“Trust me, I’m a lawyer.” (Popular T-shirt slogan) South African property buyers and sellers will have been cheered by news that we are now officially the most affordable country in…
Carnegie LawMay 27, 2025
Selling Your House This Summer? Get Your Ducks in a Row With This Checklist
“In the summertime, when the weather is high, you can stretch right up and touch the sky.” (Mungo Jerry) Summer’s…
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“The legal principles, as I understand them, do not confer on me the powers of Father Christmas. I cannot rescue the un-rescuable.” (Quoted in the judgment below) We all want…
Carnegie LawMay 27, 2025
“Grandparents, like heroes, are as necessary to a child’s growth as vitamins.” (Quoted in the judgment below) One of the greatest tragedies of family fall-outs will always be the effect…
Carnegie LawMay 27, 2025
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of bandages and adhesive tape.” (Groucho Marx) It’s a perennial topic of dispute in our courts. A couple lives together, sharing the…
Carnegie LawMay 27, 2025
“Look before you leap.” (Wise old proverb) Imagine sealing the deal on your dream property, only to wake up at 3 a.m. beset by sudden doubts. Thoughts like “Can we…
Carnegie LawApril 23, 2025
“My word is my bond.” (Once the motto of 16th-century merchants, adopted by ’90s hip-hop artists, and now tossed around by duelling politicians) Many people are unaware that there are…
Carnegie LawApril 23, 2025
It’s vital for both employers and employees to understand the practical and legal differences between permanent and fixed term employment arrangements. What is a fixed term contract? A fixed term…
Carnegie LawApril 23, 2025
“A body corporate’s lot is not an easy one.” (With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan) One of a body corporate’s core functions is to collect current and outstanding levies. When…
Carnegie LawApril 23, 2025
“Good in parts” (Like the curate’s egg) Transfer duty threshold increased by 10% You pay no transfer duty if the property you are buying sells for less than the set…
Carnegie LawMarch 26, 2025
“All that glisters is not gold” (William Shakespeare in Merchant of Venice) Buying or selling a home could be one of the most important financial decisions you’ll ever make. It’s…
Carnegie LawMarch 26, 2025
“The minute you read something that you can’t understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.” (Will Rogers, cowboy and actor) We’ve all seen…
Carnegie LawMarch 26, 2025
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” (Benjamin Franklin’s warning to fire-threatened Philadelphians in 1736) Cases of Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud continue to surge, and recent…
Carnegie LawMarch 26, 2025
From 1 April 2025, the earnings threshold under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) will increase, impacting not only the BCEA but also employee protections under the Labour Relations…
Carnegie LawMarch 26, 2025
“O, I do not like that paying back.” (Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I) A standard clause in loan agreements, suretyships and the like is the “certificate of balance”…
Carnegie LawFebruary 25, 2025
“If you didn’t hear it from the horse’s mouth, it came from the other end of the horse.” (Anon) The rapid rise of AI is hard to ignore. DeepSeek’s AI…
Carnegie LawFebruary 25, 2025
“The right of self-defence is the first law of nature.” (St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries, 1803) South Africa’s chronically high crime rates have left many of us wondering what the…
Carnegie LawFebruary 25, 2025
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) for each “ordinary hour worked” has been increased from 1 March 2025 by 4.4% from R27,58 per hour to R28,79 per hour. Domestic workers: Assuming…
Carnegie LawFebruary 25, 2025
“Home wasn’t built in a day.” (Jane Ace, radio comedian) You find the perfect plot on which to build your dream home in a security estate. Your offer is accepted…
Carnegie LawJanuary 28, 2025
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” (Pablo Picasso) If you own assets outside South Africa, you may have wondered: Is my local…
Carnegie LawJanuary 28, 2025
“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing… If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” (Groucho Marx) We’ve all had this experience – meal over, relaxed and…
Carnegie LawJanuary 28, 2025