Court clears sale of Paarl contractor's R1.68m home over unpaid R165,000 building debt

A Paarl contractor stands to lose his R1.68 million family home after the Western Cape High Court authorised its sale to recover an unpaid construction debt of about R165,000, ruling that his proposed repayment plan was not financially sustainable. The judgment followed an appeal by Albertus Jacobus Snyman and Ronel Rautenbach after a magistrate's court refused in October 2025 to declare the property executable, finding that the repayment arrangement might be reasonable and suggesting a financial inquiry.

The dispute arose from construction work carried out by Marius Alexander Joostenberg at the appellants' home. According to the judgment, the work remained incomplete and involved defective materials and poor workmanship, while equipment and rubble were left on the property. A settlement agreement signed on June 24, 2024 required Joostenberg to pay R165,000 by August 15, 2024; when he failed to meet it, the appellants obtained default judgment in December 2024 for R165,143.50 plus interest and costs.

The High Court assessed the repayment proposal against the debtor's actual circumstances. Joostenberg lost his job in October 2025 and remained unemployed, his wife earned a net salary of about R12,000 a month, and the household's monthly home loan instalment was approximately R3,979.46. The court found the proposed repayments of R7,500 a month, rising to R10,000, were not sustainable, noting that the R14,000 paid over five months following the magistrate's order averaged about R2,800 a month - a rate that would take roughly nine years to clear the debt even before interest.

The judgment recorded that the sheriff had made five attempts to execute against movable assets without gaining access to the property, that service at the gate did not amount to access to identify and attach assets, and that no other assets had been identified to settle the debt. The home carries a municipal valuation of R1.425 million and an estimated market value of R1.68 million, with an outstanding bond of about R236,614.89, while the judgment debt has grown to between R190,000 and R200,000. The court set the reserve price at R1 million rather than the R700,000 the appellants requested.

The court acknowledged that the home is occupied by the couple and their two children, aged nine and 11, and that relocating could disrupt the children's schooling, but held that this did not establish that a sale would leave them homeless. It ordered that no execution sale may take place before March 1, 2027, giving the family time to secure alternative accommodation or pursue a private sale at a better price, and stressed that any eviction would require a separate court order with judicial oversight and consideration of the children's constitutional interests.