Legal Articles and Guides

In November 2016, the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) rejected an application from the SA Property Owners’ Association to amend the Companies Act to give landlords preference over other creditors in business rescue proceedings. Now, says a Financial Mail report, the first substantial amendments to the Companies Act since it was implemented in 2011 – released for comment at the end of September – include a proposal that would give landlords the very rights that were strongly rejected by the High Court.

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.

An eviction notice brought before the Constitutional Court last year provides a test case for safeguarding the rights of the vulnerable in society, says Simon Dippenaar, of Simon Dippenaar & Associates, in an analysis on the Fin24 site. In the original case in the High Court, the 184 occupiers were represented in court by four of their peers, who were referred to as the ‘appearer applicants’.

The access restriction fees in Tshwane were definitely not exorbitant and had been calculated in terms of the municipality’s tariff policy. A Pretoria News report says this is according to the city in its response to the application by Residents Against Crime, which asked the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to take the metro to task regarding its ‘unreasonable and exorbitant’ tariffs on access restriction applications (to gated communities).

The doors of the Kwadukuza Mall, on KZN’s North Coast, eventually opened on Friday a day later than planned due to legal action. So far it has cost billionaire businessman Vivian Reddy, the developer, R500m to complete the 29 000m² mall, with 80 stores and 900 parking bays, says a Sunday Tribune report.

The ANC is claiming victory in its lawsuit over exorbitant water tariffs against the City of Cape Town, which apparently conceded to its demands, says a Cape Argus report. However, lawyers letters show the city is refusing to agree that it will not cut the water supply of defaulting consumers. The ANC in the Western Cape filed a class action in the Western Cape High Court on behalf of four residents, that seeks to have all water and sanitation tariffs increases set aside.

A former farmworker of Nederburg Wines and his four children have been given three months to vacate the premises where they have lived for 25 years. A Cape Times report says Nederburg Wines won an SCA battle to evict Frans Nero and his adult children from the Paarl farm. Nero had in 2011 tested positive following an alcohol test and was fired. He then went to the CCMA for unfair dismissal, but later withdrew the case.

The amaThuli (Luthuli) clan, who live in Umnini on the KZN south coast, say their legal right to the land was taken away when the Ingonyama Trust was established. Now the Legal Resources Centre is helping the community claim back the land and hopes to lodge papers in court in 2019, says New Frame.

As part of the ongoing struggle in the District Six restitution saga, 26 November is the date set for the matter to be heard in the Western Cape High Court. This after the matter was moved from the Land Claims Court in Randburg. A Cape Argus report says the announcement was made during a mass meeting of claimants at the weekend.

The Land Claims Court has reversed the high profile expropriation of the Akkerland Boerdery farms in Limpopo, says Rapport. The order was made by agreement after the Department of Rural Development & Land Reform conceded it had not followed the correct procedures to expropriate the farms unilaterally for a compensation figure of R20m certified by the Valuer-General.

The challenges that arise from the willing buyer, willing seller land redistribution practice have been thrown into the spotlight in a Constitutional Court case involving Newcastle subsistence farmers who are challenging the removal of their livestock from a farm in the area, says a report in The Mercury.

A protracted legal battle stands in the way of the Bakgatla ba Lekhuleni clan’s attempt to lay claim to large parts of Pretoria. A Mail & Guardian report notes the clan lodged a claim, which includes farms, schools, businesses and more than 500 residential properties, mostly on prime land in the suburbs of Pretoria East, in the Tshwane municipality. The claim, lodged by Chief Victor Velaphi (VV) Lekhuleni in October 1996, is one of thousands made to urban land in SA.

A full Bench of the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) ruled this week that repossessed homes may no longer be sold at auction without reserve prices – the point below which the property cannot be sold – except in exceptional circumstances. GroundUp notes court rules were changed last year to allow for the setting of reserve prices, but this was applied inconsistently by judges in the Gauteng courts.

A legal battle may be looming over ANC plans to change the Constitution to make it easier to expropriate land without paying for it. Land expropriation without compensation could violate the founding provision in section 1 of the Constitution, which guarantees human dignity, rights and freedoms, outlaws racism and ensures the supremacy of the rule of law, according to Robert Vivian, a professor of finance and insurance at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Economic and Business Sciences.

So you’ve decided to buy your first house – exciting! There’s nothing like owning and living in your very own dream house, and if you choose wisely your home could well be one of your most important investments ever.