Mika is a new Attorney and Conveyancer

Congratulations to Mika from our Amanzimtoti office who was admitted to practice as an Attorney and Conveyancer simultaneously on Friday 6 June. The three judges of the full bench of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg enthused that it was unusual for a double admission as both an attorney and conveyancer.  

Articles

Mika served her 2 years Articles with Dave and was did both general law training as well as mortgage bonds and property transfers during her articles and then passed both the attorneys admission and conveyancing exams to qualify for the simultaneous admission and dual qualification. 

Mika stays on with Mc Naught and Company at our Amanzimtoti office as a Professional Assistant to the firm. Excellent achievement Mika!!          Mc Naught and Company website

Lease info important for later evictions

Evicting  defaulting tenants can be fraught with difficulty. 

It is important when taking on a new tenant to establish that in the event of them having to move, they have an alternative place to move to - get this is writing at the time the lease is signed as you have to prove this before you can get them evicted, as the courts won’t evict someone who may then be homeless.

Property fraud increasing

Identity theft is one of the problems facing conveyancers where a property seller presents himself as the Owner with corresponding identity documents to pass transfer to a buyer.  The unsuspecting attorneys and buyers effect registration and when the buyers attempt to take occupation they find that the real owner has never sold the property and the fraudulent seller has vamoosed with the proceeds.

Scrutinise documents

Careful scrutiny of identity documents and Fica is critical to help prevent cases like this being successful for the fraudster. Our Toti offices have already thwarted two attempts at fraud in this way.

June newsletter published

Our June newsletter is out.. either click on the image to enlarge and read, or look at the stories above which I will extract from the newsletter and publish here.

Visit our Mc Naught and Company website for the services we offer and more about us.

Seaplane Attorney

Mc Naught and Company partner Dave Mc Naught is possibly South Africa's only Attorney qualified to fly seaplanes with a current seaplane rating he earned in Arizona, United States, last month.

Dave is an accredited member of the worldwide Seaplane Pilots Association and did his training on Lake Havasu, Arizona, to earn his rating and USA pilot's licence which he holds with his South Africa private pilot's licence. Read more here.

Dave on his flight test, having learned to beach the plane, and take off and land in various conditions on water during his training to become a seaplane pilot.

Dave is one of a few South Africans who belong to the Seaplane Pilots Association

Time to Vote for us please

It's time to vote for us if you have received great service this year, which we trust is the case. it's the Southlands Sun Best Servicve awards which we won last year.. please follow the link and vote for us and help keep us in top form for bringing you the best in the south..

Southlands Sun Best Awards 2014

April Newsletter published

Our April newsletter has been published. Click on the image to enlarge it and read or scroll down for more information about the topics.

Property sales to foreigners

We’re not hoping to sell real estate any time soon to Martians, but want to explain the process selling property to foreign citizens or companies, otherwise known as aliens.

Illegal Aliens

There are procedures and requirements that must be complied with in certain circumstances. For instance, sales to illegal aliens are prohibited ie the person or company must be legally established in South Africa. Foreign companies need to be locally registered to qualify and non-residents staying for longer periods may have to apply for a residence permit in terms of the Aliens Control Act.  Other than that you are good to sell to an Alien.. If you dare! If you or your buyer is a foreign company our offices are able to help in getting that company locally registered with our Registrar of Companies to qualify. Where shares in a company are owned by a non-resident, a South African officer for the company also needs to be appointed.

Mortgage Bonds

Cash is good, but if a mortgage bond is required to finance a foreign purchase, no more than 50% of the purchase price may be bonded. Money brought into the country to acquire property may also be taken out again provided at the time of repatriation the full records of the funds coming in need to be retained and supplied. Please check compliance requirements with our offices.

Franchises under the Consumer Protection Act

In practice the Consumer Protection Act, since implementation in 2011, has not had the effect of levelling the playing fields between franchisees and franchisors, according to Ben Whitelaw, writing in De Rebus the Attorneys' magazine this month.

Franchise agreements are generally entered into between two business entities who are informed and ought to take their agreement more serioulsy than a casual consumer purchasing goods in a store - the parties are able to contract and may agree to terms which favour the franchisor. The Consumer Protection Act in general protects consumers who may be uneducated and the law helps them more than the Act helps franchisees who may be sufferring from limits and procedures laid down by the franchisor.

Disclosure document

One area in which the franchisee is protected is the requirement that the franchisor furnish a prospective franchisee with a disclosure document - this sets out full information that would be material to the franchise and enables the prospective franchisee to make a more informed decision whether to go the franchise route or not.

Franchise agreements can be quite complex and require legal interpretation and it is always a wise move to consult your attorney for the correct legal advice before signing into one. Mc Naught and Company are on hand to guide you through this process and reduce the risks of taking on obligations you perhaps did not understand.  durbanskyye.co.za

Re-arranging debt

The National Credit Act, 2005, makes provision for people who are in debt to re-arrange their debt following a set plan of action and payments. Generally the debt can be "frozen" so that court cases regarding the debt come to a halt and a repayment plan is approved in which each creditor gets a pro-rata repayment over a period of time as set out in the repayment plan.

A recent court case heard by the Appeals court however referred a matter back to the Magistrates Court for a re-think after the lower court included car repayments in the repayment plan. This was a case involving the Motor Finance Corporation (Pty) Ltd who were successful in their appeal and required the Magistrate to consider the re-possession of the vehicle, payments for which had fallen into arreas, rather than including the motor vehicle payments in the new repayment plan. ie re-possess and sell the car you can't afford rather than think you can keep the car and pay the motor finance company over a longer period.

The lesson to be learned is to be careful when entering into debt or lending anyone money so that you can be sure the repayments in the future will be made. Durban Skyye blogspot

New sign for Bluff Office

We're going big and our new sign at our 555 Bluff Road office takes up most of the side of the building around the corner from our entrance. It's a WOW sign visible from the traffic intersection and is making a statement on the Bluff.

Getting your Vat invoices correct

We're off to a fresh start this year and here's our first newsletter of the year out and published. Your chance to brush up with the requirements for invoicing customers in compliance with the Vat Act.

 

 

December newsletter published

It's Christmas-time and our year's closing newsletter is out.

Please click on the image to enlarge and read and please accept partner Mark and my best wishes for peace and prosperity this Christmas season and in the New Year - Dave Mc Naught.

Christmas Staff party

If you've ever heard the Blarney Brothers you will know they are famous for their sing-along beerfests. And partner Dave Mc Naught used to help organise the Durban area beerfests for the group in the 80s. So our Christmas staff party was a little more than lunch this year as we took to The Barnyard Theatre at Gateway for some sing-along fun and dinner this year.

Goodbye to a dear father

The modern father of our nation and South Africa's favourite President died at the age of 95 last night on the 5th December 2013.

Nelson Mandela will be remembered as a world Statesman who brought unity to South Africa and peace to this part of Africa and a man loved by everyone.

CNN sets out well his life history and the passage to a peaceful transition from the National Party government pre-1994 to the democratic elections and the inauguration of our first black President under the new negotiated Constitution of the Republic. The Constitution introduced a Bill of Rights and widespread new freedoms for all citizens, regardless of race or gender. We salute you dear father and thank you for your gift to us all. May you Rest in Peace.

President Nelson Mandela