Legal Articles and Guides

The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the provincial government's application for leave to appeal its decision to set aside the sale of the controversial Tafelberg property in Sea Point.

Former Klein Akker residents are back in court fighting against yet another farm eviction order.

Minister of International Relations & Co-operation Dr Naledi Pandor has lost a court bid to protect her department from incurring wasteful and fruitless expenditure stemming from a multimillion-rand land acquisition deal in New York.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled the eviction of a group illegally occupying a property in Dunkeld was unlawful, and they should be allowed to move back onto the property, says a News24 report.

A street in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Dunkeld was lined with mattresses and scattered belongings as more than 50 people were evicted from a property that they say they had been occupying for more than 10 years.

Both the government and the country’s financial institutions must make it clear to South Africans what will happen to mortgage bonds on properties expropriated under the Expropriation Bill, according to the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

Telecommunications company Herotel, which has so far invested some R9m in rolling out and installing optic fibre in Port Alfred, has been interdicted from proceeding with its trenching.

The rights of evicted people and legitimate means to repel land invasions dominated the recommencing of an application by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the EFF against the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape High Court.

SAPS members allegedly stood by and did not intervene when the Goedehoop Rental Complex – a building owned by non-profit housing agency Communicare – was hijacked in Cape Town this month.

The Western Province Rugby Union (WPRU) is fighting to hold on to its properties, including the Newlands rugby stadium, after receiving a summons for some R150m.

The eviction of farmers from their profitable farming enterprises by ‘rogue officials’ of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development & Land Reform has resulted in claims of more than R2bn being instituted against the department, according to the 2019/2020 report of the Auditor-General.

The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) has eight days to immediately issue outstanding operating licences to estate agents who had – through the Real Estate Business Owners of SA (Rebosa) – taken the regulatory body to court in an urgent application to be able to work legally and earn an income.

Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to change the Disaster Management Act regulation preventing evictions, after the alleged illegal occupation of housing units in a complex managed by social housing organisation Communicare.

Judgment in the case of the controversial sale of a piece of prime property in Sea Point, Cape Town, has been reserved until the second quarter of the year.

Buying and selling property can seem to the layperson like a complex process, fraught with arcane legal terminology and risk. Relax, help is at hand! To ease you into the process in clear and plain language, we ask (and answer) nine common questions asked by both buyers and sellers. We include a link to a simple but useful Guide from the Law Society of South Africa, with a discussion around why taking legal advice upfront is a no-brainer for both parties, plus we share some thoughts on planning your finances to avoid nasty surprises, and some pointers to common pitfalls.