As a company director you are not normally at risk of being sued for the company’s separate debts in your personal capacity, but there are exceptions. Both creditors and directors should always bear them in mind.   

Let’s examine in this light a High Court case in which the buyer on auction of a car was misled as to its age. Her attempts to recover the purchase price from the company itself having failed dismally, she set her sights on the director and sued him personally. 

Her victory will give heart to any victim of corporate wrongdoing who can’t get their money back from the company itself.

It may seem like overkill, and illogical to boot, to insist on a family loan being recorded in a formal contract. But in fact it’s the only logical course of action to take, as we shall find out in the context of a court fight between a daughter and her parents over a R540k “loan”. 

It isn’t clear from the stated facts whether this particular family fall-out stemmed from a simple misunderstanding or from something worse, but the outcome shows just how easily things can go wrong if family loans aren’t properly agreed and recorded.   

We’ll end off with a look at why that risk applies to even the most rock-solid of families, listing five possible scenarios in which the lack of a formal contract could well lead to tears.

The personal use of cannabis in private has to all intents and purposes been legalised by the Constitutional Court.

That does not mean however that employees necessarily have carte blanche now to consume cannabis before reporting for work, not even for medicinal purposes.

For example, a recent Labour Court decision, in upholding the dismissal of an employee who took CBD oil and smoked cannabis off-duty, confirmed that in appropriate cases employers have the right to impose, and to enforce, a zero-tolerance policy towards any intoxicant use by its employees. Off-duty as well as in the workplace. 

With our loadshedding woes unlikely to go anywhere soon, more and more property owners are looking to solar power as an alternative to relying on Eskom.

Just be careful that you don’t fall foul of your insurers in the process. “Rules homeowners should know before installing solar power” on MyBroadband lists four technical regulations to be particularly aware of.

For some practical advice on deciding whether or not to go the solar route in the first place, and if so how, read another MyBroadband article “What you should know before installing solar panels and batteries at your home” here.  Keep an eye also on the developing story around proposed new Eskom tariffs and “feed-in” tariffs.