Hands-on tool for those legal questions

How does the annual income of my real estate business affect my BEE Scorecard? How valid are electronic signatures to transfer property ownership? Consent in terms of POPIA: is it till death do us part?

These are some of the legal questions covered in the 6th edition of ‘The best legal questions and answers’ that has just been released by the Phatsoane Henney Group of Associated Law Firms.

The latest version follows the successful format of the previous editions. All the articles feature real-life questions encountered by legal professionals from the Phatsoane Henney Group during 2020. The style is hands-on and easy to understand with practical solutions and recommendations that can be applied in everyday life.

The latest edition comprises of three sections:

Commercial practice group – this section looks specifically at aspects surrounding BEE compliance such as how an increase in annual income could affect the Procurement element on a BEE Scorecard, the continued importance of BEE compliance as well as it’s importance with regards to access to Covid-19 relief funding.

Property practice group – this section deals with all current legal property matters such as the implementation of POPIA, the validity of property transfers that were signed electronically and whether the Covid-19 lockdown qualifies as automatic grounds for a breach of contract.

Of particular importance are the articles about the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) that finally came into effect on 1 July 2020. The Act has significant implications for all property practitioners whether in residential sales or the rental market. There are only a few months left of the one-year grace period for all businesses to ensure they are compliant with the requirements of the Act when it comes to the processing and safeguarding of their clients’ personal data. As the apt headline of one article puts it ‘Don’t get caught with your POPIA pants around your ankles’.

There is also an interesting article on the legal considerations if your business is thinking to replace board room meetings around a table with only remote or so-called ‘zoom meetings’. It appears the Companies Act may have a thing or two to say about this.

The Disaster Management regulations issued around the various levels of lockdown has been the cause of some controversy and disputes between sectional title holders and their body corporates. There are a number of articles that look at giving more clarity on this matter.

Dispute resolution practice group – The last section is focused on labour-related matters such as minimum wages, litigation (e.g. whether administrative authorities can make up their own rules and how far Covid-19 may be used to avoid meeting contractual agreements) and family (validity of a marriage contract without confirmation in court and eviction of an abusive partner with divorce pending).

This is a valuable reference tool to keep at hand as a useful resource to answer some of those daily legal questions. The book is available for download from this link.

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Rona Bekker

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