The Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA) and the Common Law: Cancellation of Lease Agreements:

Prior to the Consumer Protection Act, No 68 0f 2008 (CPA) which came into effect at midnight on the 31^st March 2011; the law of contract and the common law covered the issue of when and how a tenant went about cancelling a lease agreement.

That has all now changed since the commencement date of the CPA; and tenants and landlords need to be aware of the statutory provisions of the Act; which now cover the early termination and cancellation of lease agreements.

The Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA): Expiry and Renewal of fixed term contracts/agreements, especially Leases. Continued: Section 14 (3) & (4).

Today; to finalise this set of blogs on the above topic; we look at the last two subsections of section 14 dealing with the expiry and renewal of fixed term contracts and once again we will concentrate on leases as this is the most frequent source of enquiry; although the provisions of the whole of section 14 apply to ALL fixed term contracts.

We previously looked at the general rules to follow when starting a business.

Let us now look at the various business entities.

Some of them are Juristic persons.

We often get enquiries about whether it is necessary to register your business, if you are starting one; and what does this cost?

The short answer is that you do not need to register your business with the National Government, Provincial Government or even with the Municipality.

As a result of a number of queries in this regard we intend today to go over the above topic again.

Although not really a part of our core business; we often get inquiries about either buying or selling a business; and often give legal and financial advice on this aspect of Commercial Law.

The Consumer Protection Act: No 68 of 2008 (CPA): Section 55: Consumer’s rights to safe, good quality goods.

The Consumer Protection Act, No 68 of 2008; (CPA); which, as mentioned in our last blog, came into effect at midnight on the 31^st March 2011 has changed consumer law in the RSA irrevocably.

There are a number of innovative consumer protection mechanisms in the CPA which are revolutionary in nature.

It is a sad fact of life that many of our marriages end up in a divorce; and as the statistics imply that up to two-thirds of all marriages, depending on where you live and into what social bracket you fall, end in a divorce; it is advisable to know your rights.

A divorce order should cover the dissolution of the marriage, custody, guardianship and care of children, maintenance for the spouse (if applicable) and the division of/or be awarding of assets and liabilities acquired before, during and at the end of the marriage relationship.

We get asked both telephonically and by e-mail a number of questions on Labour Law which come up time and time again and so we thought we would just answer certain of these questions in this short blog so that the answers are there for all to see.

The Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA): The Expiry and Renewal of fixed-term contracts/agreements, especially Leases. Section 14 (2) continued.

As stated in our previous blog; at The Legal Advice Office we get numerous enquiries from clients and consumers seeking our help in terminating lease agreements because of one reason or another.

The CPA deals with the above subject and in our last blog we looked at section 14(1).

On Friday, we looked at the basic requirements of Wills.

Today; we will look at some of the content of a will.

Anybody can draft a will. It need not be an attorney or lawyer; but only attorneys may advertise the fact that they draft wills draft people, as per the provisions of the Attorneys Act.

The full names and identity of the testator or testatrix must appear in the will and they must sign same in full as we sated in our last blog. Use your Id number and your address to properly identify yourself.

The Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA): Leases: Some important terms and conditions:

In our last blog we looked at the early termination of lease agreements,

In this blog we intend to renew our acquaintance with some of the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA) dealing with leases and some of their terms and conditions in general in the CPA.

The Common Law and the Consumer Protection Act: No 68 of 2008 (CPA): Refunds:

At The Legal Advice Office, we often get asked about refunds due to consumers in terms of either the common law or in terms of the CPA.

As a result of yet another two enquiries today regarding firstly, the recent purchase of motor vehicle which was previously involved in a collision (which fact was not disclosed to our client) and secondly, with regard to a vehicle that was bought last month and which quite clearly has numerous material defects which have now become apparent to the purchaser since the date of sale; we thought that we need to explain this issue of when you are entitled to a refund one again today.

How does the Common Law protect you in these circumstances and

How does the Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA) protect you?

What do you need to do and what are the guidelines in this situation?