PROPERTY’S HISTORIC DEBTS PASS TO NEW OWNER AFTER EXECUTION SALE
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v PJ Mitchell (38/2015) 2016] ZASCA 1
(29 January 2016)
For a property transfer to be registered, proof must be submitted to the deeds office that rates and taxes for the preceding two years have been paid (section 118(1), Municipal Systems Act). Older debts are secured by section 118(3) of the Act which creates a charge on land in favour of a municipality. In this judgment the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a previous judgment that held that this hypothec is extinguished where transfer follows on an execution sale. Thus in both a private and an execution sale a municipality can, having exhausted the debt collection provisions in its by-laws against the original debtor, proceed against the property’s successor in title.
read more
The Judgment
Summary of the Judgment
DON’T JUST CLOSE A GATE ON YOUR NEIGHBOUR’S HOLIDAY ROUTINE
Tyjaderlin Properties CC v Malan and Another (1487/2015) [2016] ZAFSHC 5 (22 January 2016)
Public order is preserved if disputing persons are restrained from taking the law into their own hands and induced to follow due process. The mandament van spolieis the tool by which transgressions of this basic principle are set right, illustrated in this judgment where a resort owner was ordered to restore his neighbour’s access to a gate on the resort property by which the neighbour had all along acquired access to the Vaal dam.
read more
The Judgment
Summary of the Judgment