“Neither a borrower nor a lender be” (Shakespeare) This is a case of a “love relationship” gone wrong but the principles of vehicle ownership apply to any situation in which you lend a motor vehicle to anyone else. A widely-held misconception is that if you are the registered owner of a car, it is yours and you are the owner. Not so, as a recent High Court judgment aptly illustrates – The registered owner unable to reclaim “her” car In what must at the
Breaking any of our lockdown laws can be an expensive business, risking heavy penalties. If you are accused of a contravention and offered the option of paying an “admission of guilt” fine to avoid a court appearance, beware! It may seem like the easy way out to pay up and put the whole thing behind you but it could land you with a criminal record. You really don’t want to have a criminal record! Having a criminal record comes with serious and lifelong
Traffic accidents, your fault or not, are traumatic affairs. Even minor dings come with their hassles – panel beaters, tow trucks, shock and recriminations, reams of paperwork, having to get a Crash Report Number for the insurers… That last bit has always been a major added stress factor, requiring a trip to the local police station (unlikely to be a happy experience) and yet more paperwork. No longer – life just got a little bit easier with the new online reporting service
“We’re all going on a summer holiday…” (Cliff Richard) With the Festive Season (and our Summer Holidays!) well and truly upon us, you may be inviting family or friends to visit you from overseas with their children, or perhaps you are a foreigner planning a family trip to South Africa. Either way here’s some good news in the form of a welcome concession from government in regard to the documentation you will need to produce on entry. In a nutshell foreign children
By all accounts Facebook Marketplace is giving Gumtree, OLX and other online classifieds a real run for their money in both the personal and business markets. It is now used every month by 800 million people in 70 different countries. Have a look at Facebook’s “How Marketplace Works” guide here for a step-by-step guide on buying and selling anything, sorting by distance or new listings, notifications, following, safety and trust issues and so on. For more ideas, and for 5 ways to use Facebook
“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it” (Bob Hope) A recent High Court decision has settled the knotty question of whether your bank can take money it holds for you in one account to cover your debt to it in another, without your permission and without notice to you. Firstly, what is “set-off”? To understand how important this new decision is, we need to go back to our common law (unwritten
“Untold Wealth: That which does not appear on income tax returns” (Anonymous) “Tax Freedom Day” is the first day of the year that we South Africans (as a whole) have earned enough to pay off the Tax Man and to finally start working for ourselves. It arrived this year on 18 May. That’s five days later than in 2018, and a whole 37 days later than in 1994 when we first started measuring this – not a happy trend, nor unfortunately one
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” (Economist Milton Friedman) In these days of online banking and electronic payment, it’s not uncommon to find out to your horror that you have made a payment to someone in error, either to the wrong recipient or in an incorrect amount. If that happens to you and the recipient refuses to pay you back, what can you do about it? The other side of the coin of course is whether the recipient of an
Ridesharing services like Uber are convenient and popular, but you will have read of the “fake Uber” attacks and other safety concerns so on the principle of “safety first” always take a few common sense precautions when using them. Before you get into your next Uber have a good read of their “Driving safety forward” page here. Pay particular attention to the 3 steps you should always follow before you enter the vehicle in the “Check your ride, every time
“Ignorance is Bliss Dangerous” (Internet meme) Our law will generally hold you liable for damages only if someone else can prove that you caused them loss/damage/injury through your “fault” (intent or negligence). That seems fair and logical – if it’s your fault, you pay. If however the loss was caused by your animal/s, you are in a much more dangerous position – you can be sued on a “no fault” or “strict liability” basis. And that’s a sobering prospect. It means that bad behaviour
