Made some renovations to your property? Option 3: Sell your house ‘as is’ to a cash buyer. But this is not always the case, and a lack of approved building plans is clearly a major problem for many people buying and selling houses and other buildings in all parts of South Africa. If something has been removed from the house you have bought you should check with your solicitor whether or not the item should have been left. If a court decides in favor of the buyer, you may be responsible for: paying for repairs and other damages resulting from the undisclosed defect. The first respondent admitted the following, namely that –. The basic position here is ‘caveat emptor’, or ‘buyer beware’. This simply means that what you see is what you get, and that no warranties exist. However, on inspection of the municipality’s files, the first respondent discovered that a letter dated 26 June 1991 had been drafted by the municipality for the appellant’s attention, stating that it had come to the attention of the municipality that an illegal structure (which was presumably a carport) was in the process of being built on the property, in the absence of plans having been submitted to the local engineering department for approval. There was no evidence that the appellant was aware that the garage had contravened building regulations, and no fraudulent non-disclosure was proved. The first respondent thereupon approached the court for an order obliging the appellant to pay for his damages, being the cost to erect a new double garage in accordance with approved building plans, which complied with building regulations. The term voetstoots is a Dutch word, and is a principle found in the South African common law. It literally means sold ‘with a shove of the foot’. that the magistrate erred in concluding that it was not necessary to make a finding on whether the appellant’s non-disclosure was fraudulent, and that a mere finding of non-disclosure was sufficient for the appellant to attract liability; not concluding that a finding of fraudulent misrepresentation required knowledge of unlawfulness (which the appellant did not have); finding in the respondents’ favour in the face of their failure to have proved that the appellant had deliberately concealed the existence of latent defects with the intention to defraud. A dispute with your neighbour over a low hanging tree three years ago that has now been resolved or a recent divorce that has lead you to sell are not things that legally need to be disclosed the buyers. When investing in property, especially if it’s your first time, be aware of what problems could surface, and what to do if one does. Home / Bought a house – got problems – no one wants to know? Even though some purchasers may not be aware of this, when you buy a property, there is an implied warranty that the property is sold free from any defects. The term voetstoots is a Dutch word, and is a principle found in the South African common law. This means that sellers will need to amplify their sale agreements in order to make provision for any and all defects that could possibly be present in the property being sold. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, it is still in the purchaser’s best interests to have a property thoroughly inspected before signing a sale agreement. Take the precaution of hiring a home inspection service to confirm you are not buying a house with defects. It’s standard and sellers usually won’t agree to delete it. If you end up buying a property and then discover a serious issue that you think the seller or the real estate agent failed to tell you about, the first step is to write down what happened when you bought the property. 5. Some problems, such as a crack in the front walk, might have been obvious. The magistrate found that there was a duty on the appellant to inquire whether plans had been obtained for the double garage and to inform the respondents that it was an illegal structure. “Legal costs can quickly outstrip the costs of repairing or replacing the disputed item, so this route should be avoided if possible,” says Rubin. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to give rise to a claim for misrepresentation. This information has not been provided to meet the individual requirements of a specific person and LegalWise insists that legal advice be obtained to … What are substantial and compelling circumstances in terms of s 51(3)(a) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act? The parties in this case concluded a written sale agreement in terms of which the respondents bought a property in Port Shepstone from the appellant. Others, such as aging plumbing, the seller might have told you about in the course of the sale. In such an instance, the seller may be called on to refund part of the purchase price or even accept cancellation of the entire sale, depending on the nature or extent of the defect. Mold is one of the forms of water damage that significantly complicates the sale of a house. The only way sellers can get past the implied warranty of quality is to describe the condition of the property in specific detail, to make it clear in which condition the property is being sold. If you are an unlucky buyer whose seller hid a defect, you can make a claim against the seller within three years from when you discover or could have known about the hidden defect. On the (house) hunt: 8 top tips for buying a house in South Africa. 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