ConCourt to rule in credit notice case

The Constitutional Court. File picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse

The Constitutional Court. File picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse

Published Feb 19, 2014

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Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court will hand down judgment on Thursday in an application for leave to appeal a ruling about the notification of a consumer who was in arrears with a credit provider.

Moshomo Kubyana was seeking to challenge a High Court in Pretoria judgment that he settle an amount he owed Standard Bank for a vehicle and that the vehicle be repossessed.

He claimed he did not receive notices by post that he was in arrears.

In 2007, Kubyana and Standard Bank entered into an agreement for the purchase of a car.

In 2010, Standard Bank sent a notice to Kubyana, indicating he was in default of his obligations under the agreement and that it intended approaching the courts for debt enforcement.

The notice was sent by registered post. Although two written requests were sent to his home to collect documentation from the post office, Kubyana did not do so.

Five weeks later, the notice was returned to Standard Bank uncollected.

The bank approached the high court and an order was granted in its favour. The court found that delivery of a notice by registered mail was sufficient, and that Standard Bank had discharged its statutory obligations.

The court reasoned that if Parliament had intended the notice to be personally served, the National Credit Act would have expressly provided for this.

Kubyana argued in the Constitutional Court that when a notice was returned to the creditor undelivered, the creditor had to take further steps before instituting legal proceedings.

Standard Bank argued that delivery of a notice to a nominated address through registered mail was sufficient.

Sapa

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