Home repo goes wrong

LEGAL WOES: BANK CLAIMED CLIENT FELL INTO ARREARS ON HER BOND

- Ciaran Ryan

FNB client Patience Mavuso had to fight off repeated attempts to evict her from her property despite catching up on her arrears and reinstating her bond as far back as 2016.

FNB claimed she fell into arrears on her mortgage loan and took judgment against her nearly 10 years ago. With that judgment in hand, the bank proceeded to sell the property at a sheriff's auction in 2022, even though she had reinstated her mortgage bond six years earlier.

The new buyer picked up the property for a song and then started turning up at Mavuso's door trying to evict her.

Mavuso informed FNB and the buyer that she intended to bring an application before the court to suspend the transfer of her property on the grounds she had caught up on her arrears and had reinstated her mortgage agreement.

Obstructionist

To bring the application, Mavuso needed the contact details for the auction buyer which FNB and the buyer refused to provide.

To get around that, Mavuso had to approach the courts with two interim applications to court to get the buyers' information and then join them to the proceedings.

Mavuso and the courts could have been spared two unnecessary applications had the bank or the buyer provided the contact information for the buyer.

The managing agents of the complex where Mavuso lives sided with the buyers and revoked her access to the complex.

This, says consumer advocate Leonard Benjamin, illustrates the difficulties faced by ordinary South Africans coming up against the banks in court.

Troubling implication?

The buyers claim that the sheriff did not inform them that Mavuso had brought an application to court to suspend the transfer of her property.

"If he did not, it would be a serious dereliction of his statutory duties, tantamount to fraud," says Benjamin.