“…there is no obligation on the [seller] to obtain an occupancy certificate and to furnish it to the [buyers]” (Extract from judgment below) Imagine this – you buy your dream home, pay for it, take transfer into your name, and move in. But then disaster strikes. The...
News
Who Owns Your Employee’s Invention? Lessons from the “Please Call Me” Saga
24 April 2024 is ‘World Intellectual Property Day’. It’s “an opportunity to explore how intellectual property (IP) encourages and can amplify the innovative and creative solutions that are so crucial to building our common future.” (The UN’s World Intellectual...
How to Safeguard Your Digital Presence: A Simple Checklist for Website Compliance
“It’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away” (Doug Warner) Your website, social media profiles, and other online platforms play a vital role in your business strategy and in staying ahead of your competition at all times. However, it’s not...
When to Lawyer Up
“The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.” (Shakespeare) Shakespeare must have had an unhappy experience or two with the lawyers of his time to have one of his characters utter that threat, but the reality is that every aspect of our lives is touched at...
Property Sales: “Conditional Acceptance” of an Offer is Not Acceptance, It’s Rejection
“The conditional acceptance of an offer amounts to rejection of same and not the conclusion of a contract, but may be a counter–offer.” (Extract from judgment below) A good offer comes in for your property, so you accept it. But you’re not happy with a few of the...
When is Resignation a Constructive Dismissal?
“…the prospect of continued employment must be shown to have been objectively intolerable and the employee must have resigned due to the intolerable situation and not for another reason.” (Extract from judgment below) Perhaps you are an employer, and that troublesome...
Ponzi Schemes: Can Liquidators Claw Back 600% of Payouts?
“MTl’s business clearly amounted to an unlawful ponzi-scheme, i.e. a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return to investors and generating returns for earlier investors with investments taken from later investors.” (Extract from the MTI judgment)...
Effective 1 March 2024: New National Minimum Wage
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each “ordinary hour worked” has been increased from 1 March 2024 by 8.5% from R25-42 to R27-58. Domestic Workers: Assuming a work month of 21 days x 8 hours per day, R27-58 per hour equates to R220-64 per day or R4,633-44 per month....
Budget 2024: Your Tax Tables and Tax Calculator
How much will you be paying in income tax, petrol and sin taxes? Use Fin 24’s four-step Budget Calculator here to find out. The unchanged transfer duty and tax tables, with a note on fiscal drag Unchanged from last year, so taxpayers can breathe a sigh of relief that...
Why Buyers Should Ask for Building Plans (and Why Sellers Should Supply Them)
“No person shall without the prior approval in writing of the local authority in question, erect any building in respect of which plans and specifications are to be drawn and submitted in terms of this Act.” (National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act)...