To experience full financial freedom
There is definitely hope after insolvency! You can apply for rehabilitation to clear your name and restore your reputation.
Without rehabilitation, your sequestration will be held against your name for 10 years with the credit bureau. During this time you will not be able to incur any debt. All debt before sequestration is no longer an issue as it forms part of the insolvent estate and is therefore being dealt with.
Please note you need to maintain a good relationship with your trustee to ensure a successful rehabilitation. The trustee can refuse to give permission for rehabilitation if you fail to meet the requirements, for example if debt is incurred after sequestration. In one instance the insolvent refused to vacate a property after it was sold and threatened the trustee at his offices. In such instances the trustee will refuse permission for rehabilitation.
Trustees may set specific requirements to assist the insolvent in managing their finances during the sequestration period. Some trustees require monthly income and expenditure statements, others may require your attendance at a meeting. You will be expected to adhere to all the trustee’s requirements to ensure a successful rehabilitation application.
Before the application for rehabilitation can be submitted to the High Court the following needs to be done:
If there were claims lodged against the insolvent estate and there was a shortfall, then one year should have elapsed after the L & D was enforced by the Master.
If you have not applied for rehabilitation for at least three years.
If you have been found guilty and a judgement has been placed against your name, at least five years should lapse, before application for rehabilitation can be lodged.
If no claims were lodged against the insolvent estate and it is a first-time application for rehabilitation and there are no judgements against you, an application for rehabilitation may be made immediately after the L & D has been enforced by the Master. (The Master may not be happy to grant such an application. Previously a client withdrew all funds from his credit card, applied for a voluntary surrender of his estate, paid the trustee with the money and then applied for rehabilitation.)
When we receive the relevant documents a notice is published in the Government Gazette and an affidavit is drafted for the client’s signature before a Commissioner of Oaths.
Next a report is requested from the trustee as well as from the Master of the High Court, which gives permission for a rehabilitation application to be lodged. The report from the Master can take anything from two weeks to three months to obtain and is necessary before we can proceed with the application.
On the court date, an Advocate will present the application on your behalf. You can skip the court hearing in person. We will notify you of the outcome. A court order will be granted within 10 to 15 days.
The cost for rehabilitation is R9,000.00. This must be paid upfront, but we allow a minimum first payment of R4 500.00 to ensure a court date. The remaining balance of R4 500.00 must be paid exactly four weeks after the date of the first payment made.
As soon as we receive the court order, we send the order to ITC (Trans-Union), Compuscan, Experian, and XDS. We also send a letter with the rehabilitation order, sequestration order, a certified copy of the client’s Identity document and the statement of debtor’s affairs (list of creditors).
ITC takes approximately 21 days to update its records. We have had instances where we phoned ITC within the 21-day period, where they stated that they had not received any documents, but after the 21 days had lapsed, it was updated on the system. The conclusion is that should ITC receive the documentation, there is no acknowledgement thereof on their system, or they are busy processing the information. Still, the information has been updated after the 21 days have elapsed.
We have experienced that ITC’s rules and requirements are sometimes adapted, for example:
We constantly need help with ITC as their policy needs to be more consistent, and they should comply with the new Credit Act regulations. Please be assured that we will do everything possible to restore our client’s name.
The cost amounts to R4500.00. Unfortunately, this amount must be paid in full before we can start the process.
Should the Rehabilitation Application be brought with Marital Status, married in community of property, the fee for the Applicant amounts to R9000.00 per Application. However, the ITC portion is handled per Applicant at the different Credit Bureaus, which involves us setting up and sending each Applicant’s Instruction to clear the profile separately.
Applicants will also notice that the Court Order is issued per Applicant, as the Applicant is
Rehabilitated in person; thus, the Applicant’s profile is also cleared in person at the credit bureaus.
In summary, if we only do the rehabilitation, our costs amount to R9000.00. If we also have to restore the credit record, our fees amount to R4500.00 (R13 500.000 or R18 000.00 if married within the community of property).
Our firm repairs the credit records of many clients who have paid dearly (up to R45 000.00), but this does not include the credit record repair, only the rehabilitation application.
Should a guardian fund be available (one of our ladies will inform you of this immediately), we can also assist you with recovering the funds from the Master of the High Court. You can, of course, do that on your own, but because we’ve been doing this for 29 years, we’ve discovered all the shortcuts and legal loopholes. The costs associated with this will be determined based on the amount.
We would like to encourage you that there is hope after Rehabilitation!!
We applied for rehabilitation on behalf of a client in September 2009. Subsequently the client applied for a loan to purchase a property. Three banks declined the application, but a fourth bank granted the loan. Their motivation was that they could see that the client was able to handle her affairs responsibly. The bank said that she was completely rehabilitated and able to make a positive contribution to the economy.
Maritha Botha Insvolvensies 1st Floor, 1 Roslyn street, Brackenfell, Cape Town, 7550
