Question $1$

$(15$ Marks$)$

Sanchia Jacobs is looking to sell her house in Hillcrest for R$2$ million. She appoints an estate agent, Bernie Brown of Brown's Real Estate to sell the house on her behalf. Sanchia gives Bernie $6($six$)$ months to find a buyer as she will soon be emigrating to Australia to live with her three children.

Bernie agrees and enters into a contract with Sanchia to sell her house on her behalf. Bernie soon finds who he believes to be the perfect buyer for the house, Colin Xhosa.

Assume that Sanchia, the seller, is also approached directly by Colin. She asks Colin to speak to Bernie her agent to finalise the sale of the house and agree on a purchase price.

However, In the interim, Sanchia receives a higher offer and agrees to sell the house to another third party, Hayley Botha, for a higher price of R$2\mathrm{.}3$ million. Bernie and Colin are both unaware of Sanchia's actions.

When Colin becomes aware of this, he confronts Sanchia and she denies that Bernie ever had authority to act on her behalf. She tells him $"$He was never my agent!".

Can Colin rely on the remedy of estoppel to secure the purchase of the house and prevent Sanchia from denying that she did not accept the offer of R$2\mathrm{.}3$ million? Discuss and support your answer.