Wen Hsiu Quan: What the Law sees as Self Defence

Wen Hsiu Quan: What the Law sees as Self Defence: Hello, everyone. After reading Jackie Bradbury's recent article in our G+ community I felt compelled to share what I have learnt in t...

Thank you to those who trust me- and welcome to those who have not yet come to me

It has been a long while since my last post to this blog.

I am glad to say that it is due to my having become really busy since I have opened my doors in August last year.

The increase in clients that I am experiencing is one of the greatest blessings any firm can experience.

When one considers that I am a single practitioner that is 100% personally engaged in all the work undertaken by this firm it may be surprising that these clients did not choose to go to the competition in some of the large buildings here in Nelspruit.

Large firms have their advantages and I also realise that clients have a lot of options when they are looking for attorneys. What some clients also realise, however, is that the advantage of having an attorney directly involved in your case without any staff or intermediaries makes finding the person responsible for your file that much easier. 

These clients are also up to date on the progress in their matters and they can actually see developments in their matters when they happen. Even though these clients get regular feedback they can also easily follow up with me.

The same person that takes the instructions from a client also drafts the court papers. No information gets lost between the person that has done the consultation and the person that is going to draft the papers.  

This personal involvement is of the utmost importance and is the cornerstone of my style of practice.

Thank you to my current clients for their support.

If you feel that your legal problems need personal attention- feel free to contact me.

The uphill battle

No matter how much I want it to be otherwise- Litigation can often be a long and tedious affair. No- that is an understatement. It can be draining- both emotionally and financially.

To make matters worse you will often find the court as one of your opponents.





More than once I have found myself thinking that there is no place for legal practitioners in this country simply because we find judges, magistrates and the police more willing to find excuses to show us away than to assist us.



I have realised, however, that if that is how I struggle it can be worse for a lot of those who do not even have the necessary training to interact with these institutions.

It is true. Exercising your rights is difficult because those rights mean work to certain people who came to their offices with designs other than to do the jobs for which they were appointed. Giving up is just going to make that worse.

At least I am able to say that you can successfully  raise a defense of emergency if you have taken the law into your own hands after having exhausted every available remedy. I am fortunate to say that I have not seen anyone reach that point yet.

Approaching the courts or police for assistance may seem an impossible task, but do not give up. With the right guidance you will be able to see your matter through to the end and stay on the right side of the Law.

I know the Courts, Master's Offices and Police can be difficult at times. Instead of trying to tackle them on your own- let me help you.

Declaring War on Beliggerant Tenants and Debtors

Enough is enough!

I have heard enough of tenants that think they can occupy the property of decent folk for free and lazily cite a broken geyser or some maintenance work as their reason for refusal to pay or debtors who have the nerve to criticize the procedures used to get them to answer for their refusal to pay.






As an attorney I have been informed of a lot of legislation protecting the rights of debtors and tenants. The Rental Housing Act and National Credit Act have the following amendments that make the lives of tenants and debtors easier:

1. The removal of doors and changing of locks have been declared unlawful practices;

2. Adverse information on a person's credit record can now only remain on record for 2 years at the most.

That is as if the law as it is does not already afford these scoundrels enough protection!

We now face a breed of debtor that is no longer scared of a letter of demand, who can evade a Sheriff with ease and who can hide his assets in a manner that seems uncanny.

Your average debt collecting agency will simply not cut it in these times.

Although I have not yet found all the solutions we need, experience in debt collecting and aggressive litigation has provided me with knowledge with which to outwit a fair number of these individuals. If we know they have money- I have a way to get it from them!

The days of phoning a debtor who simply switches off his phone the next time are gone. Let me be the one to switch off his phone when a debtor urgently wants to speak to me because the Sheriff is removing his belongings!


As with tenants-

They may enjoy staying for free in a house, using water and electricity at your expense and ignore your complaints as they patiently wait for the eviction proceedings to get finalised, but let's see how they enjoy that stay if the power gets cut in terms of a validly obtained Court Order!

As long as a tenant is earning a salary we can recover at least some of what he owes you. Still- where we cannot recover damages we are in a position to at least limit those damages to a reasonable extent.

To those tenants who start off by saying that they would like to buy the house I have this to say:

Convince me first that you can pay before you talk about buying! Show me that you can obtain the loan if you don't have the cash!


I know a lot of landlords/ landladies in Nelspruit are facing these struggles on their own. Many business persons and entities struggle recovering debts from defaulters who have become adept at avoiding ordinary recovery methods.


Stop struggling alone!

Give me a call!  

Declaring War on Beliggerant Tenants and Debtors

Enough is enough!

I have heard enough of tenants that think they can occupy the property of decent folk for free and lazily cite a broken geyser or some maintenance work as their reason for refusal to pay or debtors who have the nerve to criticize the procedures used to get them to answer for their refusal to pay.






As an attorney I have been informed of a lot of legislation protecting the rights of debtors and tenants. The Rental Housing Act and National Credit Act have the following amendments that make the lives of tenants and debtors easier:

1. The removal of doors and changing of locks have been declared unlawful practices;

2. Adverse information on a person's credit record can now only remain on record for 2 years at the most.

That is as if the law as it is does not already afford these scoundrels enough protection!

We now face a breed of debtor that is no longer scared of a letter of demand, who can evade a Sheriff with ease and who can hide his assets in a manner that seems uncanny.

