Court orders sale of contractor's R1.68m home after failing to repay R165,000 for botched project

Court authorises sale of Paarl home over R165,000 debt, but postpones execution.

A Paarl couple could lose their family home, valued at R1.68 million, after the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town authorised its sale to recover a construction-related debt of about R165,000 following a failed project.

The appeal court set a reserve price of R1 million for the property in Klein Parys, Paarl, but postponed execution of the sale until March 2027 to give the family time to make alternative accommodation arrangements and protect the interests of their two children.

The judgment followed an appeal by Albertus Jacobus Snyman and Ronel Rautenbach after a magistrate’s court refused to declare the property executable.

The debt arose from construction work undertaken by Marius Alexander Joostenberg at the appellants’ home, which allegedly remained incomplete and involved defective materials and poor workmanship.

Joostenberg had also allegedly left equipment and rubble on the property.

A settlement agreement signed on June 24, 2024, required him to pay R165,000 by August 15, 2024.

After he failed to honour the agreement, the appellants obtained default judgment in December 2024 for R165,143.50, together with interest and costs.

The magistrate’s court had refused to authorise the sale in October 2025, finding that Joostenberg’s proposed repayment arrangement could potentially be reasonable and suggesting that a financial inquiry be held.

However, the High Court found that the proposed payment plan had to be assessed against the couple’s actual financial circumstances.

Joostenberg had lost his employment in October 2025 and remained unemployed.

His wife earned a net salary of about R12,000 a month, while their home loan instalment was approximately R3,979.46.

The court found that the proposed repayment of R7,500 a month, increasing to R10,000, was not financially sustainable.

The couple had made payments totalling R14,000 over five months after the magistrate’s order, averaging about R2,800 a month.

At that rate, the court found, the outstanding debt would take approximately nine years to repay, even before accounting for the effect of interest.

The court concluded that there was no realistic alternative to execution against the property.

The judgment also noted that the sheriff had made five attempts to execute against movable assets but had been unable to gain access to the property.

Although the couple had been served at the gate, this did not amount to the sheriff being granted access to identify and attach assets.

The couple had also failed to identify other assets that could satisfy the judgment debt.

The court considered the value of the property, the outstanding bond and the debt.

The home had a municipal valuation of R1.425 million and an estimated market value of R1.68 million.

The outstanding bond was approximately R236,614.89, while the judgment debt had grown to between R190,000 and R200,000.

The court found that a sale at the reserve price of R1 million could leave a substantial amount after the bond and judgment debt were settled, before execution costs.

While authorising execution, the court acknowledged that the property was the couple’s family home and that their children, aged nine and 11, lived there.

The court said the disruption to the children’s schooling and the family’s need to relocate were real considerations but did not establish that a sale would necessarily leave them homeless.

The court set the reserve price at R1 million, rather than the R700,000 sought by the appellants.

It further ordered that the execution sale could not take place before March 1, 2027, giving the family time to find alternative accommodation or pursue a private sale at a potentially better price.

The court emphasised that any eviction would require a separate court order, with judicial oversight and consideration of the constitutional interests of the children.

Joostenberg was ordered to pay the costs of the application.