The Empty House: A Couple’s Decade-Long Dream Ends With a Text Message

For ten years, it was their sanctuary. The walls held memories of a life built together, a promise sealed with a R750,000 loan from FNB back in 2011. Then, in 2021, a single text message on an old phone shattered it all. Their home, the foundation of their family, had been sold to someone else.

This is the story of a Gauteng couple whose desperate battle to keep their house ended in a devastating legal defeat, a stark reminder of how quickly the dream of homeownership can unravel.

The Unravelling Begins

The trouble started in 2016, a year that brought a dreaded word into their lives: retrenchment. With the primary income gone, the bond repayments became an impossible mountain. Like many South Africans in their position, the husband did what he thought was righthe approached the bank.

He was told to pay what he could, a gesture to show good faith. He used his retrenchment package, he kept making payments, but the financial pressure was relentless. He defaulted again.

Unbeknownst to them, a legal avalanche had been set in motion. The bank issued a summons in 2017. The couple claims they never received it. A default judgment was granted against them, a legal fact they would remain ignorant of for years.

A Fleeting Sense of Hope

By 2020, they believed they were clawing their way back. A call from the bank stated they were R90,000 in arrears but could stop a sale by paying half. They scrambled and paid R45,000. They continued making payments into 2021, believing a settlement was in place.

When property agents started calling, “hounding him wanting to buy his property,” he wasn’t alarmed. He thought his arrangement with the bank was his shield. This false sense of security was their undoing.

The reality arrived not with a formal letter, but with a digital whispera text message on an old handset stating the property was going on auction. By the time he received a call that same month, it was already over. The house had been sold in June 2021.

A Courtroom Defeat

In a final, frantic attempt, they took their case to the South Gauteng High Court. They argued they never knew about the 2017 judgment, that the bank unlawfully cancelled their contract, and that their payments should have reinstated the loan under the National Credit Act.

But the court saw a different picture. The bank produced a statement showing that even in June 2021, the couple still owed over R42,000. The judge, Patrick Hasani Malungana, agreed with the bank. The National Credit Act is clear: to reinstate a loan, all overdue amounts and default charges must be paid in full. The couple’s payments, while demonstrating effort, did not meet this strict legal threshold.

“The applicants have not made out a case for the relief sought,” the judge concluded, dismissing their application.

Their story is a heartbreaking lesson in the unforgiving mechanics of debt and law. It’s a warning that good intentions and partial payments are often no match for a default judgment and a bank’s legal right to recover its money. For this couple, the fight is over, and the keys to a decade of memories now belong to someone else.

{Source: IOL}

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