Your average debt collecting agency will simply not cut it in these times.

Although I have not yet found all the solutions we need, experience in debt collecting and aggressive litigation has provided me with knowledge with which to outwit a fair number of these individuals. If we know they have money- I have a way to get it from them!

The days of phoning a debtor who simply switches off his phone the next time are gone. Let me be the one to switch off his phone when a debtor urgently wants to speak to me because the Sheriff is removing his belongings!


As with tenants-

They may enjoy staying for free in a house, using water and electricity at your expense and ignore your complaints as they patiently wait for the eviction proceedings to get finalised, but let's see how they enjoy that stay if the power gets cut in terms of a validly obtained Court Order!

As long as a tenant is earning a salary we can recover at least some of what he owes you. Still- where we cannot recover damages we are in a position to at least limit those damages to a reasonable extent.

To those tenants who start off by saying that they would like to buy the house I have this to say:

Convince me first that you can pay before you talk about buying! Show me that you can obtain the loan if you don't have the cash!


I know a lot of landlords/ landladies in Nelspruit are facing these struggles on their own. Many business persons and entities struggle recovering debts from defaulters who have become adept at avoiding ordinary recovery methods.


Stop struggling alone!

Give me a call!  

Declaring War on Beliggerant Tenants and Debtors

Enough is enough!

I have heard enough of tenants that think they can occupy the property of decent folk for free and lazily cite a broken geyser or some maintenance work as their reason for refusal to pay or debtors who have the nerve to criticize the procedures used to get them to answer for their refusal to pay.






As an attorney I have been informed of a lot of legislation protecting the rights of debtors and tenants. The Rental Housing Act and National Credit Act have the following amendments that make the lives of tenants and debtors easier:

1. The removal of doors and changing of locks have been declared unlawful practices;

2. Adverse information on a person's credit record can now only remain on record for 2 years at the most.

That is as if the law as it is does not already afford these scoundrels enough protection!

We now face a breed of debtor that is no longer scared of a letter of demand, who can evade a Sheriff with ease and who can hide his assets in a manner that seems uncanny.

Your average debt collecting agency will simply not cut it in these times.

Although I have not yet found all the solutions we need, experience in debt collecting and aggressive litigation has provided me with knowledge with which to outwit a fair number of these individuals. If we know they have money- I have a way to get it from them!

The days of phoning a debtor who simply switches off his phone the next time are gone. Let me be the one to switch off his phone when a debtor urgently wants to speak to me because the Sheriff is removing his belongings!


As with tenants-

They may enjoy staying for free in a house, using water and electricity at your expense and ignore your complaints as they patiently wait for the eviction proceedings to get finalised, but let's see how they enjoy that stay if the power gets cut in terms of a validly obtained Court Order!

As long as a tenant is earning a salary we can recover at least some of what he owes you. Still- where we cannot recover damages we are in a position to at least limit those damages to a reasonable extent.

To those tenants who start off by saying that they would like to buy the house I have this to say:

Convince me first that you can pay before you talk about buying! Show me that you can obtain the loan if you don't have the cash!


I know a lot of landlords/ landladies in Nelspruit are facing these struggles on their own. Many business persons and entities struggle recovering debts from defaulters who have become adept at avoiding ordinary recovery methods.


Stop struggling alone!

Give me a call!  

Thank you for a great first four months, best wishes for the Festive Season and some advice for the Holidays

We have reached the end of this exciting year in which I have started out on my own.

To the clients that helped me to make this possible a big Thank You and best wishes for this Christmas and the coming New Year.

I am not quite done yet with this year, but sitting down totype this post has given me the chance to think back to August when I started working on the first couple of files. Since then it has not stopped being busy and for that I am grateful.

I am going to disappear from the 16th of December to the 28th and have still taken in new work. Clients are welcome to contact me next week until the 16th.

Now- the Holidays are upon us. Many of us have packed our bags and are heading off to the seaside. Those from the seaside are headed this way to speed in the Kruger Park from one lion sighting to the next and apparently those from Gauteng will be coming to the Kruger for target practice with their paintball guns...

And apparently our sons and daughters who have just finished matric shall be at the local holiday resorts giving their livers much needed practice for when they meet with serious alcohol at university...

From calls that I have recently received I deem it advisable to give out some free advice:

To the divorced parents who are at each other's throats about where the children are going this Christmas holiday:

The one who has R 13 000.00 for an urgent application is welcome to contact me. It does not have a guarantee of success, but I will at least be making a huge bonus this holiday (or maybe give some advocate one...). If you don't have that type of money now you should not involve a lawyer in your holiday arrangements. If the children end up having a ruined holiday because of a parent's conduct, however, that parent should not be surprised if the Children's Court intervenes and changes the arrangement for good (because the other parent came to see me).

To the ones that chose our local police cells as accommodation for the holiday season:

Bail costs money. If you want to pay bail you might as well want to pay me. So- just like anyone here in this country should know that it is unwise to go about fornicating without a packet of those balloons from Dischem you should also not go get into fights, drink and drive or break the law in any other way without carrying at least R 8000.00 with you. Just tell me in advance if the policemen said that he will let you go if he can get all of the money before I make the trip to the police station.


With those two pieces of advice I wish my clients and readers of this article a joyful Christmas and a New Year full of wonderous prospects.

And at the peril of revealing my off-time television habits I leave you with these words:


Take care of yourselves- and each other...