Estate Firearms
YOU OUT THERE! do you know the consequences if you are not geared to take up this specialized legal battle?As messenger of the court, bailiff, executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate of a person who possess a firearm or ammunition, you must take steps to ensure the safe custody of the firearm and ammunition and store the firearms and ammunition in a storage facility as prescribed in regulation 86.
Legally Armed SA is a division of the Legally Armed business group that originated from a study showing the alarming fact that thousands of estate firearms are still floating on the Police Data System kept by the Registrar at the Central Firearms Registry in Pretoria.
Legally Armed had numerous enquiries in the last five years from estate file handlers, attorneys and other appointed executors as to what the legal consequences will be if they, even after five years, sign application forms (again) to change ownership of estate firearms from the deceased name to the heir or other applicant, or to destroy, deactivate etc.
It so happen that the “easy way out” for the executor was to advice the heir that this asset has to be handed in to the police to be destroyed, in so losing valuable assets, our heritage! In this way the estate file is closed without hassles to the satisfaction of the file handlers and the Master of the High Court.
Another headache was when all has been done in terms of the law by the estate file handler in issuing the necessary application forms and even storage permits to the heir or an applicant, only to loose control over what happens with the said firearms afterwards.
The crux of the matter was to provide a legal flow chart to change the ownership of the estate firearm, destroy it, deactivate it, take it on stock efficiently and in a short timeframe before the estate file is closed by the Master of the High Court. That we have done successfully.
We have signed service level agreements with corporate clients and an accredited transporter of firearms.
We are proud to announce that we have captured the essence to provide a hassle free legal service to you as messenger of the court, bailiff, executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of an estate of a person who possess a firearm or ammunition.
Disposal of firearms in insolvent or deceased estate (Regulation 103 of the FCA)
103. (1) Prior to the issuing of a Letter of Executorship by the Master, the nominated
executor in the will and in the absence of such nominated executor, the heir,
next of kin or close relative of a deceased who was the holder of a licence,
permit or authorisation in terms of the Act, may under authority of a permit
issued in terms of section 21 of the Act, possess the firearms of the deceased
until subregulation (2) takes effect.(2) Subject to the provisions of any other law, any person who under any execution warrant issued by a court of law, or an appointment, letter of executorship, letter of administration or letter of curatorship from the High Court or the Master of the High Court, as the case may be, acts as messenger of the court, bailiff, executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate of a person who possess a firearm or ammunition, must take steps to ensure the safe custody of the firearm and ammunition and store the firearms and ammunition in a storage facility as prescribed in regulation 86: Provided that if an heir of a deceased estate is a holder of a licence, authorisation or permit issued under the Act, that heir may provide for the safe custody of the firearm and ammunition on condition that - (a) the executor does not have the required storage facilities; (b) the executor issues a letter of consent to the heir for the safe custody of the firearm, stating the licence particulars of the deceased and make, type, calibre of the firearm, as well as, every manufacturer’s serial number or additional identification mark that is reflected on the firearm; and
(c) a copy of the letter of consent must be filed with the Designated Firearms Officer for the area where the heir resides.
(3) On seizure by a messenger of the court or a bailiff or on appointment as executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate the messenger, bailiff or appointee must -
(a) compile an inventory -
(i) of all the firearms and ammunition of the holder of a licence, authorisation or permit clearly indicating the make, type, calibre of the firearm, as well as, every manufacturer’s serial number or additional identification mark that is reflected on the firearm and the quantity, calibre and make of the ammunition; and
(ii) of firearm parts;
(b) on seizure or receipt of the letter of appointment, as the case may be,
deliver a letter, document or facsimile within 14 days to the Registrar, furnishing the following particulars -
(i) the name and address of the holder of the licence, authorisation or permit;
(ii) the address where the firearms or ammunition are stored;
(iii) a copy of the inventory referred to in subparagraph (b);
(iv) a copy of the execution warrant or letter of appointment and if the holder of the licence, authorisation or permit is deceased, a copy of the death notice;
(v) if the firearms and ammunition devolve by testamentary or intestate succession, the names, addresses and identity numbers of all beneficiaries; and
(vi) documentary proof of appointment as executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator, as the case may be, of the estate concerned.
(5) The particulars in the notification referred to in subregulation (4)(b) must be recorded by the Registrar in the Central Firearms Register.
