Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa October 2016 | Page 25

documentation within 20 days of delivery of the
statement indicating the amount claimed.
If an agreement is not reached at this stage and
you don’t institute legal proceedings, it is assumed
that you have accepted the offer. If you are entitled to
compensation, 80% must be paid to you on the date
the authority takes possession of the property.

(this may be extended by court order) and some of the
provisions of the bill are waived. Compensation is
payable.
If, for any reason, the property is no longer needed
– perhaps the reason for the expropriation is no longer
in the public interest – it can be withdrawn, in which
case there is provision for recompensing the owner.

Mortgaged property and rates

The way forward

If there is a mortgage or a deed of sale on your
property, the appropriate amounts are paid by the
authority to the bond-holder or buyer. If you cannot
reach agreement with the bond-holder/buyer, then
the matter will be decided in a court application.
Property rates and other charges are paid by the
authority from the compensation. (The municipal
manager is responsible for ensuring that the
information regarding outstanding charges is
forwarded to the authority.)
Under certain circumstances, it may be necessary
for compensation to be deposited with the Master of
the High Court – for example if the property was a
bequest to people unknown to the parties involved, or
if the address of the payee cannot be provided.

Extenuating circumstances

Your property may be expropriated on a temporary
basis – in the event of a disaster, for example.
‘Temporary’ means a period not longer than 12 months
www.reimag.co.za

Does the bill infringe the Constitution on issues such
as property rights and the removal of the ‘willingbuyer, willing-seller’ approach? The bill seems to relate
not only to land, but to shares, intellectual property
and, indeed, moveable property. Are we heading for a
Zimbabwe-style land grab or are we protected, at least
to an extent, by our Constitution?
As mentioned in the first part of this article,
there has been a great deal of discussion around
the Expropriation Bill, mostly relating to the
constitutionality of the powers given to the minister
and state organs to expropriate property either for
‘public purposes’ or ‘in the public interest’.
The debate is likely to continue until the pertinent
points have been addressed and clarified, probably in
the Constitutional Court, and there are calls from the
DA, AgriForum, and the Institute of Race Relations
for further discus