De Aguiar v Real People Housing (Pty) Limited

The appellant occupied residential property originally owned by his father. After the property was sold in execution to First National Bank, it was transferred to the respondent in 2001. The appellant then leased the property from the respondent but fell substantially into arrears. In 2006 the parties concluded a settlement agreement, made an order of court, cancelling the lease and providing that the respondent would sell the property to the appellant if he paid or secured the purchase price by 31 May 2006, failing which he undertook to vacate by 30 June 2006. The appellant failed to pay or secure the purchase price and refused to vacate. The respondent obtained an eviction order. Only at the stage of seeking leave to appeal did the appellant attempt to rely on an alleged enrichment lien based on improvements to the property and sought leave to adduce further evidence to support that defence.

The appeal was dismissed with costs. The eviction order was confirmed, but the period to vacate was varied from 120 days to 60 days from the date of the SCA order.

The case reaffirms the strict and exceptional nature of applications to adduce further evidence on appeal in South African law. It underscores the importance of finality in litigation, the binding effect of settlement agreements made orders of court, and clarifies that enrichment liens cannot be invoked to defeat clear contractual undertakings to vacate property.