Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2014 | Page 60

LESSONS

BY TRACEE HARVARD

Is your house unbonded?
Protect yourself, your property and your future

B

y now, you know that buying property
is one of the most costly affairs you
will ever undertake, but it is also your
greatest asset.
If you are lucky to own a massive residential
property in an upmarket suburb, you have
more than likely ensured that you have house
insurance, an alarm system and sensor beams,
two watch dogs and cameras on your property
to ensure that nobody enters it.

illegally when she discovered that the house
had been transferred and sold out of her name.

unfortunately gives real estate agencies a further
bad reputation.

The person who allegedly bough the property
from her for R11.8 million had also had his
identity stolen. And Standard Bank lost the
R11.8 million loan. How does something like
this happen you ask?

So the question remains, how can one ensure
that nothing like this ever happens?

But what happens if one day you decide to
place the house on the market and after nearly
a year of trying to find a buyer, find rather
that your house had been sold fraudulently
through an ingenious display of identity theft
- the kind of stuff Hollywood movies are made
from, right?

Well the truth is that identity theft is rampant
in South Africa but what is more disturbing
is that the whole scam was conducted in such
a professional manner that everything from
the offer to purchase, the loan application to
Standard Bank, the City of Johannesburg rates
clearance certificate, the SA Revenue Services
(SARS) transfer duty receipt, the transfer
documentation and mortgage loan application
looked above board.

Not for Sandra Post, the owner of a luxury
proper t y in Sandton who found out in
December 2013 that her house had been sold

The end conclusion is that those involved in
the scam must have had intricate knowledge
on how the property market works, which

The property was unbonded, which means
that either the house was paid for in cash, or
the bond has already been paid off but this is
seemingly where the problem started because
it allowed the fraudsters to create the scam in
the first place. It is advisable for those who have
unbonded properties to check their details at
the Title Deeds Office.
After Post found out that her property had
been sold from underneath her, immediate
action took place. She launched an urgent
application at the Nor th Gauteng High
Cou r t a nd got a n order ca ncel l ing t he
transfer, the deed of transfer which allowed
the property to be returned to her legally.
She further ensured that the continuing
covering mortgage bond was cancelled and
ordered the registrar of the deeds off ice to
take action on this.
The unlucky fellow who got caught on the
other end of the fraud, was Lourens Pretorius
who had to in an aff idavit, swear that the
signature on the offer to purchase and all other
documentation was a forgery.
A full investigation is going to unravel the
truth, whether it started with an estate agent,
or someone who worked in the deeds office, or
a conveyancing attorney, either way, this has
changed the way in which people buy and sell
their houses.
Nobody has ever said buying property was for
the faint-hearted, but neither has anyone ever
said that you shouldn’t do your homework, as
a home owner wanting to sell or a want-to-be
homeowner. If you have any query, it is best
to contact the Estate Agency Affairs Board.

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March 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

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