(6) The Registrar must within 30 days after receipt of the notification referred to in subregulation (4)(b) furnish an acknowledgment of receipt to the person from whom it was received.
(7) The messenger of the court, bailiff, executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate, as the case may be, must at least every three months inform the Registrar in writing of the progress that has been made and steps which have been taken in respect of the transfer of such firearms and ammunition together with the details of the person to whom the firearm or ammunition was transferred to.
(8) The Registrar may at any time by written notice direct the messenger of the court, bailiff, executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate to inform him or her within the period mentioned in the notice of the progress that has been made and steps that have been taken in respect of any such transfer.
(9) The executor, administrator, trustee, curator or liquidator of the estate may only apply to the Master of the High Court to finalise the estate after notification has been received from the Registrar that all firearms involved have been transferred in terms of the Act.
(10) A messenger of the court or bailiff may not deliver a firearm sold in execution or which must be transferred in terms of the relevant warrant of execution to any person unless that person is in possession of a licence, authorisation or permit to possess that firearm.
NOTICE
If you assign an Estate or are a Fiduciary we presume that you already entered into a Service Level Agreement with SA Airgun Publications trading as Legally Armed Logistics (Martin Lotz), which has recently been "sold" to National Firearm Logistics (Jacques), or if you are currently in negotiations with the latter entity, we would like to bring the following under your attention. We are not sure if any of the mentioned party/parties gave you vital information about themselves, or their background.
The aim of this information is to inform you of how the abovementioned business idea originated in order to deliver this unique service and for you then to make an informed decision about the “road you wish to take in the future”. We wish to make sure that we are not added as a party if there are any future litigation against the abovementioned entities.
We stuck our heads into a hornet's nest by supporting and standing by someone (Martin Lotz) who “borrowed” and developed our business idea, but who later managed it in a reckless manner, to such an extent that we, as the owners of Legally Armed, doing motivations all over the country (myself, an attorney and Jurg Kruger my consultant) (“LA”) and later Legally Armed SA CC (specializing in estate firearms being myself, Hendrik Swanepoel and Jurg Kruger as consultant) (“LA SA”), were forced to step in last year to "save face" at the two largest corporate banks, being Fiduciaries, as they received poor service from Legally Armed Logistics (Martin Lotz).
A number of other corporate trustees also made use of Legally Armed Logistics' extensive services the past three years with or without any formal contracts.
We would like to dispel any possible misunderstanding in order to inform you about the nexus between Josi Loss Adjusters CC trading as Legally Armed (we), Legally Armed SA CC (we), with / and SA Airgun Publications trading as Legally Armed Logistics now trading as "National Firearm Logistics".
As Josi Loss Adjusters CC we started trading as Legally Armed, 2003/070861/23, in Augustus 2005, with the aim of providing a one-stop, user-friendly administrative service to the public and entities affected by the guidance as set out in the new Firearms Control Act. We still provide this service with the help of 12 Franchises countrywide.
Martin Lotz bought our West Rand Kempton Park Legally Armed franchise about four years ago. Together with his wife, Sandra, they managed the whole of Gauteng and Martin heard during the course of doing business with us that we had the idea to expand our business as it is now known with a Estate venture. At the time Jurg and I already approached abovementioned corporate clients long before Martin came into the picture!
Martin recognised this business opportunity and planned the process with our help and recommendations but under our specific (Legally Armed) conditions. With our support Martin did presentations at various corporate Fiduciaries about three years ago after which written and verbal Service Delivery Agreements were reached between the Fiduciaries and SA Airgun Publications trading as Legally Armed Logistics with Martin Lotz and someone called Blane, as members of this Closed Corporation.
We later realised that they (Martin & Blane) were trading as “Legally Armed Logistics” and that they were also using our Legally Armed logo, but trusted Martin and his team to “deliver a goods”.
We discover very quick that the industry was growing much too fast for Legally Armed Logistics and that there were numerous managerial issues that were not resolved on time. Crisis management was at the order of the day. We reached this conclusion after receiving numerous complaints addressed to us, especially from the two clients mentioned above and our other Legally Armed Franchise holders countrywide because the conditions we have agreed to, were not met.
We had to take over and felt obligated to do so because we felt that our name and honour were at stake!
