Transfer Process

01

We receive the sale agreement from the Agency who has sold your property or by the Seller directly. In South Africa, it is the Seller’s right to nominate the conveyancer. We are known as the transferring attorneys.

02

Upon receipt of the sale agreement, we examine the terms and conditions of the agreement and contact the seller and purchaser respectively and advise them of their obligations in terms of the contract together and call for all FICA required documents.

03

If the property is bonded, we will make an application to the applicable bank so that a bond cancellation attorney may be nominated to attend to the cancellation of the bond which takes place simultaneously with registration of transfer.

04

We will apply to the relevant municipality for the Rates Clearance Certificate. This is a fundamental document which forms part of the transfer papers. We are not able to lodge in the Deeds Office without this clearance certificate. We aim to apply as early as possible to avoid any delays.

05

If the purchaser has obtained a bond to secure the purchase price, the relevant bank will nominate a bond attorney to attend to all the paperwork related to registration of the bond. These attorneys will be a different firm to the transferring attorney, and they will deal with the purchaser exclusively.

06

The bond attorney will request the guarantees required from the transferring attorney as well as a copy of the draft deed and other necessary documents. If the seller has a bond to be cancelled simultaneously with transfer, the transferring attorney will request a guarantee to settle the seller’s bond, payable on registration together with an additional guarantee directing the surplus to be paid to the transferring attorneys trust account upon registration. If there is no bond to be cancelled, the transferring attorney will only request one guarantee instructing the full purchase price to be paid to their trust account on registration of transfer.

07

Once all suspensive conditions have been met (e.g.: the purchaser’s bond has been granted and/or the purchaser has sold their property), we will draft the transfer papers which are signed by both seller and purchaser, respectively. The transfer papers are signed in person (digital copies are not acceptable in the Deeds Office) and some of the documents are signed before a Commissioner of Oaths.

08

If the purchaser has obtained a bond to secure the purchase price, he/she will need to sign bond papers with the bond attorney.

09

We will provide the purchaser with our transfer costs in person at the signing unless the purchaser has specifically requested them before. We aim to only provide our trust account details in person to avoid cyber fraud.

10

We will request the Seller to obtain the necessary electrical compliance, entomology clearance and if applicable, gas compliance and electric fence compliance certificates.

11

Once the transfer costs have been paid, we will make application to SARS in respect of the transfer duty receipt and pay to them the applicable amount. If no transfer duty is payable, we will be provided with a transfer duty exemption receipt. Kindly refer yourself to our cost’s calculator to assess the transfer duty payable.

12

The bond attorney will provide us with the issued guarantees. We will provide the issued guarantee in respect of the seller’s bond cancellation to the bond cancellation attorney, if applicable.

13

Once all transfer documents have been signed, we have received the rates clearance certificate from the municipality, the transfer duty receipt/ exemption receipt from SARS and all transfer costs have been paid, we will send our matter to our Pietermaritzburg lodging agents to prepare the matter for lodgment in the Deeds Office.

14

If the property being transferred is a Sectional Title unit, we will also need to obtain a levy clearance certificate from the applicable Body Corporate/Managing Agents. This levy clearance certificate will also need to be lodged in the Deeds Office with transfer papers.

15

The purchaser’s bond attorney and seller’s bond cancellation attorney both require proceeds to lodge from the respective banks.

16

Once all attorneys involved in the process are ready, the matter will lodge in the Deeds Office.

17

Once lodged, the matter must be examined by 3 levels of examination. If acceptable to each level of examination, the matter will go on prep/be up for fees. This indicates that the matter is capable of registration the following day.

18

The relevant attorneys involved, must provide their instructions to register the matter. The purchaser’s bond attorney and seller’s bond cancellation attorney both require proceeds to register from the respective banks. If this instruction is not given, the registration will be held over. A matter may only be held over for a max of 5 days, thereafter, it will be rejected from the Deeds Office and will need to be relodged.

19

The attorneys involved will finalise their accounts when the matter is on prep/up for fees.

20

Upon successful instruction to proceed with registration, the transfer will take place and the seller and purchaser will be notified accordingly and given instructions and applicable documents to disconnect and connect their respective municipal accounts.

21

The day after registration, the seller and purchaser will be provided their final accounts, and all necessary payments will be made to the applicable parties.