Renegotiating After You’ve Signed: The Email That Ended a Property Sale
After their bond was withdrawn, the buyers were given time to arrange new finance. Instead, one of them emailed the conveyancer saying they would only apply for another...
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Was it Even His Signature? How to Overturn a Fraudulent Will
It’s unfortunately all too common a tale. Out of the blue, an older person, rendered vulnerable by age or illness, acquires a new “friend”. Before anyone in the family...
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Employ a Foreign National? What You Must Check Now, and What Could Change
Under the current law, it is already illegal to employ someone who is not legally entitled to work in South Africa. This applies to businesses and to households employing...
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Can Your Complex Cut Off Your Biometric Access Over Unpaid Levies?
Your fingerprint suddenly stops working at the estate gate. You can still get home, but only through the visitors’ lane. Can your homeowners’ association cut off your...
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National Wills Week: Do You Really Need 6 Types of Will?
At the heart of your estate planning is your will (“Last Will and Testament”). Without it, you lose your right to choose your heirs, to choose the executor of your...
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Better Late Than Never: Marriage Law Drags Itself into the 21st Century
For decades, South African law used the husband’s legal home at the time of marriage to decide which country’s law governed a couple’s financial and property rights when...
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A Pothole Causes You to Crash. Can You Sue the Government?
In most cases hitting a pothole results in a damaged tyre or wheel. But for one unfortunate motorcyclist who hit a 60cm behemoth near George, it meant losing a leg. The...
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Can Your Neighbour’s CCTV Camera Point into Your Property?
Home security cameras are increasingly common, but protecting your property does not give you an unrestricted right to monitor your neighbours. A dispute between Cape Town...
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Cancelled Sale, Damaged Property. Who Pays?
When a sale falls through, most people assume restitution means simply giving back the money and the property. A recent High Court decision shows it is rarely that...
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Can Family Conflict Kibosh a Trust?
When a trust's founder dies, families often assume that whatever they said they wanted will be honoured, even if the trust deed was never changed to reflect it. A recent...
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Does the Consumer Protection Act Protect Every Tenant?
Paying rent under a residential lease does not automatically make you a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act. A recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision shows that...
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Whistleblower Reinstated: Protected Disclosures Act to the Rescue
The “Whistleblower’s Act”, formally known as the Protected Disclosures Act, encourages employees to expose corruption, criminal activity and other wrongdoing in the...
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