Biological parents have a legal obligation to maintain their children. Parents easily lose perspective if the parties are involved in a divorce.

Children and maintenance are unfortunately often used during a divorce to establish a settlement and the parent who is not given the permanent residency of the minor child, will have a maintenance duty towards the minor child until he/she either reaches the age of 18 years or becomes self-supporting. There is no instant formula to calculate maintenance by, because every family's needs are unique.

Recent reports in the media about the controversial matters surrounding the Judge-President of the Western Cape High Court, Justice John Hlope and the Judicial Service Commission brought this aspect back into the limelight.

The cornerstone of a healthy democracy lies in the independence of the Court of Law.  The independence of the Court of Law is guaranteed by the Constitution.  What is the meaning of the Court of Law?

The amended section 37D of the Pension Funds Act which came into effect on 13 September 2007, stipulates that any amount granted to a non-member spouse, may be deducted from the member's pension benefit in terms of section 7(8) of the Divorce Act.

The intention of this amendment is to allow pension funds to deduct any amount due to a non-member spouse as a result of divorce on the date of the divorce order and no longer from the date the benefit accrues to the member as was the case prior to 13 September 2007.

When the owner of a residential property wants to lease his property, an agreement must be reached between the lessor and lessee in terms of which the rental amount and period must be agreed upon. This agreement may be an oral or written agreement.  Both methods establish a binding contract.  It is advisable that parties entering into a lease agreement should have a written contract, because it lessens the possibility of disputes.  Common law regulates the relationship between lessor and lessee if a written contract doesn't exist.

When a written lease agreement is signed, both parties are bound to all the terms and conditions as stipulated.  It is therefore of utmost importance to read through the contract before signing it.  Oral agreements undertaken by the parties must be reflected in the contract or in an addendum, which both parties should sign and date.

Because of the fact that transfer duty was previously not payable if shares or membership interest in a Company or Closed Corporation were transferred from one person to another, many houses and other fixed properties were registered in Closed Corporations or Companies.  The reasoning behind this was that should the owner sell the property, he could sell his share to the buyer and the property could remain the property of the Closed Corporation or Company.  No transfer duty was payable in such an instance.

Unfortunately SARS (South-African Revenue Service) closed this loophole with effect from 2004.  When shares or membership interest are transferred and a residential property is registered in a Closed Corporation or Company, transfer duty is now payable on the value of the property.

When it comes to estate planning it is sometimes necessary to make use of complicated and expensive techniques in order to avoid estate duty.

In terms of the Act on estate duty, each person in a couple has R3.5 million to his/her disposal to leave to their heirs, duty free. A married couple has R7 million to their disposal.  This can however only be applied effectively through complex estate planning techniques.