Asked by the Customer on 10-07-2018 14:49:18
Question posted in the Property Law category relating to Western Cape

Good day,

This is a long story please bear with me...

I have signed an Offer to Purchase in November 2017. The property is somewhat familiar to me as I drive past it daily. I have put in a clause in the OTP that i would like to view the property first before making my final decision. There are people living in the house(they were the previous owners of the house and defaulted on their loan whereby the house went up for auction). The house was ourchased by Mr. OJ on auction in 2017 and he in turn sold it to Mr. XM and he is in turn selling it to me. Mr. OJ is still the current owner of said house because the transfer to Mr. XM had not yet gone through because he immediately put the house back on the market where I am buying it. Mr. OJ had said he will have the previous owners(let's call them the tenants) evict the property as there is no standing lease between him and them. Mr. OJ had even appointed a littigation attourney to start the eviction process whereby a notice to vacate was given to these so called tenants. This notice was given in March 2018 and they were to vacate in 06 April 2018. Obviously the next step would be to have an eviction order registered at court to have them vacate as they chose to ignore the notice. Mr. OJ is now ignoring all communication b=sent by me and Mr. XM as we want the eviction process to go forward. Mr. XM has also appoointed and attourney to assist him. I need advice as Mr. OJ is ignoring all my calls and messages and does not respond to any of it. November 2018 is vastly approaching and I would really like to purchase my house without any stress factors. What can I do to have Mr. OJ wake up and get the process going. He is also an property attourney and owns three property offices, which means he knows how these processes works. I am really getting missearble and would like some advise on how to move forward with this whole process as Mr. PJ does not take any of my calls let alone answer my messages.

I really need help!!

Regards,

Gail

Posted by Att. Patrick on 11-07-2018 14:37:41

Hi there Gail and thank you for your question,

Look, the short answer is that there is no way that you can force Mr. OJ to continue the eviction process, not unless it was a specific condition in the OTP that Mr. OJ is required to give you (as purchaser) free and vacant occupation of the property on date of transfer.

Mr. OJ is probably tired of dealing with the eviction, and realises that he is under no legal obligation to get the tenants out of the property before the property is transferred to Mr. XM or you.

But, if you have signed an OTP in respect of the property, you can legally claim that you are the owner notwithstanding the fact that you are not yet the "registered" owner. That means that you can appoint your own attorney to attend to the eviction proceeding, without involving either Mr. OJ or Mr. XM.

That is my advice, rather than wait for Mr. OJ to continue his actions... especially if he won't return any of your calls.

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.

Thank you for your answer, but my main concern is that Mr. OJ and Mr. XM have done business with each other before where Mr. XM had purchased property from Mr. OJ before. My main concern is that the two of them will somehow want to crook me in this whole situation whereby they will leave me hanging with these so called tenants. I just want this whole transaction to be over with. Who can I have be held accountable for in this whole situation because as you can see it is all frustrating to me. The two of them are familiar to each other to each other and there could be some sort of fraud going on. I just want to be careful but I really want to purchase this property for myself.

I hope there is some sort of legal action I can take.

Regards,

Gail

Posted by Att. Patrick on 18-07-2018 14:15:00

Hi again Gail,

You bought the property from Mr. XM, so if there is anyone that YOU can hold liable, it is Mr. XM.

You don't have actually have a legal connection with Mr. OJ, as you didn't buy the property from him.

If you want to protect yourself, then you must apply to court to evict the tenants yourself based on the allegation that you are the legal owner of the property, but that it has not yet been registered in your name.

If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.

Att. Patrick

Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.