Pretoria - Not all financial woes can be attributed to Covid-19 and the lockdown period.
Sometimes the shoe pinched simply due to a downturn in the economy, a judge said in an application after the owner of a Ford Ranger who could not keep up with his instalments had to return the vehicle to the dealership.
FFS Finance South Africa turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, for an order confirming the cancellation of an instalment of sale agreement between the parties and for an order directing the car’s owner, Quintin Vos, to return the Ford Ranger.
Vos admitted that he was in breach of his obligations by being in arrears with payments, but told the court that it was impossible for him to keep up with the instalments due to the lockdown.
He contended that there were several months during the early part of 2021 where he was unable to pay the monthly instalments because he had lost his employment and only source of income as a direct result of Covid-19.
He pleaded that once he obtained alternative employment he commenced with the payments and even paid a surplus amount towards the arrears.
The finance company, however, said that in terms of the purchase agreement, it was entitled to cancel the contract as Vos earlier fell in arrears.
The court had to deal with the question as to whether Vos’s alleged inability to perform as a direct result of Covid-19 excused him from paying his monthly instalments.
Vos said his account was kept up-to-date and in good standing until the promulgation of the Covid-19 lockdown regulations in March 2020.
He explained that the impact of these measures had an immediate and devastating effect on the total South African economy including his business.
He runs his own company and said when the lockdown was announced, he stopped receiving payments from clients to whom he had provided goods and services prior to and subsequent to the lockdown.
Vos said in spite of his best efforts and not being able to afford legal assistance, he was unable to retrieve the funds owing to him or to generate sufficient new business to meet the payments due to the financial institution and he thus fell further behind.
However, he has now secured a new job and is making up for the arrears.
Judge Nicolene Janse van Nieuwenhuizen, however, said: “The defendant’s (Vos’s) inability to pay the monthly instalments appears to me to be due to a downturn in the economy and not due to the three months of hard lockdown.”
The judge added that it seemed unlikely customers would summarily cease paying for goods and services rendered prior to the hard lockdown simply because their movement was limited for a period of three months.
She found that Vos was not excused from earlier paying the monthly instalments and that the financial institution was entitled to cancel the agreement. He was ordered to return the Ford Ranger.
Pretoria News