Martin & Blane managed all administration, transport and storage of estate firearms from a central point in Kempton Park which made the execution of certain tasks difficult and lead to antagonistic clients countrywide because, for example, a firearm from an estate in Upington was kept in Kempton Park which inconvenienced the heir in Upington and resulted in additional costs.
Today we are glad that we did everything to stop the increasing poor service delivery. We are a stronger team especially with the help of our franchise holders of whom we are extremely proud of.
We are so sure of the trade name Legally Armed, that we registered a closed corporation 3 years ago namely Legally Armed SA CC, 2007/148742/23, to establish our trade name.
LA SA started negotiations with the two above-mentioned Fiduciaries from scratch and can proudly announce that we now do business with them as our national clients. The parties have written Service Delivery Agreements. At the beginning of negotiations both banks were sceptical because they had already been "bitten" by poor service delivery.
Legally Armed Logistics (Lotz and his associate Blane) as Accredited Dealer- (Norkem Arms) and Transporter, decided during the negotiations period not to be part of us being the new, decentralised team (Legally Armed SA CC, “LA SA”) and also not be part of the presentations made by us to the above-mentioned corporate clients because, and it stands to reason, they already had existing non-exclusive Service Level Agreements with these two clients and tried to keep them for themselves and not share the “piece of the pie”.
Therefore, Legally Armed Logistics (Martin), rather opposed our presentation when negotiations continued with the two corporate banks. For this reason we had to urgently identify a new dealer in Gauteng, which we have done successfully with Centurion Indoor Shooting in Jean Avenue, Centurion.
During telephone conferences and presentations with one of the two mentioned banks, Martin shone in his absence and the bank was satisfied with LA SA's presentations and our suggestion to amongst others, to rather decentralise the services in each province in the country, by storing and keeping as stock, the estate firearms at different preferred and Accredited Dealers to lessen the administrative burden and minimise antagonising heirs.
Each instruction, however, will be sent to our head office in Bloemfontein and processed and administered from there by Hendrik Swanepoel. All our Legally Armed franchise holders and preffered Dealers can then help those persons concerned with the decision about what should happen with his/her assets afterwards.
After entering into the agreement between ourselves and the two above-mentioned banks and when SA Airgun Publications trading as Legally Armed Logistics heard about it, Martin decided to sell his shares, to leave Legally Armed Logistics dormant, and to eventually sell to a new Closed Corporation that is to be formed and formally registered known as National Firearm Logistics, “NFL” (of which Blane and now someone named Jacques are members). Blane has already taken over everything and Jacques does all the marketing. Wendy, Legally Armed Logistics' administrator, was fired.
Chaos is currently at the order of the day with the estate firearms stored at Norkem Arms in Kempton Park and we suspect that Martin and Blane (Legally Armed Logistics) are trying to rid themselves of their responsibility toward the current role-players with whom previous service agreements have been secured, including some of our own new LA SA Fiduciaries (banks).
Strictly speaking the current corporate Fiduciaries, with an interest in Legally Armed Logistics and who has or had Service Delivery Agreements, contractually must have had knowledge of the above-mentioned developments because both parties, Legally Armed Logistics (Norkem Arms as accredited Dealer) and the Fiduciaries, stay accountable to the prescriptive measures as set out in the Firearms Control Act, 2000 (Act no 60 of 2000), read with the Trust Act.
We took it upon us to keep role-players in the industry informed about what is happening because we are sure that such a take-over by NFL will not necessarily resolve Legally Armed Logistics' problems, NFL has rather inherited it, which is unfair in any case!
One cannot cede an existing contract(s) between parties to a third party without both the contracted parties being aware of it!
This new entity, NFL, of which Martin Lotz is no longer a member of, has, without any new agreements entered into and between any of the Fiduciaries, started to plow with "half of" Legally Armed Logistics' heifers and took over all existing problems and new instructions.
What we suggest is that, if you are not happy with your current service provider, you most probably have a non-exclusive agreement with same. You are more than welcome to call on us if you are interested in entering into an agreement with us.
Drafted in Bloemfontein on 17 November 2010 by Johan Martin – johanmartin@legallyarmed.co.za, lasa@legallyarmed.co.za, www.legallyarmed,co.za, 0833 91 81 80, 051 430 1494/5.
