Welcome

Welcome to Mc Naught and Company's inter-active law site. Here you will be able to read about our latest news and views, link to other useful sites that concern the process of buying or selling a home and find out all you will need to know.

You can also post questions or comments and we will help you as best we can. Thank you for taking the trouble to find us.

General Power?

It is common to use a General Power of Attorney or a Special Power of Attorney to sign documents - sale agreement and conveyancing documents if you want someone to step in for you if you are leaving for overseas, going on holiday etc.

However if you do intend to use this document to register a property transaction in the Deeds Office, the GPA or Special Power of Attorney needs to comply with certain criteria.

1. Grantor to be correctly described: the person giving the power of attorney needs to be correctly described, exactly as they would be on the Deed of Transfer for the property transaction concerned

eg

NAOMI TRUDY OLDFIELD
Identity Number 570823 0012 08 4
Married out of community of property  or

PETER GEORGE OLDFIELD
Identity Number 550324 5105 08 3
and
NAOMI TRUDY OLDFIELD
Identity Number 570823 0012 08 4
married in community of property to each other  or

PETER GEORGE OLDFIELD
Identity Number 550324 5105 08 3
Married, which marriage is governed by the laws of England and duly assisted herein as may need be by
NAOMI TRUDY OLDFIELD
Identity Number 570823 0012 08 4

These are just 3 examples and depending on how or where the parties are married, the citation of them on the document needs to be exact, failing which it will get rejected by the Deeds Office and will have to be redrawn, meaning a delay in the conveyancing process.

  2. The GPA either needs to get registered in the Deeds Office along with the related property transaction (and there is a cost involved), or, if used as a supporting document, it needs to carry a conveyancer's certificate that the GPA relates to the particular property transaction.

3. The GPA or Special Power of Attorney needs to carry a "Prepared by me" confirmation and signature by a Conveyancer.

4. If the power of attorney is signed outside of South Africa, the signature of the document needs to be properly authenticated for use in the Republic. There is also a set procedure for this and if you click on the following link, it will take you to an earlier blog article dealing with the authentication process.

Property 24

 Here's the new face of Mc Naught and Company on the property website Property24.com

We can receive electronic transfer instructions from any agents listed on the site.

May Newsletter published

Simply click on the newsletter to enlarge and read it.

April newsletter published

Click on the newsletter to enlarge it, and feel free to contact us should you require additional information. mark@maclaw.co.za

Simplified forms for Sellers and Buyers

With the changing information requirements of the Transfer Duty Department, rates Department and FICA, there is always too much information required of your Sellers and Buyers.

We have streamlined this and reduced the amount of information you as Agents need to collect from your clients. Click on the link in this email and save your own copies of the new Seller and Purchaser's Information sheet required to be attached to your sales agreement. Any more information is too much as the conveyancers will be in contact with the parties to collect this.. most of your clients certainly do not have it all to hand when you are signing with them.

https://skydrive.live.com/?sc=documents&cid=6dca2ef73b160efe#cid=6DCA2EF73B160EFE&id=6DCA2EF73B160EFE%21247&sc=documents

This is the link to our Skydrive where you can download this and other useful sales documents and information.

Quick law bites...

Here's some interesting facts worth remembering:

Foggerty-Le Roux

1. If a woman assumes a double-barreled name on marriage, a formal change of name application with Home Affairs must be done. A deeds registration therefore cannot be done in this new name without this as the registration needs to follow the details appearing on the person's official green bar-coded ID book.

Partners in crime

2. Partners in a partnership business need to register property in all of the names of the partners and it cannot be in the partnership name.

Marry well

3. Marrying in community of property automatically gives ownership of previously acquired property of one party to them jointly.It is important when marrying to consider the full implications of the way you intend to get married. Check out our marriage page on our website and come in for a full discussion. There is no additional charge on top of the costs of registering an Antenuptial Contract to make sure you have peace of mind.

Yes Sir

4. A sale of agricultural land being sub-divided is not valid unless the consent of the Minister is obtained first. Sales containing a "subject to" clause before the consent of the Minister has been obtained have been ruled in court as invalid. If you are contemplating purchasing sub-divided land or land to be sub-divided, please come and see us to make sure it can be structured legally.

Get a slice of South Africa's sunshine..

5. Foreigners may buy property in South Africa but may not get a bond for more than 50% of the purchase price. The profits of any resale can be taken out, as long as the owner can prove the original source of the funds from outside South Africa. If you have a foreign buyer, one needs to check the buyer's intentions and make sure the right documents are preserved. Foreign companies as purchasers also have special requirements and you can check these with us.

For more info email dave@maclaw.co.za
Dave 083-70333-29
Acknowledgements to SA Deeds Journal Issue 25

Birthday Month

1st March 2012 is our 28th birthday and we enter our 29th year in business operating from our Bluff and Amanzimtoti offices. We celebrated in style at our recent big bang bash and we thank all of our loyal clients and associates for 28 years of success. Here's looking forward to 29, 30 and beyond in service excellence to our growing family.

What a Party!!

Comedian Glen Bo entertaining us all

Lisa and Mark tuck in

Dave, his mom Molly and daughter Kate-Lynn

Lisa, Mark's fiance, Mika, our new articles clerk in Toti, and Gopi, her fiance.

January 2012 Newsletter

Our January newsletter has been published. Click on the image to enlarge it to read it clearly.

It's an invitation to party with us

Dave swings into action getting out the invites to our 20th Jan Big Bang Bash to start off the New Year. You're all invited and can RSVP by phoning Sharon on 031-4673810.

Getting 2012 off with a bang!

No double speak

Clients of Mc Naught and Company will know that our legal contracts, wills and documents have always been written in plain simple and easy-to-understand language. This was one of my priorities as a newly-qualified attorney... taking contracts, tearing them apart and reducing them to simpler wording.

The good news is that the Government have recognised this need and it is now law that all legal contracts should be written so that the average South African will be able to understand them. The Consumer Protection Act which recently came into effect provides in Section 22, and the National Credit Act provides in Section 64, for documents to be written so that persons with average literacy skills and minimal experience as a consumer could be expected to understand them.

The new Companies Act also has similar provisions and requires plain language to be used in documents.

Consumers who are upset with contracts that are difficult to understand can complain to the relevant Ombudsman appointed for this purpose and it is intended to stop misleading or deceptive business practices. Fines can be imposed along with other appropriate decisions. The consumer may be entitled to cancel the offending contract or have it set aside by the courts. The court may also make any order it deems just, give money or property back to the consumer, compensate the consumer for any loss and cancel or alter the terms of the contract in favour of the consumer.

So there you have it! Consumers are being looked after.

Skydrive for documents

Our Skydrive is linked to our website and we are building a library of useful documents which may be downloaded and used free of charge, or where registration is necessary, with payment of the applicable fees.

The latest in our bundle of documents are Divorce Settlement Agreements, Joint and Sole Parenting Agreements in situations where agreement needs to be reached over custody and maintenance of children of parents divorcing and for the division of property owned by the parties. Click on our link to our Skydrive here for the list of documents available to download and to download them at a click of your mouse. You can also check out more info on marriage and divorce on our website.