News & Resources

With the outbreak of the coronavirus and the resulting lockdown I have found that many of the service providers to my business are using the coronavirus as an excuse to not meet their contractual obligations. We have all been affected by this, but at some point the virus cannot be a blanket excuse for not meeting your obligations. To what extent is the virus a valid excuse?

About three years ago my neighbour started producing his own compost. Initially, the smell was bearable, but it appears that he has ramped up his composting and is bringing in manure as well. I suspect he is even selling or supplying to others. The smell has become unbearable and pervades our entire house and garden, even with the windows closed. We really can’t stand it anymore. I’ve asked my neighbour to stop but he just ignores us. Is there anything we can do?

I am a small commercial farmer. The roads in my region are mostly gravel and dirt roads and are generally in an atrocious state. This has a detrimental effect on the running of my farm as I often cannot get transport in or out of the farm. As these roads have not been maintained in years, a few farmers are considering repairing some of the roads ourselves. Should we continue with such repairs will we have a claim that Government reimburse us?

I’ve recently read in the news that apparently spanking your child is no longer allowed for parents. I thought this had been settled a while ago. Why is this news again?

My company recently bought products from a local store. They sent the invoice, but the invoice details and VAT number was incorrect and we asked them to correct it as our bookkeeper said we can’t pay until a correct invoice was received. In the meantime we now see that the store started posting comments on Facebook saying our business was bankrupt and that we don’t pay our accounts and people should stay away from us. I contacted the store to remove the posts, but they refused and said they would only do so when we paid their account. Surely this is completely unacceptable conduct! What can we do?

My business entered into an agreement some time ago to have certain goods manufactured for us. Unfortunately, the agreement was drawn up in haste, and now that we want to look at other manufacturers, we have realised it does not have a fixed contract period or cancellation clause. Are we now stuck with this manufacturer till the end of time?

I signed a personal guarantee for my company with a credit provider. The company has defaulted on payments and the credit provider now sent me a notice demanding payment under the guarantee. However, they sent it to the company office and not to my domicile address as contained in the guarantee agreement. Does this mean that the demand is not valid as it was not sent to the right address?

On my way on holiday the traffic police had a big roadblock where they appeared to be arresting people. I asked one of the traffic officers what was going on and he said they were arresting people for outstanding traffic fines. I pay my fines, so I have little sympathy for people that don’t, but I was still wondering what happens if you were to get arrested at such a roadblock and what you should do?

I live in a sectional title that used to have beautiful common property areas. The last year or two though, owners have been causing damage to these garden areas and walkways and the body corporate is doing nothing to stop it. Can I take legal action against the owners that are causing the damage or can only the body corporate do something?

I lent a relatively large amount to an ex-business partner of mine to help him out of some financial trouble. When I asked him to start paying the loan and interest back as per our loan agreement he told me that because I was not a registered credit provider, the loan agreement was invalid and I couldn’t claim my money back from him. Surely he can’t get of scott-free just because I was not aware that I needed to register?

I’m currently self-employed and do handyman jobs to put bread on the table. I recently did some repair work for a client for just over R10,000, but the client has still not paid me and refuses to answers my calls. I can’t afford an attorney but have heard that I can go to the Small Claims Court myself. How does the Small Claims Court work?

I run a small estate agency in town. I’ve been hearing about the new Property Practitioners Act that’s on its way and that will hold important changes for us as estate agents. What will be the main changes that we should expect from this new law?