August 4, 2016
Plot And Plan: The Strange Case Of The Unsigned Sale Agreement
You buy a plot in a residential development and the developer agrees to build you a house to stated specifications and plans. You pay in full for the plot and it is transferred into your name. All good so far.
But then you fall out with the developer over the costs, finishes and other specs for the building work. What happens now? A High Court case illustrating a particular danger for both developers and buyers revolved around these rather unusual facts –
August 4, 2016
Meter Wars: A Consumer Strikes Back
“You can’t fight city hall” (old idiom decrying the futility of trying to fight a bureaucracy)
You challenge the accuracy of a services account from your local municipality, thus: “Your meter must be wrong, no way was my consumption that high”. The reply: “We’ve tested the meter and it works fine. Pay up or face disconnection”.
Off to court you go. Can you “fight city hall” and who has to prove what?
August 4, 2016
Companies: How Private Are Shareholders’ Details?
“Privacy, like other rights, is not absolute. As a person moves into communal relations and activities such as business and social interaction, the scope of personal space shrinks” (Extract from judgment below)
All companies – big and small, public and private – must keep registers of their shareholders and directors. And, as the SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) made clear recently, even “private” companies’ registers aren’t private at all.