Getting Started

How a small claim works, step by step: where to claim, the Letter of Demand, delivering it, and getting your summons.

Please note

From 1 August 2026, the small claims maximum is R30 000.

This website, first launched in February, 2005, is merely a guide to the use of the South African small claims system.

Prescription: The Defendant must receive the summons within three years (1 095 days) from the date on which the claim arose. After that, the claim expires (or "prescribes").

Note from the editors

When Bert wrote this in 2015, the maximum was R15 000. It was raised to R20 000 on 1 March 2019, and to R30 000 on 1 August 2026. Bert's guidance is otherwise unchanged.

DISCLAIMER: Bert van Hees, owner and author of this website, is not a lawyer, and has no legal qualifications.

Information offered by Mr van Hees is for small claims purposes only, and not intended for use in litigation in other Civil Courts.

Any assistance offered is free of charge, and given in good faith on the basis of Mr van Hees's decades of court-reporting experience.

However, assistance is offered on the strict understanding that Mr van Hees will not be held liable for any incorrect information.

Check the Court Phone Numbers for the telephone numbers of the various Small Claims courts in the country. If the given number happens to be outdated, phone the national telephone exchange on 1023 for the correct number.

Note from the editors

Bert originally invited readers to contact him through the site's forums and Facebook page. Sadly, Bert passed away in 2018 and those are no longer active. You can now ask your question here, and we'll help as best we can. You can also contact the clerk at your nearest Small Claims Court, or Legal Aid South Africa.

Labour matters

Claims relating to unpaid or short-paid salaries or wages, or performance bonuses, should be taken to the Labour Dept's Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). If dissatisfied with the CCMA's ruling, the matter may be taken on review to the Labour Court, which merely pronounces on the correctness or otherwise of the CCMA.

Decisions of the Labour Court can be appealed in the Labour Appeal Court.

The Small Claims Court cannot adjudicate labour disputes, such as unfair dismissals etc.

However, if the CCMA declines to adjudicate your claim, and it involves money, the claimant must obtain a certificate from the CCMA, in which the CCMA confirms that it has declined your case, before the claim may be taken to the Small Claims Court.

Which court?

Small claims matters are heard in the Small Claims Court (a) for the area where the DEFENDANT lives, or runs his/her business (not where the Plaintiff or claimant lives), or (b) where the ENTIRE cause of action arose – either of the two, the choice is the Plaintiff's.

Cause-of-action simply means the reason for the claim (what caused the claim).

Example

Entire Cause of Action: If you park your car outside your home, and X smashes into it, the entire cause-of-action will be the collision, caused by X.

If X lives in Pretoria, and you in Johannesburg, the choice is yours to take the claim to the Pretoria Small Claims Court (where the defendant lives) or to the Johannesburg court (where the "entire" cause of action arose).

Getting started

The process starts with a Small Claims Letter of Demand (LOD), which gives the Defendant 14 working days to pay your claim.

The first day starts on the first working day after the Defendant has received the LOD.

The LOD must be in duplicate, one for the Defendant and the other to be filed in the small claims office after the 14 days have elapsed.

Step 1: Send the Letter of Demand

Your first step is to send the LOD to the defendant, either by registered mail or hand-delivery.

Registered mail is recommended, due to a presumption in law that anything sent by pre-paid registered post was in fact received.

Thus, a defendant who receives a notification of the registered letter, but neglects or deliberately fails to take delivery of the letter at the post office, is presumed to have received it, and cannot claim in court that he did not.

LODs are obtainable at all small claims offices, where the clerks will help you to fill one in, free of charge.
However, to save you the hassle of going to the office, and having to wait in a queue for assistance, the LOD may conveniently be copied and pasted from the example below.

Hand-delivery

If hand-delivery is your choice, the Defendant should sign an acknowledgement-of-receipt, as your proof that he has received it.

You may hand-deliver personally, or anyone else, including the Sheriff, may do so on your behalf.

If the Sheriff is engaged for this purpose, he will require a fee "up front", but this fee is not recoverable if you win your case.

The sheriff will later provide you with a document known as the Return of Service, either confirming delivery or giving reasons why delivery could not take place.

Whoever undertakes the task (other than the Sheriff), should have with him/her a copy of the Acknowledgement of receipt, for the recipient to sign, as your proof of delivery.

Hand-delivery at defendant’s residence

If the defendant accepts the LOD, and signs the Acknowledgement of Receipt, the mission is completed.
If the defendant accepts the LOD, but refuses to sign for it, the person delivering the LOD will have to sign Sworn Affidavit 2, explaining the circumstances.
If the defendant refuses outright to even accept the LOD, the person undertaking delivery should drop the LOD in the letter box and sign Sworn Affidavit 3.

Hand-delivery at defendant’s place of work

If delivery takes place at defendant’s place of work, ideally, the defendant or the receptionist should sign the Acknowledgement of Receipt as the claimant’s proof of delivery.
If the defendant or receptionist accepts the LOD, but refuses to sign the Acknowledgment of Receipt, the person undertaking delivery will need to sign Sworn Affidavit 2, in which the circumstances are explained.
If the defendant or receptionist refuses outright to accept the LOD, the LOD should simply be left on the reception counter, or placed in the firm’s letter box, and the person undertaking delivery must then sign Sworn Affidavit 5.

