The Homeowners Association (HOC) With security a factor that is influencing home-buying decisions in South Africa, many buyers are choosing to purchase homes within boomed-off areas or secure lifestyle estates. Unlike a body corporate which manages a sectional title development, in a homeowners' association, each member owns the house and the erf or plot on which the home is situated. Usually...
Legal Domicile A legal domicile address is an address where the seller or the purchaser currently resides and where the sheriff of the court can deliver any notice. These details must be comprehensively filled in on pages 7 & 8. As a Practitioner, you are responsible for ensuring all parties have completed these pages in full. If there is missing information, obtain the information and...
Getting an offer to purchase signed may seem like a simple matter, but issues arise from time to time, and they need to be addressed. In this letter, I will deal with witnessing an OTP, initialling on each page, and whether an OTP can be signed electronically. Witnessing a Sale Agreement When conveyancers draw private sale agreements, they usually ensure that two witnesses sign the agreement for...
FICA Information The party’s information pages are part of the offer to purchase and need to be comprehensively completed. In contract law, it is essential to establish the identities of the parties, including their full names, identity numbers, residential addresses, email addresses, fax numbers, and cell numbers to which notices can be delivered, as per the contract. The new FIC Act...
When does the sale become finalised? As soon as the Seller has signed the offer to purchase, the sales have been finalised and become a valid agreement of sale. Until the Seller has actually signed the offer, no sale exists. If the Seller makes any changes to the contract, it then becomes a counteroffer, and the sale will only become valid once the Purchaser has accepted the changes. Until the...
For an offer to purchase (OTP) concerning the sale of immovable property to be legally valid, it must contain, at minimum, the following: Must be in writing The identity of the parties to the contract The description of the property being sold The purchase price Must be signed by the parties. No additional clauses need to be recorded in the written document for it to constitute a valid...
Special Clauses Suspensive Conditions Estates: Master’s Consent This sale is subject to the consent of the Master of the High Court in terms of Section 42(1) of the Administration of Estates Act No. 66 of 1965. This clause must be inserted whenever a property is sold out of a deceased estate and the Executor signs on behalf of the estate. The consent will be a formality unless there is...
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...