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 Supreme Court of Appeal decision confirms that this is not how trusts work. What governs a trust after the founder’s death is the trust deed...Read More

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 straightforward, particularly if the property itself has changed in the interim. The ruling explains how restoration costs should be worked out, and why the condition of the...Read More

Trusts remain a valuable estate planning and asset protection tool, but they also carry ongoing compliance obligations. Many trustees assume that a dormant trust with no income, assets, or activity can simply be left alone. SARS has made it clear that inactivity does not remove a trust’s compliance obligations. With penalties now being imposed for...Read More

Your top employee resigns and immediately opens up a new business in direct opposition to you. Using your software, your client relationships and your business methods to springboard their new start-up and poach your clients. We discuss, in the context of a recent High Court case, how our law can help you put a stop...Read More

A dementia diagnosis affects far more than memory. As mental capacity declines, families are often confronted with difficult legal and financial decisions. Many are surprised to learn that a Power of Attorney may no longer be valid. Understanding the alternatives can help protect a loved one’s affairs before a crisis develops. Read on for the...Read More

A tenant may be in clear breach of a lease, but that does not guarantee a successful eviction. A recent High Court judgment shows how an unclear cancellation notice and a failure to follow the correct legal process can derail an otherwise strong case, leaving landlords with an expensive lesson in the importance of getting...Read More

Couples who sign antenuptial contracts often believe they have permanently settled the question of money in their marriage. What is mine stays mine. What is yours stays yours. Not so fast. The Constitutional Court recently expanded access to redistribution orders for spouses married out of community of property without accrual, particularly where strict enforcement of...Read More

Most buyers treat a deposit as a show of good faith. The law treats it very differently. When a sale collapses because of a buyer’s breach, that deposit may be lost entirely. The Conventional Penalties Act offers limited relief, but the threshold for court intervention is high. A recent case, in which the buyer lost...Read More

We all know that a comprehensive estate plan, with a carefully crafted will at its heart, is essential to ensure that we’re on track to leave our loved ones financially secure. And that of course requires us to quantify not only our assets, but also the costs that our estate will have to pay out...Read More

A deck collapsed seven months after transfer. The buyers, convinced they’d been sold a raw prawn, headed to the courts. Eight claims and twelve years later, they haven’t recouped a cent. A 2026 Western Cape High Court judgment draws a sharp line between what the law protects buyers against and what it does not. “The...Read More