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 policy, but policy comes first. Sadly, the current wording of the draft Bill […]
Beware the building deadlines when buying-to-build
Here’s yet another warning from our courts to take seriously the building deadlines commonly imposed on buyers of plots in residential estates. Failure to comply with them could expose you to heavy fines, recurring penalties and even the risk of losing your plot altogether. A Home Owners Association (HOA) imposed “double levy” penalties totalling R105k […]
Buying property this festive season? Check the title deed first!
“Don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait” (Will Rogers) If you plan to buy property this Festive Season – perhaps your new dream house, or a holiday home, or an office for your business, or purely as an investment – check the title deed of the property you have your eye on before […]
Security Estates: Are your rules enforceable?
“It is well established that contractual provisions are against public policy ‘… if there is a probability that unconscionable, immoral or illegal conduct will result from the implementation of the provisions according to the tenor’” (extract from judgment below) When you choose to buy into a security estate or other community scheme, you will invariably […]
HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATIONS: ARE YOU STILL AT RISK ON INSOLVENCY?
Here’s a scenario that is unfortunately a real risk these days – You are a member of a Home Owners Association (HOA), Your HOA is struggling to recover arrear levies from another homeowner who has fallen into financial difficulty. If the arrears aren’t recovered, you and the other homeowners will have to chip in to […]