Agreements are important.

Written agreements are more important.

Well-written agreements are most important.

We’ve all come across that contract. You know the one. There’re a gazillion clauses all crammed onto one page in a teeny-weeny font that requires a magnifying glass to read it. Assuming you could understand anything in amongst all the cross-referencing, Latin terms and legal jargon. Never mind that the document has been photocopied a few too many times, which means a few crucial sentences have been cropped off. But everyone is in a hurry to get on with their day. So you dutifully scrawl your signature and scurry off to your next appointment. What could possibly go wrong? The entire contract could be scrapped. That’s what could go wrong. Read More.....

No creditor likes having to deal with a defaulting debtor. Matters become even more interesting when the said debtor goes into business rescue. In such instances, the creditor’s avenues of recourse become rather limited by the Companies Act – because a creditor is unable to sue its debtor while their debtor is in business rescue. What’s a hapless creditor to do? Particularly in the uncertain economy in which we currently live, where suppliers are increasingly at risk. One good option is to make use of suretyships. Before releasing goods or rendering services, request your debtor to provide some solid guarantors, eg. ask the shareholders, directors, trustees, members, holding company etc to sign a suretyship guaranteeing the debtor’s obligations. Read More.....

When a debtor uses a myriad of excuses to delay payment for longer than three years… Sounds crazy, right? How does a creditor let a debt slide for three years without doing anything about it? But actually, it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Sometimes the debt is incurred in the course of a much larger, complex, more involved project, allowing the creditor to validate their payment delays until the project has been completed. And other times the creditor is just really, really good at coming up with believable excuses and unfulfilled promises that serve as little more than delaying tactics. Read More.....