Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March/April 2019 | Page 8

Q&A Property Advice Help! I can’t get an eviction order. Cilna Steyn, Managing Direc- tor at SSLR property experts, answers this week’s property question. QUESTION: ANSWER: I bought a property at a sheriff auction eight months ago. The bank foreclosed on the previous owner, the owner is still living on the property and refuses to move out. I was told by my attorneys that we cannot start eviction because the previous owner is back in court with the bank, they claim that the sale was done illegally. This surely can’t be right, I have paid the full deposit and I am paying the rates and taxes and even worse I am paying the water and electric- ity bill! Apparently, I am not allowed to disconnect this. I cannot cancel the transaction or take transfer until the court case between the previous owner and bank is resolved. Please help. This is unfortunately not a unique situation, I deal with this problem very often. You can find yourself in a sim- ilar situation stemming from various forms of sale, the most common of these are sheriff auctions, insolvency sales and sales from deceased estates. These types of sales may cause unwanted problems with occupation and eviction. To successfully obtain an eviction order the party asking the court to grant an order to evict another person, must show that she is the owner of the property and secondly that the person in occupation of the property is in fact, in illegal occupation. ASK THE EXPERTS 6 Where there is any doubt about the validity or legality of the sale, the first thing you must prove to obtain an eviction order is unclear and a court will not be satisfied If you have a property question, send it to us at [email protected] or post it on our facebook page. MARCH/APRIL 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine