Legal insights that matter
Stay informed with our practical insights on South Africa’s legal landscape – what to know, what to avoid, where the opportunities are
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Property
One Bad Letter and Your Eviction Falls Apart
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 [...]
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Family Law
Dementia in the Family? Here Are Your Legal Options
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 [...]
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Employment and Labour Law Intellectual Property
How to Protect Your Company from Unlawful Springboarding
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 [...]
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Tax Trusts
Your Dormant Trust Is Not Invisible to SARS
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 [...]
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Property
Dodgy Deck: When a Property Defect is Your Problem, Not the Seller’s
“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 followed lasted more than [...]
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Property Tax Wills and Estate Planning
Estate Planning: The Ambush Tax Lurking in the Wings
“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 [...]
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Property
Your Property Purchase Collapses: Can You Get Your Deposit Back?
“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 to the deposit [...]
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Family Law
Married Out of Community of Property? You May Still Be Entitled to a Share
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, [...]
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Property
Bodies Corporate and HOAs: Apply Your Rules With Common Sense, or Else
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 sight-impaired owner a limited right to [...]
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