Legal Articles and Guides

The DA has petitioned President Jacob Zuma to refer the Expropriation Bill back to Parliament because it had been advised by its lawyers that the draft law is unconstitutional, says a report on the IoL site. DA MP Anchen Dreyer said the Bill violated sections 25 and 26 of the Constitution which respectively deal with the right to property and the right not to be evicted without a court order.

As the SCA ordered several Penhill farmers to relinquish some of the land they used to the provincial government, farmers said they believe they were victims of a political spat. A Cape Times report says the SCA upheld a DA-led provincial government appeal against a Western Cape High Court refusal to grant the province an interdict against the farmers.

Although in our law most verbal contracts are binding, property sale agreements are an exception. They must be in writing and signed by the parties to be valid, the reason being that it greatly reduces the risk of confusion or dispute as to what the buyer and seller have actually agreed. In practice of course, the buyer’s initial offer is usually in the form of a written document which only becomes an agreement if and when signed in acceptance by the seller. And often that initial offer sparks negotiation, usually over price or other important terms, with the result that sale agreements are frequently amended both before and after signature.

The Panama leaks, last year’s HSBC leaks, and OECD’s “Automatic Exchange of Information initiative” all suggest that South African residents with accounts and investments in foreign tax jurisdictions should ensure that they are fully compliant with all their local and international tax and exchange control obligations.

"The mere lodging of an objection, however ill-founded, does not trigger an obligation to furnish detailed reasons for the underlying decision relating to the valuation of the property" (extract from judgment below) Your local municipality is entitled to revalue your property (with reference to recent sales of similar properties in your area) at regular intervals.

Imagine finding your dream home: a charming townhouse with sufficient space for you and your family in a quiet neighborhood with a resplendent view of the cityscape. It ticks all of the boxes and you cannot wait to move in and begin this new chapter of your life. Now imagine just before you take transfer, being informed that you have to pay debts incurred by the previous owners – suddenly, the home of your dreams becomes a house of nightmares.

VAT is a tax that is levied in terms of the VAT Act on the value that is added by each vendor in the production chain of goods and is imposed each time a taxable supply of goods or services takes place. Each vendor is required to account to SARS for the VAT on the value which the vendor added to the good. While a VAT vendor is required to account to SARS for "output tax" on any taxable supplies made by the vendor, the VAT vendor is entitled to deduct from this accounting any "input tax" incurred by the vendor. The effect is that the VAT vendor only pays to SARS the VAT on the value which the vendor added to the good.

If you are a bank (or other lender), or if you have borrowed money against your property and are facing financial difficulty, you need to know about a recent High Court decision declaring that a bank's loans to a farming couple had been granted "recklessly", setting aside the loans, and cancelling the mortgage bonds.

Are you an agency trading through a company or close corporation (CC)? If so, this is for you - a recent High Court (Full Bench) case in which a close corporation lost its commission because its Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC) was only in the sole member's name and no separate FFC had been issued to the CC.

What is said below does not pertain to those property sales where the very robust buyer protections in the CPA (Consumer Protection Act) apply. Generally speaking the CPA applies only where the seller is selling "in the ordinary course of business" (a property developer for example), and most private sales will fall outside of the ambit of the CPA. That whole question is however a big topic on its own which we will deal with in a future article.

Section 6(2)(d) of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) grants occupiers the right to “family life in accordance with the culture of that family.” In practice, this means that a farm labourer may insist that his wife and minor children reside with him in his accommodation on the farm.

How does the landlord calculate a “reasonable” penalty for early cancellation of the lease agreement?

It is not an uncommon occurrence for landlords to find themselves in the position where its tenants do not pay utility bills. This can be detrimental to landlords which must still pay the costs of its tenants" usage of these utilities to municipalities. In this regard, landlords often contemplate succumbing to the temptation of taking it upon themselves to disconnect the supply of these utilities to non-paying tenants.

What effect has the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 had on the cancellation of a lease agreement?