subject: Sequestration Without Property - Summary of the Procedure [print this page] Sequestration Without Property - Summary of the Procedure
Surrender enables you to regain normality in your financial affairs where you can adjust your lifestyle to be in line with the available budget, without creditor headaches. You will experience a normal lifestyle without the fear that creditors will phone you day and night from "private numbers" and therefore you can answer your calls fearlessly, and no more fear that the sheriff may make an unwanted house-call.
Herewith a short summary of the procedure:
We publish an advert in the Government Gazette and the Citizen. This will prevent any further legal procedures against you i.e. execution notices, seizure on your movable and/or immovable property, etc.
An ability statement is drafted that you must sign before a Commissioner of Oaths. This document is submitted for inspection at the Master of the High Court for 14 days or with the local Magistrate.
Thereafter a registered letter is forwarded to all your creditors as notice of the surrendering of your estate. Your creditors thus contact me for information. You will also be provided with the same notice to enable you to forward to nagging creditors.
The South African Revenue Services are also notified, even if you are not registered with SARS.
At the day of the Court proceedings an Advocate will represent you, there will be no need to attend any court hearing in person.
After the application has been approved and granted by the Court, a curator is appointed to handle all financial matters on your behalf. The curator will contact you to arrange a consultation to explain the details to you. If you live outside of Pretoria or Johannesburg a telephonic consultation will suffice.
The Court Rules determine that you pay between 20c and 22c in a rand benefit to your creditors. In other words if you owe FNB, R1-00, they should get 20c thereof. If your total debt is R50 000-00, you will pay R24 500-00; R100 000-00 you pay R35300-00; R200 000-00 you pay R57 000.00 and so forth( Please note that these are approximate figures). A fixed fee is already included in the amount payable and in doing so you will not be caught off-guard with unexpected attorney or curator costs. The benefit of this approach is that the repayment amount does not accrue interest. Arrangements must be made with the curator to settle the amount with them in instalments between 12 to 18 months, written permission is needed from the curator. Therefore, if you owe R50 000 you can repay it in instalments of R1361-00 per month for 18 months there are no further interest or costs thereon.
To generate the money in terms of the Rules of Court the following is done:
o I will forward you a document, listing general household items. You must identify your assets on the document and describe each item e.g TV Sansui 54cm etc. This document will be forwarded to the values to establish the value of the items. *No furniture will be removed. The purpose thereof, as you do not own immovable property (e.g. a house), is to do a movable asset surrender.
o The purchase agreement, prepared by the curator, will be presented to you in order to assist in purchasing your assets back. Your assets will be evaluated at a market related price, which will be the figure used to purchase your assets back.
o As soon as the application has been approved and granted, an order is granted the curator will contact you to confirm the details in respect of your assets. * Failure to comply with the arrangements made with the curator will result in removal of the furniture.
o Progress updates will occur on a weekly basis, at which time you will be updated with the latest developments with your application.
What happens to your Vehicle??
If your vehicle is under hire purchase, the Rules of Court stipulate that any bank may repossess the vehicle. Court Rules determine that hire purchase falls within the Law of Insolvency and the vehicle's payments must be made timorous and should be up to date. Should the instalments on the vehicle be up to date, financial institutions are willing to consider your request to keep the vehicle more indulgently and may result in you being able to keep the vehicle. This grant from the financial institutions is occurring more frequently, please keep in mind that there is no guarantee for you to keep the vehicle, especially should your vehicle be in arrears. Please note that arrangements must be made with the financial institution prior to.
Vehicles registered in another person, or legal persons, name will not form part of the estate.
