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Voluntary Surrender of Your Estate with Property

Voluntary Surrender of Your Estate and how you can benefit from it

 

The surrendering of your estate is a process instituted by the Courts to help persons that are no longer able to pay their debts due to circumstances out of their control. After Surrendering Your Estate your debts are deemed to have been written off. Your creditors are no longer allowed to demand payment from you. Surrender enables you to normalize your financial matters. You will have no more fears that creditors will phone you day and night from “private numbers” and you can answer your calls fearlessly.

 

You will be able to legally get rid of all your debt and start with a new beginning

 

What are the advantages?

 

  • Most importantly – ALL YOUR DEBT IS WRITTEN OFF – including the debt you are already blacklisted for on ITC. (You will not have to pay back any of your creditors and you will be completely debt free).
  • You will no longer be liable towards your creditors, including banks, personal loans, SARS, etc.
  • You will no longer need to communicate with any of your creditors, we will handle all communications.
  • You will be able to stay in your house or rent it out for + another 8 – 10 months before you have to move.
  • After your voluntary surrender your FULL income will remain your own. All garnishee orders against your salary will be stopped or cancelled.
  • All other garnishee orders or deductions from your bank account will stop.
  • You do NOT need to appear in court or communicate with your creditors.
  • You will be able to keep your furniture and other movable assets.
  • You will be able to keep your vehicle/s if it is paid up to date. If it is financed by a bank it will only be repossessed in 4 – 5 months from the date you apply for Surrender of Your Estate.
  • Within 3 years time after your Voluntary Surrender you will be able to apply for rehabilitation and you will be creditworthy again.  
  • What are the disadvantages?
  • For your insolvency period, you will not be credit worthy.
  • You may under no circumstances make any new debt.
  • You may not have a current account or a credit card facility.
  • You need to apply for rehabilitation after your sequestration period of 3 years is over.

 

 

What will it cost me?

 

  • If you do decide to apply for voluntary surrender most of the costs will be covered by the curator from the proceeds of the liquidation (sale) of your estate.
  • A once off administration fee is payable for processing your application and to make an application to the High Court. As soon as we received your information we can give you a quotation. 
  • The Voluntary Surrender of Estate Process
  • You will be required to complete an application form with your personal information as well as information regarding your creditors.
  • Upon receipt of your fully completed application form we will do an assessment and inform you about your options.
  • Should you want to continue you will sign a Consent form for us, instructing us to continue with your application.
  • Once we received your Consent to continue with the application we will immediately place an advertisement in the Gazette. This advertisement will stop all legal actions against you.
  • We will send you a copy of the advertisement so that you can see that the application is done. You can also use this advertisement to notify your creditors, should they still keep on phoning you.
  • At this stage we will wait for the application to appear in the High Court.
  • After the application is approved in the High Court the Court must appoint a Curator. This can take months.
  • Once the Curator is appointed he will contact you to introduce himself and to inform you when he will have to arrange an auction for your property.

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

 

CAN MY CREDITORS TAKE MY SALARY?

Once you are sequestrated no creditor is allowed to attach your salary,

 

WILL I LOSE MY FURNITURE?

No. Your attorney will negotiate on your behalf for the household furniture to be excluded from the Insolvent Estate.

 

WHY HAVE THE BANK GRANTED A JUDGMENT IF I HAVE BEEN WITH A DEBT COUNSELLOR? IS THE JUDGMENT VALID?

If the court has granted judgment against you, in most cases your Debt Counsellor’s application was not successful, and the bank can indeed go ahead with legal action and sell your house on an auction. The judgment is fully valid and further steps will be taken to the full extent of the law.

 

BUT I HAVE ALREADY PAID MY DEBT COUNSELLOR A MONTHLY FEE?

Even though your Debt Counsellor may have distributed a certain amount of money between your creditors, if your Debt Counsellor’s application was refused by the court, the money already paid to them will not stop legal action already started against your.

 

WILL A DEBT COUNSELLOR BE ABLE TO HELP ME IF JUDGMENT WAS ALREADY GRANTED?

No. A Debt Counsellor may only be able to assist you if the court has not yet granted a judgment against you.

 

WHAT IS REHABILITATON?

Rehabilitation is an application to the High Court to declare you are financially fit to be able to apply for credit again.

 

WILL I BE ABLE TO BUY ANOTHER HOUSE OR VEHICLE AFTER MY REHABILITATION?

Yes.

 

WILL MY EMPLOYER BE NOTIFIED OF MY VOLUNTARY SURRENDER?

No. It is completely confidential.

 

WILL I STILL BE ABLE TO BE A MEMBER OF A COMPANY OR CLOSED CORPORATION IF I APPLY FOR A VOLUNTARY SURRENDER?

If you are already a member of a company or close corporation it will affect your position and, you will not be able to become a member of a new company or close corporation until you are rehabilitated. You will be able to become a member after your rehabilitation.

 

DO I NEED MY SPOUSE’S PERMISSION TO APPLY FOR A VOLUNTARY SURRENDER IF WE ARE MARRIED IN COMMUNITY OF PROPERTY?

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