Address and property screening · For legal recovery
Know where your debtor lives, before you pay for the summons.
Crux Recoveries screens late-stage debtor matters before legal spend is committed. We clean every address, match it to the deeds record and grade each matter on the property the debtor lives in, so legal spend goes to matters that can be served and can pay.
The problem
Every summons carries attorney, court and sheriff cost, whether or not the debtor can pay or the address is real.
Unserved summonses mean repeat sheriff fees and delay, and courts are refusing default judgement where service was defective.
Debt litigation, South Africa
- Civil summonses for debt, July 2026
- 35 995
- civil summonses for debt in July 2026, up 2.9% year on year
- Civil judgements for debt, July 2026
- 10 732
- civil judgements for debt in the same month, worth R352.1 million
Source: Statistics South Africa, P0041 Civil cases for debt, July 2026.
How it works
- 1
Clean and validate
Every address is corrected to SANS 1883 on Crux systems before any data is bought. No charge.
- 2
Match address and owner
Matched to the deeds record and the owner checked against your debtor's ID. No property at the address? An ID search finds any property they own elsewhere.
- 3
Graded report
Each matter graded on property value and metro or rural area, with a recommended action and the reasons, for your team to decide.
What you receive per matter
A clear, graded answer for every matter.
- Confirmed address in SANS 1883 format, and whether it can be served.
- Property description and value, graded A, B or C by value and metro or rural area, as a proxy for means to pay.
- Ownership confirmed: whether the debtor's ID matches the registered owner of the home, or of property elsewhere.
- A recommended action with reasons: summons, de-escalate to lower-cost collection, or trace first.
Why Crux
Cleaning is free
Every address is corrected before any data is bought, so paid lookups run only on clean data.
Pay only for results
Property data is charged only on a successful match. The Crux fee is per matter reported, shown separately.
POPIA by design
Processed locally under an operator agreement. Debtor names never leave Crux, and a person makes every decision.
Provider-neutral
Crux holds its own data licences across major South African deeds-data providers.
Who is behind it
Johan Cloete
Director
Eighteen years in property valuation, including running Lightstone's national desktop valuation unit. Formerly a registered Professional Valuer (SACPVP), and a former Professional Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Most recently Senior Manager of a specialised legal collections unit, from matter selection to execution.
Start with a pilot
Start with a paid pilot on 1 000 of your own matters.
A 1 000-matter pilot with a national credit provider is under way. Tell us a little about your book and we will be in touch to scope yours.