Property Transfers

From about a month, in a clean matter - and the honest answer is that the biggest variable is not in our office. The step that most often sets the pace is the municipality: rates figures and clearance certificates must be obtained before lodgement, and some municipalities produce them far more quickly than others. Bond figures and guarantees add their own steps where a bank is involved. We prepare and lodge without letting the file wait its turn twice.

Transfer costs are paid by the purchaser, unless the deed of sale says otherwise. They are made up of a handful of components: transfer duty payable to SARS where applicable, which rises with the value of the property; the conveyancing fee, charged on the published guideline tariff, likewise value-based; deeds office fees; the rates clearance figures owed to the municipality; and sundries such as postage and document charges. A purchaser registering a bond pays the bond attorney's costs separately, and a seller with an existing bond carries its cancellation costs and, by convention, the compliance certificates.

Because most of these components track the value of the property, no honest fixed figure exists. Give us the purchase price and we will give you a written quote before you commit to anything.

It is the municipality's certificate that the property's municipal account is in order - and without it there is no transfer. The Act is blunt: the registrar of deeds may not register a transfer unless a prescribed certificate is produced certifying that all amounts that became due on the property for municipal services, rates, taxes, levies and duties in the two years before the application have been paid in full.

In practice the conveyancer applies for the figures, the seller pays them - often somewhat in advance, which is later reconciled - and the municipality issues the certificate. It is the step where the municipality's own pace shows, and the reason we apply early rather than last.

Municipal figures and clearance certificates, first and foremost - some municipalities simply take longer than others, and the transfer cannot be lodged without them. After that: bond cancellation figures awaited from the seller's bank, guarantees awaited from the purchaser's bank, transfer duty receipts from SARS, and outstanding signatures or FICA documents from the parties themselves. None of these is exotic; each is a queue. The cure is the same for all of them - start every request on day one, and follow up before it is late rather than after.

Normally on the date of registration - ownership passes in the deeds office, and possession follows it - unless the deed of sale agrees otherwise. The parties can and often do agree on earlier occupation, in which case the deed of sale should say so in terms, and should fix occupational rent for the period between occupation and registration. If early occupation is on the cards, have it written in before signature, not negotiated after.

It does not travel with the house, and it does not quietly disappear. The Act forbids the registrar from attesting a transfer of mortgaged land until the bond has been cancelled, or the land released from it, with the written consent of the bondholder. So the seller's bank must be brought in: cancellation figures are obtained, the bank's attorneys attend to the cancellation, and the amount owed is secured - usually by a guarantee out of the purchaser's bond or purchase price - so that the bank is paid at the moment of registration.

All three registrations then happen together on the same day, as one transaction in the deeds office: the old bond is cancelled, the property is transferred, and the purchaser's new bond is registered. The seller's bond is settled out of the proceeds; the balance is paid out to the seller.

We would prefer it. A great deal is lost over email, and these are matters where sitting across a desk from one another makes a real difference. Where the distance genuinely makes that impractical, we consult by video call instead.

No. We advise in consultation. A message is the right way to arrange an appointment, but not the right way to receive advice on something this consequential.

The signed offer to purchase, your identity document, and the bond details if there is finance involved. If you have nothing, come anyway - it is better to start the conversation than to wait until the file is tidy.

Telephone 087 133 3595, or send the short form on this site. We will contact you to arrange a date and time.