Man who bought a house on auction wins 10-year legal battle against occupants who refused to move out. Picture: File
A Johannesburg man who bought a house through an auction 10 years ago, will be to move into his home after the high court ruled against the occupants.
Okechukwe Noble Nwaeze bought a property in Bramley View through an auction arranged by Absa on January 30, 2014.
At the time of the auction, Richard Sputnic Ndlovu occupied the house with his family.
In April 2002, Ndlovu and his wife entered into an agreement with the property’s former owner, Peter Karl Maerlender, who sold them the property for R150,000.
They agreed to pay the money in R 2,083 monthly instalments and at the end of April 2004 they had made 24 payments in line with contract.
In January 2005, they applied for a bond to cover the full purchase price of the property and it was approved in February 2005.
They arranged with Maerlender to have the property transferred into their name and he promised to pass on the documents to his conveyancers, but the conveyancers failed to act and the bond offer lapsed.
They applied for another bond in May 2007, which was approved in June 2007, however, the transaction failed again due to Maerlender’s failure to arrange documents with his conveyancers.
Maerlender subsequently launched an unsuccessful application where he sought to cancel the instalment sale agreement he had with the Ndlovus and also evict them from the house.
Following the failure of the application, Maerlender disappeared. Attempts were made to trace him but to no avail, the last attempt was made in 2012.
Later, it turned out that Mearlender owed Absa a significant amount of money which was secured by a mortgage bond. As a result, Absa sold the house to Nwaeze through an auction in 2014.
However, in 2015, Ndlovu assisted by the Legal Resources Centre, brought an application in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to set aside the sale on grounds of illegality.
Ndlovu’s application stalled the registration process and the house remained registered under Mearlender instead of Nwaeze.
Tired of waiting, in 2023, Nwaeze brought an application to have the Ndlovu’s evicted, however, his attempts failed due to Ndlovu’s pending application.
The delay on the application was caused by the Legal Resources Centre when it withdrew from the case and Mearlender’s disappearance contributed as he could not be served.
Ndlovu also spent a great deal of time negotiating with Absa in the hope that they could somehow reverse the sale, but his attempts remained futile.
Acting judge Nomkhosi Nharmuravate who eventually heard the application in April 2024, said Nwaeze acquired the right to property through a loan agreement and the court had also endorsed the execution of the property.
The acting judge added that Ndlovu had no right to occupy the property because Mearlender who initially owned the property, failed to honour a contract he had with Absa.
Furthermore, she said Ndlovu and his family enjoyed usage of the property without paying their dues at the very least.
She said that she was not persuade by Ndlovu’s argument and dismissed the application.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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