20 years ago the couple missed some payments during the confusion that followed NBS merging with other entities (which happened a few times). Over time, the bond ended up with BOE Bank (and eventually Nedbank). At the time, the couple said they didn’t even know who to pay their bond amount to (for a while).
When the couple missed some payments, the bank, at the time, was able to get a sale in execution and sell their property.
The Good Old Days
Guess who bought it?
The bank itself.
For how much?
R100.
Since then, the bank had been collecting payments from the couple but were calling it rent, and not a bond instalment. The bank even sold the property to someone else who sold it to someone else, who sold it….. Well, you get the idea. They eventually sold it to an individual who wanted to evict the couple.
Back in those days, there were many dodgy dealings when it came to auctions, thankfully today, this sort of thing would never fly. In fact, we are now seeing massive class actions about similar matters from way back then.
The Judge considering the case now, looked over the history of all the various mergers, sales and what-not (for example, when an entity called Company Unique Finance sold the house to a very similarly named CUF Properties) and ruled that there was no way that there had been proper judicial oversight when the bank first got their claws into the property.
As a result, the judge undid the last 20 years of transfers and sales and restored the property to the couple who have been paying monthly over the last 2 decades.
