THE PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING A
PROPERTY
Transferring a property from a seller to a buyerâs name can take as long as three to
four months, depending on the suspensive conditions of sale in the sale agreement as
well as the conditions of the existing Title Deed
- Once a seller has accepted an offer to purchase, the buyer must produce
a bond grant from a financial institution within the specified period of
time stipulated on the suspensive conditions of sale, or provide a
guarantee for the purchase price to the conveyancing Attorney within a
specified period.
- The seller must then appoint a transfer attorney.
-
The transfer attorney will apply for:
- Cancellation figures on the seller's bond;
- Rates, electricity, water and refuse removal clearance figures
from the local authority; The local authority will require
copies of the buyer and seller's identity documents, and also
a copy of the most recent rates and consumption accounts.
Without these, the process can take up to eight weeks.
- Levy figures from the body corporate;
- Homeowners Consent from the Home Owners Association if
the property is on an estate;
- The transfer attorney will request the following documents from Seller
and Purchaser:-
- Original Identity documents for FICA purposes.
- Income tax numbers. Without these, and in the event that the
parties' personal income taxes are not up-to-date, the SA Revenue
Service will cancel the sale
- Marriage contracts, marriage certificate.
- The transfer documents will be prepared for signature after receiving all
documents requested.
- After receiving cancellation figures from the Sellers bank, the transfer
attorney requests guarantees from the buyer's bond attorney (who is
appointed by the bonding bank) and supplies a draft deed of transfer to
the bond attorneys to prepare the buyer's bond documents.
- The buyer and seller then sign the transfer papers at the transfer
attorney's office.
- At this stage, the buyer is obliged to pay the transfer duty, as well as the
transfer attorney's fees and expenses.
- On receipt of guarantees from the bond attorney, the transfer attorney
forwards the guarantees to the cancellation attorney.
- The seller's bank prepares and signs the consent to cancellation papers.
- The transfer attorney pays the transfer fee electronically to the
Revenue Service and awaits a receipt
- The transfer attorney pays the final rates and utility amounts to the
local authority and body corporate or home owners' Association;
- The transfer attorney collects all outstanding documents, including the
electrical compliance certificate and entomologist certificate that the
seller is obliged to provide.
- The documents are processed by the Deeds Office - 10 to 15 days,
provided that there are no queries by the examiners at the deeds office
and the documents do not have to be relodged
- The transfer, new bond and cancellation of the existing bond are
registered simultaneously.
- The bond attorney advises the bank once registration has occurred and
the guarantees are paid over to the transfer attorney.
- On receipt of these funds, the transfer attorney finalises the accounts and
pays the proceeds to the seller and the commission to the agent, refunding
any credit that is due to the seller.
- The seller's bank prepares and signs the consent to cancellation papers.