Home-owners who default on their bond payments should not despair as they will not lose their property if they pay before it is sold. The Star reports this was the message from Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) acting Judge JG Rautenbach, who said people often threw in the towel when they received an order that they had to repay the outstanding bond, as well as an order declaring that the property may be sold so that the bank could recover its losses.

Rautenbach said: ‘In my view, the normal reaction by any layperson receiving such an order or writ of attachment (of the property) is to throw in the towel. The court will play lip service to the Constitution if it does not – in its orders – either make an order or some note to the effect that should the arrears be paid before the sale in execution, the parties would be in a position that they were in before the debtor fell into arrears.’

This, the judge stressed, was provided that the debtor would be liable to pay all the costs incurred by the creditor in terms of the processes it followed to collect the debt.

Rautenbach added that in general the court had no duty to provide legal advice to people appearing before it. However, it was the duty of the court – when laypeople appeared before it – to advise them of this important right they had which had serious consequences for them if they were not informed.

Full report in The Star (subscription needed)