RELIABILITY OF PROPERTY VALUATIONS WHEN EXECUTION IS SOUGHT
SB Guarantee Company (Pty) Ltd v De Sousa (2023/035447) [2024] ZAGPJHC 459 (6 May 2024)
When a financial institution makes application to court to declare a person’s home specially executable, submission of a reliable property valuation is crucially important. It enables the court to determine whether a reserve price should be set and, if so, the amount thereof. Given that a debtor in these circumstances is unlikely to have funds to procure their own valuation, they must also be able to rely on the expert valuation.
In these three matters, the court refused to use the professional valuations provided by widely-used valuation companies after establishing that the methods employed in providing professional valuations on affidavit rendered these affidavits unreliable. Without a dependable valuation, the court could not make a finding.
It is an exceptionally important judgment and likely to be noted by all courts across the country.
The judgment can be viewed here
Summary of the Judgment
COLLECTING YOUR COMMISSION FROM THE ONE WHO UNDERTOOK TO PAY IT
Property Knight (Pty) Ltd v van Niekerk and Others (A220/2023) [2024] ZAWCHC 30 (7 February 2024)
This judgment is another warning against the dangers of intern agents not acting under the supervision of their principals, and the pitfalls that arise in the absence of records regarding the details of a mandate. The claim for commission in this matter failed because the agency, claiming that their intern was the effective cause of the sale, did not take account of the recordal regarding payment of the commission in the seller and buyer’s sale agreement. In addition, the intern was reported to the PPRA for apparent failure to adhere to the requirements regarding his status as intern and his Fidelity Fund Certificate.
