{"id":596,"date":"2015-11-19T12:22:07","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T10:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=596"},"modified":"2015-11-19T12:25:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T10:25:29","slug":"rates-clearance-a-new-risk-for-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2015\/11\/19\/rates-clearance-a-new-risk-for-buyers\/","title":{"rendered":"RATES CLEARANCE \u2013 A NEW RISK FOR BUYERS?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/rates.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-599\" src=\"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/rates.png\" alt=\"rates\" width=\"165\" height=\"164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/rates.png 165w, https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/rates-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Property buyers need to be aware of, and protect themselves against, a possible new risk. \u00a0\u00a0 In a nutshell, you cannot take transfer of a property until the local municipality issues a \u201crates clearance certificate\u201d confirming that all rates, service charges, levies etc due on the property have been paid in full.\u00a0 Your risk comes from the fact that, per a 2013 Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decision, the municipality must issue a clearance certificate <em>even if the seller only pays amounts due for a two year period prior to the application for a certificate<\/em>. \u00a0In other words, transfer to you can take place even if the seller still owes the municipality for charges pre-dating the two year clearance period.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The result \u2013 there could well be \u201cold debt\u201d, perhaps a lot of it (R151,324 in the case in question), still attaching to the property as a \u201ccharge\u201d or \u201clien\u201d upon it after you take ownership. \u00a0And whilst common sense suggests that the municipality should only be able to sue the original owner \u2013 i.e. the seller who sold to you \u2013 for these old debts, some legal commentators are interpreting the SCA decision to mean that the municipality could instead choose to sue <u>you<\/u>, as buyer and new owner of the property. \u00a0If so, you risk liability for any of the seller\u2019s old debts that haven\u2019t prescribed. <strong><em>Don\u2019t take a chance! <\/em><\/strong> Whether or not this is a correct interpretation of the judgment is the subject of much debate in legal circles, but don\u2019t take a chance \u2013 insist that the seller provides proof, before transfer, that <u>all<\/u> municipal debts, old as well as new, have been settled in full. \u00a0Such a provision must of course be written correctly into your sale agreement so once again \u2013 take legal advice <strong>before<\/strong> you sign anything!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Source: Law Dot News &#8211; April 2014<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Property buyers need to be aware of, and protect themselves against, a possible new risk. \u00a0\u00a0 In a nutshell, you cannot take transfer of a property until the local municipality issues a \u201crates clearance certificate\u201d confirming that all rates, service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}