories of employee. Finally we’ll address new provisions relating to...

If cowboy Will Rogers’ practical advice “Don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait” has you looking for a property to buy this Festive Season, don’t miss out on an invaluable source of relevant information – the title deed. What you find in the title deed of your prospective purchase could make or break your decision to buy it, and it will certainly impact on how much you want to offer.  We’ll tell you what a title deed is, why it’s imp...

Life in a residential complex comes with many benefits – hence the increasing demand for apartments and security estates - but it also means sacrificing some of the freedom of choice you would enjoy if you were entirely on your own. For example, pet ownership is often a contentious topic in community schemes, so in the common interest it’s likely to be regulated by the scheme’s Conduct Rules. Read on for some ideas on how to establish what your legal rights are, with adv...

When you sell anything, our law requires that you deliver it to the buyer without any defects. That’s not easily achieved with property and you should always protect yourself with a voetstoots (“as is” or “without any warranty”) clause in your sale agreement. But, as a recent High Court case involving a house with roof leaks, defective pool equipment and a list of other defects shows, that won’t protect you if you acted unlawfully in failing to di...

We all die, and we all know that it is up to us to ensure the happiness and well-being and protection of our loved ones long after we are gone.  But it’s not easy to contemplate our own mortality, nor is it easy to find the time in our busy schedules to attend to even the basics of doing so. This article is about the one basic that needs your immediate attention. That of course is to make your will. We look at exactly why a will is essential, at what happens to yo...

As a Body Corporate trustee you will understand how important it is to collect arrear levies from defaulting owners. And of course as a section owner you have a personal stake in the process. When normal debt collection processes fail, what do you do? Sometimes it makes sense to apply for the debtor’s sequestration (just the threat of that has been known to scare even the hardiest of debtors into paying up!) - but beware the ‘danger of contribution’. We discuss what that...

You are a director of a company entering into a good, sensible property deal which you have researched thoroughly. So when you need finance from the bank and the bank says “sure, your company can have a R5m loan, just sign this personal suretyship here”, you sign. It’s only when everything falls apart down the line and the bank sues you personally for R5m, that you desperately start looking for ways to get out of your suretyship. We discuss a recent High Court case illustra...

   
Dear Clients & Colleagues “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”