A tenant may be in clear breach of a lease, but that does not guarantee a successful eviction. 

A recent High Court judgment shows how an unclear cancellation notice and a failure to follow the correct legal process can derail an otherwise strong case, leaving landlords with an expensive lesson in the importance of getting the basics right.

A dementia diagnosis affects far more than memory. As mental capacity declines, families are often confronted with difficult legal and financial decisions. Many are surprised to learn that a Power of Attorney may no longer be valid. 

Understanding the alternatives can help protect a loved one's affairs before a crisis develops. Read on for the low-down.

Your top employee resigns and immediately opens up a new business in direct opposition to you. Using your software, your client relationships and your business methods to springboard their new start-up and poach your clients.

We discuss, in the context of a recent High Court case, how our law can help you put a stop to that sort of unfair competition. And we share some tips on how to protect yourself from it in the future.

Trusts remain a valuable estate planning and asset protection tool, but they also carry ongoing compliance obligations. Many trustees assume that a dormant trust with no income, assets, or activity can simply be left alone. 

SARS has made it clear that inactivity does not remove a trust's compliance obligations. With penalties now being imposed for outstanding trust returns, dormant trusts may be attracting more attention than their trustees realise.

“Dormant Trust”

You will see and hear the phrase “dormant trust” bandied about a lot, normally in relation to what ongoing duties the trustees of non-active trusts do and don’t have.

Be warned that SARS says that there is no such legal concept as a “dormant trust” and that even economically inactive trusts (which SARS calls “passive trusts”) must be registered for tax, and must render annual tax and other returns, all under pain of stringent penalties for both non-compliant trusts and for their trustees personally. There is a small concession to inactive trusts in that their tax returns are “shortened” and “simplified”.

Bottom line? No trusts are “dormant”, and none are exempted from ongoing tax and other compliance duties.