Blog

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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 estate, and to choose who will look after your children and your family trusts when you die. But there’s lots of...

Better Late Than Never: Marriage Law Drags Itself into the 21st Century

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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 they had ties to more than one country. A recent Western Cape High Court judgment declared that rule...

A Pothole Causes You to Crash. Can You Sue the Government?

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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 High Court held the Department of Infrastructure liable for his damages, finding that the roads authority had...

Can Your Neighbour’s CCTV Camera Point into Your Property?

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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 neighbours has clarified where the line may be drawn. The bottom line? CCTV surveillance of a neighbour’s...

Cancelled Sale, Damaged Property. Who Pays?

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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...

Can Family Conflict Kibosh a Trust?

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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...

Does the Consumer Protection Act Protect Every Tenant?

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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 the real question is whether the landlord is letting property in the ordinary course of business. That said,...

Whistleblower Reinstated: Protected Disclosures Act to the Rescue

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The “Whistleblower’s Act”, formally known as the Protected Disclosures Act, encourages employees to expose corruption, criminal activity and other wrongdoing in the workplace. But what protections does the Act actually give whistleblowers? And what steps should employers and...

One Bad Letter and Your Eviction Falls Apart

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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...

Dementia in the Family? Here Are Your Legal Options

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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...

How to Protect Your Company from Unlawful Springboarding

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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...

Your Dormant Trust Is Not Invisible to SARS

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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...

Dodgy Deck: When a Property Defect is Your Problem, Not the Seller’s

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“The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller not one.” (George Herbert) A Marina Da Gama property. A collapsed wooden deck. A purchase price of R1.55 million and repair costs claimed of just over R100 000. The facts are not complicated. But the legal battle that...

Estate Planning: The Ambush Tax Lurking in the Wings

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“I can’t afford to die; I’d lose too much money.” (George Burns, comedian) At the heart of any estate plan lies your will. Pair it with a file containing all the information and documents that your executor and heirs will need to wind up your estate, and you’ve laid a...

Your Property Purchase Collapses: Can You Get Your Deposit Back?

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“A creature with a big enough head to make a contract should have the sense to make one it can keep.” (Barbara Kingsolver) A R1.725 million deposit. A bank guarantee that never arrived. A property that ultimately sold for significantly less than the original price. What happens...

Married Out of Community of Property? You May Still Be Entitled to a Share

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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...

Bodies Corporate and HOAs: Apply Your Rules With Common Sense, or Else

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The administrators of residential complexes tread a fine line. They must implement and enforce conduct rules for the good of the complex as a whole, but without unjustly impinging on the constitutional rights of individuals. A recent Supreme Court of Appeal decision, granting a...

Bad Manager or Workplace Bully? Where the Law Draws the Line

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Not every difficult manager is a workplace bully, and not every uncomfortable workplace is an unlawful one. But where exactly does the law draw the line? A 2023 Labour Court judgment tackles that question head-on, with important lessons for both employers and employees. ...

She Fell Out of a Safari Vehicle: When Disclaimers Fail

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Think a disclaimer will protect your business from liability? Not so fast. Our courts have made it clear that a disclaimer is only enforceable where consent is properly obtained, risks are clearly disclosed, and the wording is specific enough to cover the conduct in question....

Reckless Lending: You Could Lose Everything