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• Your Dog, Cat or Cow (Even Your Bees) Could Cost You Millions
  April 2019
  
  We all know that causing someone else loss either negligently or intentionally lays us open to being sued for damages.
  
  What is less well known – and in this case ignorance is extremely dangerous – is that animal owners can be held liable for loss or damage caused by their animals on a 'no fault' or 'strict liability basis'.
  
  

• Property Buyers: Beware Unlawful Occupiers!
  March 2019
  
  If you plan to buy a house before the property market starts to recover from its present doldrums, be aware of the risks you face if anyone is currently in the property.
  
  

• Property Owners, Buyers and Agents: Check for the Title Deeds Before 25 February!
  February 2019
  
  The last thing you want in any property transfer is any more delay and cost than is already built into the process.
  
  

• Paternity Leave and Minimum Wages – How Will The New Laws Affect You?
  January 2019
  
  Both employers and employees should be up to speed with the new labour legislation which will affect all businesses and individuals on one level or another.
  
  

• Buying Property this Festive Season? Check the Title Deed First!
  December 2018
  
  If cowboy Will Rogers' practical advice "Don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait" has you looking for a property to buy this Festive Season, don't miss out on an invaluable source of relevant information – the title deed.
  
  

• Immigration reform and economic development – Are they two sides of the same coin?
  November 2018
  
  On Monday, 25 September 2018, the Minister of Home Affairs (the Minister), Mr Malusi Gigaba, announced a number of amendments to immigration legislation that will be implemented in the coming months.
  
  

• Selling Your House: Disclosing Defects
  October 2018
  
  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.
  
  

• Do You Need a Will?
  September 2018
  
  We all die, and we all know that it is up to us to ensure the happiness and well-being and protection of our loved ones long after we are gone. But it’s not easy to contemplate our own mortality, nor is it easy to find the time in our busy schedules to attend to even the basics of doing so.
  
  

• Your Body Corporate and Arrear Levies: To Sequestrate or Not To Sequestrate?
  August 2018
  
  As a Body Corporate trustee you will understand how important it is to collect arrear levies from defaulting owners. And of course as a section owner you have a personal stake in the process. When normal debt collection processes fail, what do you do?
  
  

• How to Escape from a Property Suretyship
  July 2018
  
  You are a director of a company entering into a good, sensible property deal which you have researched thoroughly. So when you need finance from the bank and the bank says “sure, your company can have a R5m loan, just sign this personal suretyship here”, you sign.
  
  

• What Happens If You Cancel Your Lease Early?
  June 2018
  
  Whether you are a tenant or a landlord, chances are that sooner or later you are going to be asking yourself the question "What happens if the lease is cancelled early?"
  
  Of course there are no free lunches in life, and a tenant wanting to cancel before the lease has run its full course is going to have to pay at least something for the privilege.
  
  

• Facebook Defamation – The Truth is not Enough!
  May 2018
  
  No one wants to be sued for defamation. Apart from the public embarrassment (the media loves this sort of story, particularly where there’s a Social Media angle), emotions tend to run high so you will be embroiled in litigation that is as unpleasant as it is costly and time-hungry.
  
  

• How to Avoid Disputes over Jointly Owned Property
  April 2018
  
  Pooling your resources with someone else to buy property can make a lot of sense, whether you plan to share a house, a holiday home, an office or just an excellent investment.
  
  

• Can You Still Sell As Is? CPA v The Voetstoots Clause
  March 2018
  
  There has been much speculation as to whether or not the very common "voetstoots" clause has been killed off by the strong buyer protections contained in the Consumer Protection Act, and we analyse this question in regard to sales of both movable and immovable property.
  
  

• Security Estates: Are Your Rules Enforceable?
  February 2018
  
  Buying into any form of community scheme means binding yourself to comply with all the scheme’s rules and regulations. Read and understand these rules before you buy - our courts will usually hold you to them.
  
  But not all rules are legally enforceable, and there’s a strong warning for security estates in a recent High Court case where estate speed limits and restrictions on the movement of domestic employees were challenged and found wanting.
  
  

• It's Wedding Season! Here's Why You Need an ANC (Whether You Marry Here or Overseas)
  December 2017
  
  Wedding Season is in full swing, and it is essential that you start off on the right foot by sorting out all the legalities beforehand.
  
