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Tuesday 01 December 2015

Banks face class-action suit over repossessions

A class-action lawsuit to force banks to stop repossessing the homes and then selling them off at a fraction of their
value is expected to be heard in the High Court, says a report in The Mercury. A group of 50 people, represented
by Housing Class Action, are taking on the countrys four major banks Nedbank, Absa, Standard and FNB. They
want either their repossessed property returned or substantial monetary compensation. The group has taken on
Advocate Duncan Shaw, a specialist in banking law from Scotland. It said Shaw had studied the practices in other
countries and found that most if not all countries require banks to sell repossessed homes at market
value. It said that despite the Constitution and the countrys laws, the judiciary, Sheriffs and the police acted
contrary to the law in most cases. It also plans on hauling other institutions to court which it believes have acted
negligently in allowing the repossession to take place and the homes to be sold for less than their market value.
The report says the group has put together a 200-page submission, but a court date had not been set.