Recent Industry Articles - Page 3 of 51 - Ashersons Attorneys

25 Sep 2025

The Transfer Process in a Nutshell

“Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.” (Will Rogers) Spring is in the air and, as the annual uptick in property sales kicks in, let’s address two questions commonly asked by both sellers and buyers who are unsure about exactly what happens after they sign their sale agreement: How does the transfer process work? How long does it take before the seller gets paid and the buyer becomes the new registered owner? Let’s begin with this simplified “in a nutshell” flowchart of the transfer process: How long does it all take? How long is a piece…

25 Sep 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

When Liquidation is Inevitable: A Bad Faith Business Rescue Application Backfires

“If you’re flogging a dead horse, make sure you’re not riding it.” (Josh Stern) Creditors and company directors alike need to know how best to deal with a company in financial distress. Both should learn to recognise the difference between an enterprise that has failed beyond resuscitation, and one that, given a chance, can be returned to solvency and success. With that in mind, the law provides you with two main options: Liquidation: Liquidation is the winding up of a company that cannot pay its debts. A liquidator is appointed to sell all the assets and to distribute the proceeds to creditors…

25 Sep 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Divorce Lawfare: The Serial Litigant and his Stalingrad Strategy

“This [the Stalingrad Strategy] is a strategy of wearing down the plaintiff by tenaciously fighting anything the plaintiff presents by whatever means possible and appealing every ruling favourable to the plaintiff. Here, the defendant does not present a meritorious case. This tactic or strategy is named for the Russian city besieged by the Germans in World War II.” (Judges Matter website) Divorce disputes are of course intensely personal and emotionally charged affairs — and when feelings run high the resultant fallout can mean protracted, bitter, and costly litigation. If you are being subjected to a barrage of such litigation, take…

25 Sep 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Don’t Let Cybercriminals Haunt You this Halloween — Verify, Verify, Verify!

“If you suspect deceit, hit delete!” (Online cybersecurity slogan) October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a good time to note that as cybercrime continues to grow, more and more businesses and individuals are falling victim to the dreaded “BEC” or “Business Email Compromise” fraud. The million-dollar question: Who takes the hit? Typically in a BEC fraud, email or other electronic communications between a creditor and debtor (often a seller and buyer, or service provider and client) are hacked by criminals, who con the debtor into paying what they owe into the fraudster’s bank account. By the time the parties realise they’ve…

26 Aug 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Excuses, Excuses: Why People Don’t Make Wills, And Why You Must

“All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” (William Shakespeare, in Hamlet) Master’s Office records suggest that less than a third of us leave behind a will when we die. That’s astonishing, given the fact that death is one of the few absolute certainties in our lives. Why do so many of us put our families at risk like this? “I don’t have a will because…” It’s easy to find excuses for doing nothing about a will, with surveys conducted both locally and overseas suggesting that people’s failure to act is normally rooted in one or more of…

26 Aug 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Panhandle Access to Properties – The Mistakes to Avoid

“You aren’t buying a house, you’re buying a lifestyle.” (Anon) As more and more residential properties are subdivided and developed, an increasing number of homes are effectively cut off from direct access to the nearest public street or road. That’s where the “panhandle” comes into play, a narrow strip of land (looking on diagrams very much like the handle of a pan, hence the name) which gives the needed street access to the “landlocked” property. The panhandle can be owned by the property using it as an access road, or it can be a right of way in favour of…

26 Aug 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Neighbours’ Facebook Feud: Cats Pics, Karens & Keyboard Muppets

“Dance like no one is watching, but text, post, and email like it will be read in court one day.” (Anon) When can the target of rude comments and insults on a community Facebook group sue? The High Court recently grappled with a community debate over free-roaming jackals that turned sour. The golf estate and the Facebook group The scene here is one of Sandton’s large and secure golf estates, whose closed Facebook group, aimed at fostering community spirit, reaches some 1,800 residents. Jackals roaming freely on the estate were at the heart of this dispute, with residents split into…

26 Aug 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Honesty at Work: A 50c Coin Costs a Bank Teller Her Job

“There’s no trust, no faith, no honesty in men.” (William Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet) A recent Labour Court decision is a stark reminder to employees that an employment relationship is founded on trust, and that any breach of that trust could justify dismissal. Pocketing a 50c coin to balance her till The responsibilities of a bank teller included “balancing cash daily, reporting differences, as well as maintaining effective security controls, including maintaining a high level of honesty, integrity and ethical standards.” Her clean record over the four years of her employment ended abruptly when a monthly surprise check of…

28 Jul 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Your House Burns to the Ground: Can You Hold the Seller Liable?

“Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides.” (William Shakespeare, in King Lear) A recent High Court judgment confirms, yet again, that if a property seller knows about a hidden defect and keeps it quiet, no exemption clause will save them. A loud roar, rolling flames, and a dream home turns to ashes A family thought they were moving into a solid, well-built family home (a dual-level freestanding residential townhouse). They had no idea a hidden hazard was buried in the walls above their fireplace. They found out on a cold and rainy Free State night when they lit a winter…

28 Jul 2025

By Ashersons Attorneys

Divorce 101: A Simple Guide to the Legal Side

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” (C.S. Lewis) Divorce is traumatic, to the extent that it’s widely considered to be the second most stressful life event (behind only the death of a spouse, and ahead of marital separation and going to jail!). But if you’ve come to the conclusion that your marriage is so unhappy or toxic that you have no alternative but to put an end to it, you’ll need to know how to go about obtaining a divorce, and what your legal rights are. The…