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As movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn is said to have put it “A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on”. The problem with oral agreements is that they are open to misinterpretation, doubt, dispute and outright fraudulent denial. Rather record and sign everything even when (as is the case with most contracts in South Africa) verbal contracts are every bit as binding as written ones.
Sometimes however verbal contracts aren’t just a bad idea, they aren’t valid at all – for example an oral contract for the sale, exchange or donation of land, or of any “interest in land”, is invalid. We address the danger of overlooking that requirement in the context of a recent High Court dispute over a “right of way” agreement.
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The deal between employer and employee boils down to this: “I agree to pay you in return for the work you do for me”, and an employee whose work performance is inadequate by definition breaches that deal.
Does that give you as employer the right to dismiss your employee? If the dismissal ends up in court, who bears the onus of proving that the dismissal was fair or unfair? Do our employment laws give you any guidance on when dismissal will and won’t be regarded as fair?
We address those questions by discussing a recent Labour Court case in which a group of sales reps failed to meet their sales targets, and were fired for it.
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Whether you are a residential property developer, building your own house, or the builder/contractor employed to build it, understand how vital it is to comply with the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act and its requirements of registering with, and paying enrolment fees to, the NHBRC.
It’s important legislation, designed to “offer protection against incompetent builders and the construction of homes having structural defects”, and failure to comply with it comes with severe negative consequences.
We discuss two recent and important court cases on the subject of whether the Act applies to builders that are trusts, and to “buy-to-let” developers.
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