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.

Christmas Mince pies

Yummy Christmas Mince Pies being made by Lynn, our conveyancing lady at the Toti office. More please!!

Christmas Newsletter published

Making your Life Even Easier!

Mc Naught and Company constantly strive to make the lives of our clients and loyal business associates even easier.

Thanks to the technical know-how of the team at Dot Creative, transfer and mortgage bond costs can now be sent straight from our website to any mobile phone by sms.

Check out this novel, free service here.

Let us know what you think of this new service by posting replies to this post!

We honour

Our Bluff staff take a minute out of our day to honour those whose contribution to the war effort during the 1st World War preserved the world we know today. It was poppy day, or Armistace Day or Remembrance Day as it is variously known, although it proved impossible to find poppies around town and I had to make my own. We honour the sacrifices made to bring peace to the world.

Some useful documents available free

Mc Naught and Company's focus is on conveyancing and so where possible we prefer not to handle contested court cases. This includes Divorces, although we will help you get a divorce cheaper if you have settled your differences with your wife or husband. To assist, we have loaded a simple Divorce Settlement Agreement on to our SkyDrive as well as a Parenting Plan to take care of custody matters. Please feel free to download these documents free of charge and use them. Once signed, we will handle your divorce on an uncontested basis with pleasure.

Following the same link you will also find other useful documents, including a free will, antenuptial marriage contracts, property sale agreements and the like.

Transferring your property to family

We often get requests to transfer a property from a parent to a son or daughter. There are several reasons why you may wish to do this:

1. You may have several children and one of them has taken over responsibility for paying the rates, levies and maintenance of the property and feels that it would be unfair for the other siblings to inherit;

2. You are worried that if you die with the property still in your estate you may have to pay estate duty and executor's fees based on the value of the property;

3. You can no longer afford to stay in the property but selling it would leave you worse off.

4. One or more of your children have undertaken to pay your debts or expenses in return for taking ownership of the property now.

5. There may be good tax savings transferring it now - it may also not be cheaper so please check carefully with your attorney or us for correct advice.

Unfortunately it is not free to transfer the property to a relative even if no money is being paid for the property. This is because the revenue services (Sars) view the transfer of ownership of a property as an opportunity to collect taxes based on the value of the property. Taxes include transfer duty, Vat and Deeds Office fees. In addition the attorneys attending to the change of ownership also charge for the work involved. If there is an existing mortgage bond over the property, even if it has been fully paid up, there is also a cost involved in cancelling the mortgage bond as it is registered against the title deeds of the property. It may also be necessary for the relative to whom the property is being transferred to raise finance against the property to pay the costs. There will be a charge to raise this finance. Our offices can give a quotation with pleasure and you can also get this information quickly by checking the transfer costs calculator on our website, inserting the value of the property as the "purchase price" even if no money is changing hands... follow the link here.... http://www.maclaw.co.za/calculator_costs.php

Somewhere to live

Another important consideration when transferring propertry to a relative is making sure that you will have somewhere to stay after the registration. Either a usufruct can be registered against the property, or a contract can be drawn up between the parent and relative, even if you think it is not important. We have had cases in our office where the child to whom the property was trasferred has died first and the parent has been left with a fight with the in-laws over the occupation of the property.

October newsletter published

New Sectional Titles management

The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act, 2011, has recently been promulgated. This extracts from the Sectional Titles Act all of the provisions relating to Body Corporate management and the new Act now provides for this.

In order to provide for some conformity in the way Body Corporates are managed whether first registered under the previous 1971 Act, or the later 1986 Act or in future, provisions are set out to make uniform rules applicable to these schemes, making the scope for variations to Rules smaller. Any proposed amendment to Rules also now needs to be approved by an Ombudsman appointed in terms of the Act. This will ensure that no rules that contravene the Act will be able to be passed at a meeting of a Body Corporate.

Provision is also made for the appointment of an Sectional Titles Schemes Management Advisory Council to advise the Government on continuing problems facing the industry and the need for changes to legislation affecting the sectional title property industry.

A copy of the Act can be downloaded free off our Skydrive. Follow the link.

Boks win 13 - 5!



South Africa have beaten Samoa 13 - 5 in our last pool game. It was a tight game, but experience told - well done boys! The Springboks have won a four of their pool games to finish top of Pool D and will likely meet Australia in the quarter finals