Email delivery

Because the small claims system was launched back in 1984, when the internet and electronic mail was relatively unheard of, the Small Claims Act (No 61 of 1984) stipulates that the LOD be delivered by registered mail or hand-delivery. No mention is made in the Act of delivery of the LOD by email.

However, for practical purposes, delivery by email is acceptable, if the claimant has proof that the defendant in fact received the email. Proof in the form of the Defendant's response to the email, ought to suffice.

The Letter of Demand

Letter of Demand

TO: (Defendant's name and address)

FROM: (Plaintiff's name, address and contact telephone number)

DATE:

WRITTEN DEMAND IN TERMS OF S 29 (1) OF THE SMALL CLAIMS COURT ACT (61 OF 1984)

Take note that the undersigned hereby claims from you the sum of R – , in respect of (give brief details, such as “unpaid loan”, or “collision damage”)

Take note further that unless the said sum is paid to the undersigned within 14 days from receipt of this letter, summons will forthwith be issued against you.

SIGNED BY PLAINTIFF

Acknowledgment of Receipt

The Defendant hereby acknowledges receipt of a small claims Letter of Demand from (name of Plaintiff), issued in terms of the Small Claims Court Act 61 of 1984.

Date of hand-delivery:

Signature of Defendant:

In the event of hand-delivery, the signed Acknowledgment of Receipt, or the Sworn Affidavit if the Defendant refused to sign, or, in the event of mailing by registered post, the post office registration slip, ought to suffice as such proof, and entitle the Plaintiff to the summons.

The Sworn Affidavit is a document in which the Plaintiff states under Oath how, to whom and when hand-delivery of the LOD took place.

For validity, the affidavit has to be signed in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths - any police official at any police station.

Any deliberate false information on the affidavit amounts to perjury, a criminal offence punishable by a criminal court of law.

The Affidavit must be signed by the person undertaking delivery, in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths – any police or court official.

The duly signed Affidavit then becomes the claimant’s proof of delivery of the LOD when, after 14 working days, he/she goes to the small-claims office for the summons.

Although the LOD is essential to start the procedures, the purpose is merely to give the Defendant an opportunity to pay the claim in order to avoid the court proceedings.

If the court accepts that the Defendant innocently failed to receive the registered LOD - the LOD may have been sent to the incorrect address - the proceedings in court will continue in the normal manner, but the interest that the court allows on unpaid claims may be affected.

Sending the LOD by registered mail

In the registration process, the Plaintiff’s name and address must be on the back of the envelope containing the LOD, to enable the post office to return it to the Plaintiff if unclaimed by the defendant.

During the registration process, the Plaintiff will be issued with a registration slip containing a tracking telephone number.

The tracking number enables the plaintiff to determine whether the defendant has in fact received the LOD, or whether the registration notification is lying untouched in the Defendant’s post or letter box.

If delivery in fact takes place, the claimant should establish from the postal authorities the date of delivery, and then start counting the 14 working days.

If the Defendant fails to accept delivery of the registered LOD within two weeks, you may start counting the 14 days.

On any working day after the 14 days have expired, the Plaintiff may obtain the summons at the small claims office.

Step 2: The summons

The summons, which will have a court date on it, and you must then urgently take the summons to the sheriff to deliver to the defendant - if, indeed, you want the Sheriff to do so.

However, the summons does not have to be delivered by the Sheriff.

You, or anyone else on your behalf, may also hand-deliver the summons, but delivery must take place within 10 working days of the hearing date.

(Delivery of the summons via the Sheriff is recommended, as the Sheriff's fee for delivering the summons is recoverable from the defendant, in addition to the claim, if the plaintiff wins his/her case.)

The Sheriff will deliver to the small claims administration his "Return of Service", indicating whether or not he was able to serve the summons.

The Return of Service will be placed in your file, but you should keep in touch with the small claims administration, as well as the sheriff, for confirmation, one way or the other.

(Do not expect the small claims staff to take the initiative to inform you of the Sheriff's return of service - they are short-staffed, and sometimes inadequately trained.)

If for any reason the sheriff has been unable to serve the summons - the defendant may no longer be at the given address - the Return of Service on file will indicate as much, and your case will then not be heard on the appointed date (the Commissioner may not adjudicate your case unless he has a Return of Service on file indicating that the summons has in fact been served on the defendant.)
If the Plaintiff nevertheless wishes to pursue the case, the onus is on him/her to track down the defendant, and then to have a fresh summons issued with the new address.
If the summons is successfully served, the Plaintiff must attend court on the appointed day - if he/she forgets, the case will be removed from the roll, and the Plaintiff will have to start afresh with a new summons, to get the case re-enrolled.
If the Defendant fails to attend the proceedings, a "default" judgment will be entered against him/her, with consequences such as being blacklisted, etc.

What happens next

Now read How to Win, starting with the Four Essentials, to prepare for your day in court.