The Internet explosion has meant that we all live our lives in an entirely different way – from how we connect to communities, to how we do our banking or how we get the groceries, the world has changed. Just as these changes are occurring, there are fraudsters out there trying to evolve their scams to further exploit a growing system. In this rapidly growing and changing digital age, you need a...
L. Other Legal Information
Changing the Purchaser’s Identification Often, buyers want to change their identification, or they have to make changes to make the sale valid. Quite often, the director of a company will: - want to change the actual Purchaser afterwards to another company of his, and the usual procedure is simply to redraw page 1 of the sale contract and change the Seller’s name to another...
L2. The CPA and Residential Property Sales Residential property buyers are being led to believe more and more that their interests in their sales are fully covered by the Consumer Protection Act, and they are boldly challenging their sellers to conform to the provisions of the Act. They have been spurred on by certain sections of the media and releases by the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority,...
Cycads South Africa has a strong national market for cycads, with a high demand for large cycads that make prominent features in a garden. The harvesting of wild cycads is prohibited in South Africa. Due to the high demand for large cycads, the illegal market has increased to such an extent that nearly 70% of all South African cycad species have become threatened with extinction. A purchaser of a...
Selling a property currently let to tenants can be very difficult. Buyers often lose interest very quickly when they hear a property is occupied by tenants. They’ve read alarming stories in newspapers and magazines of property buyers who have struggled for up to a year to evict existing tenants. There are a number of things Property Practitioners can do to assist sellers in selling rented properties,...
L5. Fractional Ownership Fractional Ownership is based on the ownership of undivided shares in a property, as opposed to shares in a company or member’s interest in a CC (which may be in contravention of the Share Blocks Act). This can be bonded in the Deeds Office, as the share in the property is a registered real right for which a separate Deed of Transfer can be created for each...
There is really no good reason now for any block of flats or group housing scheme to be run as a share block company, and those that are should be converted to a sectional title. The tax advantage of purchasing in a share block instead of a sectional title scheme was eliminated by SARS in 2002. Share block companies are tricky to run in terms of the requirements of the new Companies and Intellectual...
Immovable property Immovable property refers to land, whether unimproved (i.e. vacant) or improved (i.e. land with permanent improvements such as a house). A piece of land and all the permanent improvements constitute a single entity, namely one immovable property. This means that the permanent improvements cannot be sold independently of the land. It is also not possible to transfer ownership in...
Can you operate a small home business in a cluster home scheme? This question came up for decision in a High Court case, and its findings will not only affect cluster owners in the future but have also served to some extent to determine the conditions under which they may or may not run home-based businesses in a cluster scheme. The Right to Operate a Business in a Residential Area All...
It is becoming an increasingly troublesome issue in the industry: buyers demanding house plans from their sellers, whether this obligation has been placed on the seller in the sale agreement or not. Another headache is arising from this new development – many extensions have been added to the sellers’ homes without proper plans being approved, often without the sellers even being aware of this...