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Leaving Anything Important Out of Your Property Sale Agreement Will Sink It
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In what format must your property sale agreement be, and what terms and conditions must it incorporate for it to be valid and enforceable?
We’ll address that question with reference to a recent Supreme Court of Appeal fight over a R4.5m sale of land which was declared void after 7 years of confusion, delay, and wasted opportunity. All because the parties failed to include in their sale agreement a term relating to the subdivision of one of the pieces of land being sold. Our discussion covers what must be included in your sale agreement, what “essential” and “material” terms are, why it matters, and why clarity and certainty are vitally important.
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Don’t Give a Loan or Credit to Anyone (Not Even a Friend) Without Legal Advice!
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Cash-flush after selling your house, you happily lend R2.5m to your close friend, thinking nothing of it. But when you fall out, your friend says “hang on, you can’t claim anything back from me. You aren’t a registered credit provider, and you didn’t check that I was financially able to take the loan and repay it.” You sue for the R1.5m outstanding balance in the High Court, but to your dismay the judge agrees with your (now ex-) friend, and you lose everything. What just happened?
We discuss the perils and pitfalls of the National Credit Act (NCA) with reference to a recent High Court case addressing just that scenario…
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“Bad Dog!” Why a Husky’s Owner Must Pay R100,000 Damages
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A recent High Court award of almost R100,000 in damages to a young woman attacked and bitten by a dog serves as a timely reminder that the many positives of owning a pet come also with a substantial risk of legal liability.
We discuss the facts of the case and the old Roman law principle that the Court applied in holding the dog owner liable on a “no fault” basis, ending off with a list of six practical tips to protect your pet and to protect yourself from being sued.
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Dual Citizens: Good News if You Lost Your South African Citizenship, But…
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The SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) has just declared invalid from inception a provision in our Citizenship Act which required you to get Ministerial consent before applying for any other citizenship or nationality.
If you automatically lost your citizenship by failing to get that prior permission, you are now retrospectively deemed not to have lost citizenship and no longer need to reapply for it.
Note however that we have two extremely important “Buts” to share with you…
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Legal Speak Made Easy
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“Delict” and “Tort”
In South Africa, you will normally come across the term “delict” in cases involving claims for damages. It is different to a “criminal wrong”, which allows the state to prosecute an individual for a crime. It is rather a “civil wrong” which enables private persons to sue each other for compensation for harm wrongfully caused to one person by the other person’s conduct. You also occasionally see references in South Africa to “tort”, but that’s not part of our law and is just an English legal term for the same thing.
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