Johannesburg attorney Gilad Cohen believes the Constitutional Court’s decision to dismiss an application to access the court by defaulting debtors who cannot meet their home loan payments does not help to alleviate unscrupulous behaviour by resellers, according to a Business Day report.

As previously reported, the application – brought by 219 complainants who were applying for direct access to have the current home repossession procedure declared unconstitutional and to claim damages from home loan providers for allowing their houses to be sold at sheriffs’ auctions for less than market value – was denied.

Cohen responded the home repossessions system was prejudicial against homeowners. ‘In my assessment, the prevailing system for foreclosing on mortgage bonds of defaulting debtors has created a system which is fraught with problems,’ he said. ‘It creates a desperate situation for the defaulting debtors in which they often find themselves losing their properties despite their best efforts to arrange immediate settlement of their arrears,’ said Cohen.

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