October 2014: Houses – Transfer Trumps Intention
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward” (Vernon Law)
Never assume that you have any rights to a property just because the owner says that he/she intends to give you ownership, even if a sale agreement is signed. Make sure that you actually do take ownership via registration in the Deeds Office.
That’s the hard lesson learnt recently by a mother and her children who will now be evicted from “their” home.
The relationship that soured
Never assume that you have any rights to a property just because the owner says that he/she intends to give you ownership, even if a sale agreement is signed. Make sure that you actually do take ownership via registration in the Deeds Office.
That’s the hard lesson learnt recently by a mother and her children who will now be evicted from “their” home.
The relationship that soured
- Mr A intended to marry Ms B, who lived with her children in a home owned by Mr A’s company
- Mr A it seems intended to donate the home to Ms B and he accordingly signed a sale agreement (the “first agreement”) selling it from his own company to Ms B’s Company C (she being the sole director and shareholder)
- Transfer was never effected to Company C
- Mr A then left Ms B and married someone else instead
- Mr A signed another sale agreement (the “second agreement”) in terms of which he sold the home from his company into his own personal name. The property was duly transferred into Mr A’s name
- Mr A died, leaving the home in his will to his new wife
- Ms B, still living in the home but threatened with eviction by the executor of Mr A’s deceased estate, asked the High Court to order transfer of the property to her Company C per the first agreement.