African Property

My tenant won’t move and has not paid rent – how can I force a tenant to move when the laws in South Africa seem to be only on the side of the person who is renting – and not the person who is the landlord. This guy just will not get out of the cottage – he is running up huge electricity bills and water bills – he leaves his heater on during the day even when he is not there. I have been begging him to pay his rent but he just keeps saying “soon”. When he moved in he had a job – but now he says he is unemployed – although how he is living I do not know. He is out every day – seems to have money for petrol, booze, cigarettes and food – he is getting money from somewhere – I even said he should just pay a little rent – but he refuses – what can I do?

I got this advice when I approached an agency. Seems they are out to fleece me as well:

• Dealing with tenants: Easy if you know how – Most sensible people would agree that buying a property and getting a tenant to pay your bond for you is a sure way of creating wealth. Many however, are just too afraid of dealing with the management of the tenants. Most people have heard at least one urban legend of a tenant who destroyed a property or of a landlord who cannot get rid of an unwanted tenant.
  • The reality however, is far removed from those gossip mongers who always see the negative side in anything and are not too bothered with the facts.
• Every month literally billions of rand are paid by tenants to their landlords. A minute fraction of this is spent by the owners of the properties towards maintenance.
• • Do you have a tenant you cannot get rid of? Are you perhaps renting at the moment? If so, are you destroying the property? Problem tenants are quite rare. If you deal with them swiftly, you can avoid any losses. Speak to any seasoned investor. Don’t let ignorance or hearsay prevent you from investigating the greatest wealth creation strategy of all ages.
  • Looking for solutions to all tenant problems. We will address some of these issues in the next article. We will show you how to overcome all potential tenant problems without incurring any losses. We will show you that Financial Freedom is not just a pipe dream but is achievable by anyone who has a regular income, has a good credit record and is committed to follow our system.

This is a load of nonsense – these guys obviously not had a tenant won’t move and has not has not paid rent for months now – if you try and force a tenant to move you will have to take them to court – and that just costs you more – I got hold of a lawyer and hes says it will take a minimum of 3 months from the day I stat proceedings against the person. I may not cut off electricity or water – In other words I must support him and pay for the lawyer to get rid of him – how unfair is this. It is not like we are rich – we just have a small cottage that we thought we could get some extra income from.

Buying Property in South Africa has become a past time for wealthy visitors – especially property in Cape Town. Acquiring real estate in South Africa as a foreigner is not very complex. Exactly what a foreigner should do is first look for a trustworthy real estate agent that will help source a property that’s ideal. If you’re buying for yourself you can deal with the seller personally and organise an attorney to help you with this procedure.

A good estate agent works with commission and only gets payment on the successful selling of the property or home. Typically commission is about 6% of the selling price. The seller is the person that pays the commission not the purchaser. The buyer shall be responsible for these transfer fees, for example, legal fees as well as taxes.

The buying of real estate in South Africa must be put into writing, and is called “an offer to purchase”. An offer to purchase or sales agreement has to be agreed upon by all parties and any changes have to be signed by each party.

An offer to purchase typically contains the following facts:

1) Price of the property, ie, selling value.

2) Time that the property or home will be transferred into the buyers name, this usually takes about 2 months.

3) The date which the purchaser requires occupation and also how much rent to pay if there will be early occupation

4) An electrical document which needs to be given by the homeowner.

5)A voetstoots clause which means the property is bought as is, and so take a look at that property or home first.

6) A fixture and fittings clause, for example, exactly what the property is sold with.

7) A deposit clause, it is not necessary to put down a deposit yet it shows good faith and will make your offer stronger.

These are generally basically a several of the main clauses when purchasing real estate in South Africa. Within South Africa we have a deeds office that record all of the property ownership. Property record keeping is good and accurate within South Africa. Property can be owned individually, jointly in undivided shares or by an organization like as a company, close corporation or trust or a similar entity registered outside South Africa.

The banks in South Africa will lend a non resident of South Africa 50% of the purchase value subject to the conditions of the bank, such as determining value for your property or home.

A non resident is commonly described as a person not residing in South Africa or a south African who has lived overseas for more than five yrs in respect to receiving a bank loan from a bank.

The purchaser is accountable of the settlement of transfer expenses if buying property inside South Africa and the costs of registering a home loan bond over the property or home bought.

Transfer expenses include transfer duty as well as conveyance’s costs. Transfer duty is normally calculated as a proportion of the actual purchase price and differs based upon the purchaser’s legal standing. For a legal individual it is 8% of the purchase price. For a natural person the formula is as follows: · For a purchase price price of R0 – R500 000.00, the duty is 0% · For a purchase value of R500 001.00 – R1 000 000.00, the duty is 5% on the worth above R500 000.00 · For a buying price of R1 000 001.00 and above, the duty will be R25 000.00 + 8% of the price above R1 000 000.00

Conveyances charges, charged by the attorneys for doing the transfer and also registration of mortgage bonds are calculated according to a tariff. Non residents may repatriate capital from the sale of his or her property or home as well as the revenue, as long as your title deed is stamped non resident, profits may attract capital gains tax as with all property or home purchases.

Capital gains tax will be worked out at 25% of the earnings on the sale price of the property or home which then will get taxed at your tax rate on revenue for the year.

When Purchasing Property within South Africa non residents must to register for tax for the year they sell their property or home. The marginal or highest tax level is 40% within South Africa. Farmers buying land will follow the same procedures – but should bear in mind the talk about nationalisation.