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
