The issue of how far an estate agent or sectional managing agent could go in the collection of outstanding rentals and section title levies has been a vexed question.
Thuli Zungu in the Sowetan reports on the decision that was made by the Council for Debt Collectors on the issue:
“….Bernard Irvine won a case involving people who stay in sectional title apartments and who were subjected to exorbitant charges for letters and telephone calls reminding them (occupants) to pay their debt arrears.
In a landmark ruling on June 6 last month a …

The issue of how far an estate agent or sectional managing agent could go in the collection of outstanding rentals and section title levies has been a vexed question.
Thuli Zungu in the Sowetan reports on the decision that was made by the Council for Debt Collectors on the issue:
“….Bernard Irvine won a case involving people who stay in sectional title apartments and who were subjected to exorbitant charges for letters and telephone calls reminding them (occupants) to pay their debt arrears.
In a landmark ruling on June 6 last month a …

A number of debt collectors are still advising clients that they, the debt collectors, can recover the entire collection commission and debt collection costs from the client’s debtors – this is, simply put, illegal.
Prior to the enactment of the Debt Collectors Act, the only persons or companies able to legally collect the costs of debt recovery from debtors were attorneys. However with the enactment of the Debt Collectors Act in 1998, the law was changed to enable properly registered debt collectors to collect certain fees and commissions from debtors. …

The common law in duplum rule holds that “interest stops running when the unpaid interest equals the outstanding capital.”
Confirmation that this ancient Roman doctrine was part of our law was eventually settled in the case of LTA Construction Bpk v Administrateur, Transvaal 1992 (1) SA 473 (A).
The NCA enacts the in duplum rule into legislation in Section 103(5) but the NCA takes the definition further than the common law definition of the in duplum rule, specifying that not only interest stops running when the unpaid interest equals the outstanding …

The obvious benefits of computerization and automation of the debt collection process, at whatever stage, is obvious. This extends from pre-hand over to pre-legal collections through to legal collections. I remember as a young candidate attorney in the earlier 1990s being at an attorneys firm with a large collections department. The staff was large to deal with the extremely manual process, various collection supervisors, an army of typists, collection clerks, filing clerks and payment clerks. A staff compliment of 4 employees back then dealt with what a current single collection …

Previously we looked at what was needed in a debt collection agency attending to debt collection in consumer collections.
When it comes to commercial collections, that is collections from debtors who are businesses, the requirements are different. As a general rule the volume of the bad debt hand-overs is significantly lower then consumer collections but the size of the individual collections involved can be significantly higher. Therefore while in consumer collections the debt collection route with debt collectors charging a commission on the successfully collected debt as oppose to attorneys with …

Yes believe it or not there is news and life in the world of credit management beyond the National Credit Act.
The question posed in this posting is what do you need in a debt collection agency to attend to your consumer collection needs?
Firstly we need to look at what we mean by consumer collections. Consumer collections is debt collections from individuals or the general public as opposed to a commercial collection which is debt collection from clients who are businesses.

The Supreme Court of Appeal in the case of Bafana Finance Mabopane v Makwakwa [2006] SCA 49 (RSA) has delivered its judgment.
In this case a micro-lender tried to enforce a clause in his loan agreement with a debtor which:
a) the debtor waived his right to apply for an Administration Order in terms of Section 74 of the Magistrate’s Court Act; and
b) excludes the micro-lenders loan from any Administration order the debtor may obtain.
An administration order is a legal solution in terms of Section 74 of the Magistrates Court Act for the poorer …

The Supreme Court of Appeal in the case of Bafana Finance Mabopane v Makwakwa [2006] SCA 49 (RSA) has delivered its judgment.
In this case a micro-lender tried to enforce a clause in his loan agreement with a debtor which:
a) the debtor waived his right to apply for an Administration Order in terms of Section 74 of the Magistrate’s Court Act; and
b) excludes the micro-lenders loan from any Administration order the debtor may obtain.
An administration order is a legal solution in terms of Section 74 of the Magistrates Court Act for the poorer …

The right of a creditor to realise the property of its debtor without first obtaining the sanction of the court is called parate executie in our law.
This right has now been challenged by the Constitutional provisions of Section 34 of the Constitution, which provides that:
‘Everyone has the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law decided in a fair public hearing before a court or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or forum.’
Initially the case law on the subject seemed to suggest that …