BUSINESS NEWS - A joinder application seeking permission for 70 new applicants to join a class action suit against the nation’s largest banks and home loan providers has been filed with the Constitutional Court.
The application brings the number of people seeking to participate in the civil claim against the likes of Nedbank, Absa, FirstRand, Standard Bank, Changing Tides 12 – a trustee of the SA Home Loans Guarantee Trust – and Investec, to around 300.
Moneyweb previously reported that the home loan providers face a R60 billion claim related to their alleged conduct in attaching and selling the homes of defaulting debtors at prices below market value.
This, after an application was filed by Advocate Douglas Shaw in August, to establish whether South Africa’s current law of sale in execution – whereby properties are sold at a public auction held by a Sheriff of the Court so as to recover home loan repayments that are in arrears – is constitutional.
The initial application claimed the current process is unconstitutional in that it allows properties to be sold for less than their market value “which is against the rights to property and housing”, as defined by the Constitution.
