Divorce/Legal

[Sieg]

Here's my two-cent's worth [after one of our learned contributors appeared to take exception to my previous comment

1. Joan's first priority, in my opinion, is to have the judgment removed from the credit bureauxs' records. If the judgment was obtained in the Magistrate's Courts, which I suspect it was, then she can apply to have the judgment rescinded by means of an application to Court. This is usually a simple unopposed application if she can obtain a letter from the municipality to state that the debt is paid in full, that the municipality has no objection to the judgment being rescinded and that the municipality will not oppose such an application. Once she has the court order rescinding the judgment, this is submitted to the credit bureaux who have her on record in order to "clear" her name.

2. I would then claim the costs of that application [and any other damages she may have and which she can prove] from Peter. [Peter, you rat you, you are to blame for all the ills of this poor woman's world!]

3. Whether Peter declared the income from the property in his tax return is something we do not know and we cannot simply assume that he did not so declare this income. Assumption is usually the devil's advocate. To just report him to SARS on the assumption that he did not declare the income, is just pure harassment and vindictiveness. [Even if Peter is a rat. And we have not heard his side of the story, have we?]

4. Now, on to the Municipality and their attorneys. In many cases, a municipality, just like SARS, can in fact have summons served at the address of the property, unless the rate payer has informed the municipality otherwise. Once again, before we just jump to conclusions and want to "report the municipality's attorneys to the Law Society", let us first establish whether legally the municipality was entitled to have the summons served on Joan, as a co-owner and therefor as a co-ratepayer, at the address of the property concerned. [They may have that right in terms of the Municipal Systems Act or similar Law.] One must bear in mind that in terms of the Rules of Court, service of a court process does not necessarily have to be done on the defendant in person. I venture to guess that the attorneys for the municipality acted squarely in accordance with the law. And, as a matter of interest, the "Association of Law Societies of South Africa" has no disciplinary powers. That power rests within the Provincial law society of which that particular attorney is a member.

Sieg

[Martinco]

I will gladly meet with her and advise her. If she wants to go to the ombud , it can be arranged.

Thanks for the offer Shaun, I shall communicate this with her. ( Just a bit of a problem with distance, but I guess email would work as well ? )

I would however just like to wait a while to see what the general concensus from the other people is.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

I would just like to add 1 thing of importance to Siegs post.
Firstly he correctly addresses the issue of the judgement via rescinding. This is a relatively painless and inexpensive process. More importantly it takes care of one of the more pressing problems that has arisen. My point though is that you need to remove emotions from the equation. Set down on paper what you want to achieve. Obviously the judgement exposure to further risk etc. These are the objectives that are essential and exclude emotion. The second part is more important, there is hurt and anger amongst many other emotions and this gives rise to the desire to get something back. Please do not get me wrong, I am not advocating a concept of letting sleeping dogs lie, there are some battles to fight and some to walk away from. You need to weigh up the costs, not only financial but more importantly menatal and emotional costs of any form of fighting or litigating. So unless you feel that the costs of obtaining vindication exceed the costs, both financially and emotionally, of the fight it is best to let it be. In particular, because this is a divorce related issue, the emotional draining could be immense.
This is a very difficult concept to teach a client, but it is irresponsible of any attorney, legal advisor or such forth not to point this out to a prosepctive client, as it is not they who have the side affects of protracted litigation in their laps.
While making your list, feel free to look at alternative forms of creating havoc, if you so desire, the SARS action, as mentioned by Sieg, is normally a fairly profitable form of vindication.

[Dave A]

I believe Sieg and Anthony have pretty much nailed it.

[Martinco]

While making your list, feel free to look at alternative forms of creating havoc, if you so desire, the SARS action, as mentioned by Sieg, is normally a fairly profitable form of vindication.

Just to make sure........there is no way that SARS can address Joan for any payment of tax on part of the rental income as she did not collect any of this and had been divorced for the major part of the rental period , right ? Although if you think about it , she did benefit as the house was only sold 3 weeks ago and they are sharing the proceeds. Hell, the law is complicated !

Further , I would like to thank ALL the participants to this post as one really feels left out in the cold if you have nobody to lean on , especially if the problem is close to your heart.

A couple of things came to mind: Hire a lebanese ( appologies to the lebanese members ) to break some knees, buy some poison, clean the rifle etc. but I think good sense is prevailing !
Ultimately the SARS deal sounds the most likely as I have a gut feel that this income was not declared. Do they still pay 10 % for this type of info ?

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Just to make sure........there is no way that SARS can address Joan for any payment of tax on part of the rental income as she did not collect any of this and had been divorced for the major part of the rental period , right ? Although if you think about it , she did benefit as the house was only sold 3 weeks ago and they are sharing the proceeds. Hell, the law is complicated !

Further , I would like to thank ALL the participants to this post as one really feels left out in the cold if you have nobody to lean on , especially if the problem is close to your heart.

A couple of things came to mind: Hire a lebanese ( appologies to the lebanese members ) to break some knees, buy some poison, clean the rifle etc. but I think good sense is prevailing !
Ultimately the SARS deal sounds the most likely as I have a gut feel that this income was not declared. Do they still pay 10 % for this type of info ?

As she was not the person initiating rent payments so she is good on that count