Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa October/ November 2019 | Page 22

LEGAL
Get your compliance
certificates in order
Avoid extra costs and admin when selling your home
Homeowners are often caught unawares of the required
compliance certificates during property transfers. When
selling property, homeowners can be presented with costs
they didn’t budget for and extra administration that they
simply don’t have time to handle.
Are these certificates a legal
requirement and in what
circumstances can they be avoided?
Compliance to electrical, water, gas and electric fence
certificates is prescribed by law and carries penalties for non-
compliance. The beetle certificate is not prescribed by law
anymore but it is customary to include it in standard Offers to
Purchase, especially for property situated in coastal regions.
Banks also often include these certificates as requirements for
a loan for the property that they are bonding in order to ensure
that the property is compliant for their security purposes.
It is recommended that all sellers do a thorough inspection at
listing stage, so that they know what they are in for in terms
of repairs.
1
Electrical Compliance Certificate
Only registered electrical contractors may perform
electrical work and issue the certificates. The
requirements for an Electrical Compliance Certificate
are set out in the regulations to the Occupational Health and
Safety Act.
In respect of property transfers, the
regulations prescribe as follows:
It is obligatory to obtain an electrical certificate
where ownership changes; and
Save where there is a valid certificate in place that
is (1) not older than 2 years, and (2) there were no
alterations to the installation since the issue of the
current certificate, a new certificate is NOT required
for purposes of transfer. The seller can then hand
the current certificate to the purchaser.
Parties may nonetheless agree that a new certificate must be
provided, even where the current certificate is less than 2 years
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
old and no alterations or additions to the installation have
taken place (which is often the case in many standard Offers
to Purchase).
Although the onus is on the seller to obtain this certificate and
pay for the costs of repairs, this obligation can be shifted to the
purchaser by way of agreement.
2
Beetle Certificate
Beetle certificates are no longer required by law, but
are standard in Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal sale
agreements.
Many years ago it was prescribed by law that the Department
of Agriculture had to be notified of the existence of certain
beetles found in timber in residential homes.
The legislation specifically required such
notification for three types of beetles,
which became commonly known as the
so-called “notifiable beetles”:
European house borer (Hyloytopus bajulus);
Longhorn beetle (Oxypleurus nodeiri); and
West-Indian drywood termite (Cryptotermes brevis).
The necessity to notify the department of such beetles found
its way into sale agreements. Ever since, and despite the fact
that it is no longer required in terms of legislation, standard
agreements of sale, particular those in circulation in the coastal
provinces continue to require a beetle certificate before
transfer.
3
Electrical Fence Certificate
This is governed by the Electrical Machinery
Regulations which were promulgated in terms of
the Occupational Health & Safety Act. The overriding
purpose of requiring an Electrical Fence Certificate is to ensure
that the installation is safe.