Divorce happens when a court legally ends a marriage, changing your status from married to single. Certain legal reasons must exist first when asking a court for divorce.
Zimbabwe law allows divorce for only two reasons. The main one happens when marriages break apart completely. The other occurs if mental illness cannot heal or someone stays unconscious for a long time.
Marriage breakdown means normal married life cannot come back. Living apart twelve months before filing proves this. If your husband or wife cheats and you cannot accept it, courts also recognize this reason.
Courts accept prison sentences as proof of marriage failure. This works when your partner goes to jail for fifteen years. It applies if the court labels them a...
You need a lawyer who knows family law when you want to divorce in Zimbabwe. This lawyer helps you organize everything needed for court papers. The main thing they ask for is your actual marriage certificate, not a copy. They also need your spouse's home address or email to send them proper notice about the divorce.
Your lawyer submits many important details to the court. These include why your marriage failed, the names and birthdays of any kids under eighteen, and a full list of everything you both own. The court wants to know which parent should raise the children day-to-day. They decide this based on what helps the children most, not what parents prefer.
The court papers must explain how often the other parent can visit their kids...
Transferring property in Zimbabwe means going through conveyancing, which happens when someone passes ownership to another person or adds a mortgage. The person handling this job needs special registration under the Legal Practitioners Act. Not every private practice lawyer can help you transfer property - you need someone with specific qualifications. The seller generally picks which property lawyer handles the paperwork during a sale.
Never trust just a photocopy of title deeds as proof. Even when the owner's copy looks perfect, the official version at the Deeds office might show loans or other problems. Anyone buying property pays the lawyer directly for handling the transfer. These costs follow rules set by the Law Society of...
When you divorce in Zimbabwe, the court needs your original marriage certificate. If you lost it, you can ask the Registrar of Marriages for a duplicate copy. The court must agree your marriage has broken down completely and cannot continue as a normal relationship.
Your marriage shows this breakdown when you haven't lived together for at least twelve months right before filing for divorce. Another reason happens when your spouse cheats, and you find this incompatible with marriage. Many other factors exist that prove marriage breakdown.
Missing spouses create challenges during divorce. You can ask the court for permission to serve papers differently, maybe through a newspaper ad, by giving them to a close family member, or by sending...
A debt happens when you owe money to someone else. Any business needs to handle debts well, or they might close down. Many companies create special teams just to chase unpaid bills because cash matters that much.
Most debt collection starts with a phone call or visit. Someone asks nicely but firmly for payment. If talking fails, they send an official letter that demands payment by a certain date. When letters fail, they file court papers against the person who owes money.
The court gives that person a chance to explain why they shouldn't pay. If they say nothing by the deadline, the case can move forward without them. Sometimes people try to delay but have zero defense - courts can fast-track these cases with summary judgments.
After...
Zimbabwe operates differently from South Africa when it comes to debt collection laws. South Africa has run debt collection under the Debt Collectors Act since 1998, but Zimbabwe has no similar law. Many companies in Zimbabwe have started hiring outside people called debt collectors or debt collection agencies who promise to recover money for a fee or percentage.
The Legal Practitioners Act tells us something important about this practice. Section 9(2) says only certain people can legally collect debts for payment in Zimbabwe. Company directors or officers can collect debts for their business, and partnership members can collect for their partnership. Everyone else must be a registered legal practitioner to perform debt collection...
You don't always need a lawyer to collect money someone owes you in Zimbabwe. People have collected debts without heading to court since ancient times, and many Zimbabweans recover their cash without any lawsuits at all.
Debt collection works in two basic ways. Either you ask for your money yourself, or you pay someone else to chase it down for a cut of what they collect. Most debt collection in Zimbabwe happens when businesses try to collect from other companies or from regular consumers who bought things.
Anyone hiring a lawyer for debt collection needs to share key facts about the situation. Lawyers ask what type of debt exists and how long it's been unpaid. They need phone numbers and addresses for whoever owes the money. Any...
Lawyers in Zimbabwe can work for you without upfront payment when collecting debts. This happens because of section 22A in the Legal Practitioners Act and the 2014 Regulations about fee agreements. These rules let attorneys take cases based on results instead of charging right away. You pay nothing unless they recover your money.
The system works by shifting financial risk to the attorney who helps with your case. When they succeed in getting your money back, they earn more than their standard rates as a reward. Should they fail to collect anything, you won't need to pay attorney fees at all. Remember though, you still cover any court filing costs or similar expenses that might come up.
Before agreeing to this payment structure, law...
Yes, you can absolutely buy land in Zimbabwe through installment payments. Many people choose this option when they can't pay the full amount upfront. The courts have addressed this practice several times through important cases like Ex parte Singleton N.O. from 1963, plus the Moyo v Fraser cases from 2000 and 2006. The main law that covers these arrangements is Section 64 of the Deeds Registries Act [Chapter 20:05].
The High Court made an important clarification about this law in the Chimprohada v Rodriques case back in 1997. They explained that Section 64 mainly serves to shield buyers who pay in installments if the seller goes bankrupt. Interestingly, this protection doesn't actually stop the land from being transferred to someone...
