Can your bank take your money without permission? A recent High Court decision has settled the knotty question of whether your bank can take money it holds for you in one account to cover your debt to it in another, without your permission and without notice to you. Firstly, what is “set-off”? To understand how...Read More

Warning: Property Email Scams Surging Why yet another warning about cyber-scams in the property industry? It’s because the hard fact is that the criminals are winning this war. In fact we are now reportedly the “second most targeted country in the world with regard to cyber-attacks” (Law Society of South Africa). Hence, no doubt, the...Read More

Warning: Property Email Scams Surging Why yet another warning about cyber-scams in the property industry? It’s because the hard fact is that the criminals are winning this war. In fact we are now reportedly the “second most targeted country in the world with regard to cyber-attacks” (Law Society of South Africa). Hence, no doubt, the...Read More

Airbnb Owners and Buyers – Should You Be Worried About the New Regulations?  “While travel on our platform accounts for less than 1 in 8 visitors to South Africa, those guests boosted the economy by R8.7 billion and helped create 22,000 jobs last year alone” and “Regulation is a useful and necessary tool of good...Read More

Employers: what is your duty to accommodate religious beliefs?  “The employer has a duty to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious freedom unless it is impossible to do so without causing itself undue hardship. It is not enough that it may have a legitimate commercial rationale. The duty of reasonable accommodation imposed on the employer is...Read More

Employers: what is your duty to accommodate religious beliefs?  “The employer has a duty to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious freedom unless it is impossible to do so without causing itself undue hardship. It is not enough that it may have a legitimate commercial rationale. The duty of reasonable accommodation imposed on the employer is...Read More

Your Last Will: The Dire Consequences of Neglecting Formalities  “It is not intended for the Court to make a will for the deceased based on what his intentions may have been” (Quoted in the judgment below) As a general rule our law holds us to our agreements and statements, whether we express them verbally, electronically...Read More

Your Last Will: The Dire Consequences of Neglecting Formalities  “It is not intended for the Court to make a will for the deceased based on what his intentions may have been” (Quoted in the judgment below) As a general rule our law holds us to our agreements and statements, whether we express them verbally, electronically...Read More

Property Transfers and Trust Account Theft: A R720,000 Warning  “The issue of whether a conveyancing attorney receives the money as the agent of the seller, or of the purchaser, or of both, or as trustee for both to await the event, is a somewhat vexed question … and each case must be considered in the...Read More

You put your property on the market and an acceptable but not-perfect offer comes in. On the “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” principle you want to accept the offer even though it’s not ideal. Perhaps it’s not perfect because it’s subject to a suspensive condition – common ones give...Read More