Casting my eye over the 370 or so articles published in the GhostDigest during 2013, a number of newsworthy ones immediately spring to prominence and are worthy of a revisit before PCs are switched off, offices shut and holidays embarked upon. They are the following:
Common e filing queries
The list of frequently asked questions and their answers about the new SARS eFiling system which went live at the start of the year hit a nerve and elicited a flood of new questions, answers, complaints and solutions.
Tables of Costs
By far the most used resource on the GhostDigest. These were updated twice during the year, first when The Law Society of South Africa issued new Conveyancing Fee Guidelines which apply to instructions received from 1 March and again in May when the latest Deeds Office fees came into operation.
Electric fences revisited
To certify or not to certify that is the question: asked Milton Koumbatis, in a comprehensive commentary on and answer to the controversy surrounding electrical fence certificates.
Margalit Appeal
Margalit v Standard Bank of SA Ltd - Highlighted the care and diligence a conveyancer must apply when drafting deeds and documents and led to some interesting and conflicting opinions and comments from conveyancers .
Conveyancing Scam 2
The modus operandi of a conveyancing scam about which the Attorneys Insurance Indemnity Fund (AIIF) started receiving notifications from conveyancers. In some cases the scam was successful and in others the conveyancer became suspicious and did not fall victim to it.
Notarial tie agreements
Despite being published in 2011, this article is referred to very often by attorneys.
Deeds Examiners beware
A proposed amendment of section 99 of the Deeds Registries Act by the Deeds Registries Regulation Board, could have dire consequences for deeds examiners and raised the ire of some attorneys.
Rejection guidelines
Some hard and fast rules were listed as to when a deed or document shall be rejected, so that the profession and the deeds registries are on the same page - or almost, as evidenced by the comments received in Rejection guidelines - II.
Building plans and voetstoots
Latent defects, in this case unapproved building plans, in relation to the voetstoots clause will remain a more complex practical problem than they initially seem.
Leave a comment: