A Testament/Will is a document where a person states their last wishes and what must happen with their estate after their death. If a person dies without leaving a Will, his/her estate will be administered in terms of the “Intestate Succession Act”. This Act provides for rules by which assets are distributed to relatives.

In light of the recent development in Bwanya v Master of the High Court, opposite-sex life partners are now entitled to inherit in terms of the Intestate Succession Act, which was once a benefit exclusively awarded to partners in a same-sex life partnership.

In this case, Platinum Property, the Purchaser, being a company, entered into an agreement of sale with the Seller, being a 93-year-old lady. Platinum took this seller to Court to stop her from transferring the property to another second Purchaser and further to order her to sign their transfer documents. The main issue before the Court was the issue of repudiation and the manner in which the Conveyancer dealt with the transaction.

The action for division of property is well established in South African law. Every co-owner of property may insist on a partition of the property at any time. This may be done even in the case where there is a perpetual joint ownership agreement.

Contracts for the sale of immovable property will very often contain suspensive conditions. One of the most common types of suspensive conditions is bond approval.