The law requires that any agreement for the sale of immovable property (land and building) must be in writing and most agreements provide
that no terms and conditions which are not included in the written agreement shall not be binding on the parties.
These are conditions that need to be met before the sale becomes binding and include:
SUSPENSIVE CONDITIONS:
Approval of finance,
Sale of Purchaser's property,
A satisfactory inspection of property by an expert,
Confirmation of conditions of title etc.
The agreement should state that the sale, as opposed to the agreement, is suspensively conditional upon the fulfillment of the condition as the
Purchaser must still comply with certain other obligations (ie. paying a deposit) pending the fulfillment of the suspensive condition.
VOETSTOETS:
(Adjective) 'Voetstoets' effectively means "as is" or "what you see is what you get".
Problems arise when the Purchaser gets what he or she didn't see and the Seller cannot hide behind a
voetstoets clause if he or she was aware of a defect which was not
visible without a thorough inspection of the property or which had been concealed.
The Seller is required to disclose material defects which he or she is aware of, which will clearly
influence the Purchaser's decision to buy and which are concealed or
not visible after a reasonable inspection of the property.
Fixtures and Fittings:
It is important that you agree on what is included in the sale and what is not.
"Fixtures" refers to features which are permanently fixed to and form part of the property and 'fittings", to things that can be removed with some damage
to the property.
