Woman reclaims her home

Deeds Office was instructed to revive her title deed, while SAHL got slammed.

- Ciaran Ryan

It's rare that a customer wins a case against a bank, so here's one for the history books. This week Valerie Naidoo of Chatsworth in Durban - representing herself in court against two advocates overturned the foreclosure of her home by SA Home Loans (SAHL), which then sold the property at auction for a tenth of its market value.

The judge slammed the bank for its "egregious" conduct in pursuing its legal case even though Naidoo had settled her arrears in 2009 and then several times thereafter.

This comes in the same week that Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi said government plans to change the Home Loan and Mortgage Disclosure Act to enable the state to investigate consumer complaints about home loans and raise penalties for lenders over non-compliance, according to Bloomberg.

Background on the case

Naidoo's case goes back 15 years. In 2009 she fell into arrears on her home loan and received a summons from Changing Tides 17, part of SAHL, to pay arrears of R18 093. Naidoo settled this within a matter of days.