  Upfront legal advice and assistance is essential here. We'll look by way of example at the "international wedding" scenario - at which country’s "marital regime" will apply to you
  
  

• Closing Down the Guesthouse Next Door: Notes for Owners and Neighbours
  November 2017
  
  Are you planning to open a guesthouse? Or perhaps you live next door to an existing guesthouse and for some reason want to have it shut down?
  
  Either way, you need to know what your rights are, and what you will have to prove if you end up in a court battle.
  
  

• How the "Historical Rates" Judgment Affects You
  October 2017
  
  "It is declared that, upon transfer of a property, a new owner is not liable for debts arising before transfer from the charge upon the property..." (Constitutional Court Order). How does the recent Constitutional Court decision on "historical rates" affect you in practice?
  
  

• 7 Myths about Making a Will
  September 2017
  
  If you haven't made your will yet, get it done now. Why is that so important and how should you go about it?
  
  

• Verbal Agreements – The Property Perspective
  August 2017
  
  "A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" (Samuel Goldwyn)
  
  

• Your Property Sale Agreement: Be Careful How It's Worded!
  July 2017
  
  Here's yet another reminder from our courts on how important it is – if you want to avoid the trials of litigation - for you to have your property sale agreement drawn up professionally.
  
  

• What is an Occupancy Certificate? Why Do You Need It?
  June 2017
  
  "Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget" (Robert A. Heinlein)
  
  

• Collecting Arrear Levies: A New Risk for Your Body Corporate
  May 2017
  
  Levy collections are the life blood of sectional title schemes, and collecting them is likely to get harder with the economic fallout from our downgrade to junk status.
  
  

• Property: Do You Have Automatic Rights to Views and Privacy?
  April 2017
  
  “Diligence is the mother of good fortune” (Miguel de Cervantes)
  
  Another warning to do your homework before you buy or develop property comes from a recent High Court decision to set aside a municipality’s approval of building plans.
  
  

• Starting a Business in 2017: The Private Company Option
  January 2017
  "My best entrepreneurial advice is to start" (Dave Morin, entrepreneur, angel investor, CEO and co-founder of social network Path)
  In our last article in the series “Choosing the right legal entity for your business” we looked at the partnership option. Let’s move on to the private company option, where your business is owned and operated, not by you as an individual or by a group of individuals, but by a “(Pty) Ltd”.

• Barking Dogs Driving You Batty? Noisy Neighbours and the Interdict Option
  February 2017
  “Nuisance usually involves repeated infringement of the Plaintiff's property rights. An objective weighing up of the interests of the various parties, taking into account all the relevant circumstances is required in these matters” (from judgment below)

• Buy That House! You’re off the Hook for the Seller’s Municipal Debts
  December 2016
  “Why should a municipality be entitled to visit the sins of a predecessor in title upon innocent third parties when there is no relationship or connection between that party and the debts in question?” (Extract from judgment below)

• Bad Tenants: Can You Lock Them Out? "I'll answer him by law" (Shakespeare)
  November 2016
  It's very tempting, when you have a bad tenant who doesn't pay his/her rentals or otherwise remains consistently and unapologetically in breach of the lease, to slap the biggest and strongest padlock you can find onto the front door/driveway gate.

• "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
  October 2016
  Here's the story of yet another bitter dispute between neighbours over the loss of a treasured view. The setting this time is a group housing development which was specifically designed to give each and every house views of both the sea-shore and of Table Mountain.

• Your Will And A Practical Plan For Your Loved Ones
  September 2016
  Whether you are young or old, healthy or ill, single or attached, you should have a Will. Without one, you die “intestate”, which means you forfeit your right to decide who inherits what, who administers and distributes your estate, and who looks after your children and their money.

• Meter Wars: A Consumer Strikes Back
  August 2016
  You challenge the accuracy of a services account from your local municipality, thus: “Your meter must be wrong, no way was my consumption that high”. The reply: “We’ve tested the meter and it works fine. Pay up or face disconnection”.

• Neighbours Behaving Badly: Nip Illegal Building In The Bud!
  July 2016
  Bad neighbours don’t just impinge on your enjoyment of your property; they can also cause serious harm to its value. So if you notice illegal building activity next door, move quickly to nip the problem in the bud.

• Property Agreements – An Alteration Could Sink Your Sale!
  June 2016
  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.