Can You Use Land Use Laws to Close Down a Neighbour’s Business?
“A bad neighbour is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage”. (Hesiod, poet of Ancient Greece) Your neighbour’s business is driving you to distraction. Perhaps it’s loud all-night music, or an invasion of your hard-earned privacy, or illegal parking in your driveway, but regardless of what the nuisance factor is, […]
Festive Season Sellers: Start Getting Your Compliance Certificates Ready
“If you don’t like where you are, move. You are not a tree” (Jim Rohn) It’s that time of year again – summer sunshine, happy holidaymakers in festive mode, and an upsurge in property sales. Whether seller or buyer, be aware of the various compliance certificates that may be required for your transfer to go […]
A Costly Case of Buyer’s Remorse
“Caveat subscriptor” – old legal maxim meaning “Let the signer beware!’ A recent High Court decision once again highlights the dangers of signing anything without reading, understanding and fully considering it. A “Renovator’s Dream” and a case of buyer’s remorse A couple viewed a house advertised as “a renovator’s dream” and they immediately decided to […]
Selling Your House to a Non-Resident
“Oh, I’m an alien, I’m a legal alien” (Sting’s ‘Englishman in New York’) South Africa is attractive to overseas property buyers with our world-class lifestyle, depreciated Rand, strong property registration and legal systems, and minimal restrictions against non-resident property ownership. Which is of course great news for property sellers in any area popular with foreign […]
Security Warning: Property Sale Cybercrime Surges, and a New AI Danger
“The infectiousness of crime is like that of the plague” (Napoleon Bonaparte) This October marks the 20th anniversary of the globally observed “Cyber Security Awareness Month”, and with cybercrime continuing to surge, here’s a cautionary tale to bear in mind. You buy your dream house and pay the purchase price to the transferring attorneys (the conveyancers). […]
Landlords: You Cannot Cut a Defaulting Tenant’s Water and Electricity
“A fundamental principle in issue here is that nobody may take the law into their own hands. In order to preserve order and peace in society the court will summarily grant an order for restoration of the status quo where such deprivation has occurred, and it will do so without going into the merits of […]
Your New House Leaks Like a Sieve – Can You Sue the Seller?
“There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you’re safe asleep in someone else’s house.” (Anne Tyler) You move into your new dream home, excited and happy. Until it rains, and the roof leaks. As the repair teams tramp around on your roof and the bills start piling up whilst you […]
Leaving Anything Important Out of Your Property Sale Agreement Will Sink It
“No alienation of land … shall … be of any force or effect unless it is contained in a deed of alienation signed by the parties thereto or by their agents acting on their written authority.” (Alienation of Land Act) Ensure that all the important terms of your sale agreement are recorded in writing and signed. Leave […]
Property Buyers: The Danger of Not Doing Your Financial Homework
“Look before you leap” (wise old proverb) Don’t let the excitement of buying a property blind you to the necessity of doing your homework before you agree to anything. Look before you leap! It’s not just a matter of buying the right property at the right price – make sure that your finances (and particularly your cash […]
Losing Your Property to Acquisitive Prescription
“… a person shall by prescription become the owner of a thing which he has possessed openly and as if he were the owner thereof for an uninterrupted period of 30 years or for a period which, together with any periods for which such thing was so possessed by his predecessors in title, constitutes an […]